U.S. Citizen Recounts Detention By ICE After Defending Elderly Man: ‘Treating Us Worse Than Animals’

A 20-year-old California resident claims he was arrested by ICE agents and held for three days — despite being a U.S. citizen.

Adrian Martinez, from Pico Rivera in Los Angeles County, told PEOPLE that on June 17, he was finishing his shift at Walmart when he witnessed ICE agents chasing an elderly janitor in the parking lot. Disturbed by the aggressive behavior, Martinez says he tried to intervene.

“There’s no need to grab him like that,” Martinez recalled. “He’s a human being.”

Others nearby began honking and recording the scene. Moments later, an unmarked car pulled up, and several ICE agents jumped out. “They said, ‘Get him,’ and pushed me to the ground,” Martinez said. “They just started attacking me.”

Martinez alleges agents grabbed him by the neck, threw him into a patrol car, and later took him to a parking garage to snap a photo that was reportedly distributed to the media. He was told he had assaulted an ICE agent — an accusation he denies.

“I think they wanted me to admit I hit someone,” Martinez said. “I apologized, but I knew I hadn’t done it.”

He and the janitor were taken to an ICE detention center in downtown Los Angeles, where Martinez said he was denied answers, held in inhumane conditions, and terrified to speak up.

“The whole time, they treated us worse than animals,” he said. “We were locked in a cage-like room with 20 other men, chained at the ankles and wrists, standing in puddles of urine because there was no toilet — just a drain in the floor.”

When asked where he was born, Martinez says he provided his driver’s license, but agents dismissed it. He wasn’t allowed a phone call or access to a lawyer.

His mother, Myra Villareal, rushed to the facility after hearing from her daughter. “They kept giving me the runaround,” she told PEOPLE. “Even after I showed them his birth certificate, they said he wasn’t there.”

The situation gained public attention after video of the arrest spread online, sparking protests in Pico Rivera. Martinez was eventually connected with a pro bono lawyer from The Miller Law Group and visited by an attorney on June 18 — though he wasn’t released until three days later.

While ICE dropped the assault charge, Martinez still faces a conspiracy charge related to impeding a federal officer.

In a statement to PEOPLE, Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said ICE agents were “confronted by a hostile group” and that one agent was punched and another struck during the incident. “Despite interference from the crowd and resistance by the subject, he was taken into custody,” the statement read.

Martinez said the experience shattered his trust in law enforcement. “These ICE agents abuse their power. Just because you have authority doesn’t mean you can strip away our rights,” he said.

His mother, devastated by what her son endured, added: “If they did that to him out in the open, I couldn’t imagine what they were doing behind closed doors.”

Martinez was later fired from Walmart for “workplace violence,” according to his legal team, but has since secured a new job with Pico Rivera’s Parks and Recreation department.

“I just want people to stay safe and speak up,” Martinez said. “It feels like they’re targeting anyone who looks Hispanic. What happened to me shouldn’t happen to anyone else.”