‘Hope is the only thing that keeps you alive’: Narciso Barranco on enduring ICE detention
ICE targeted a father of 3 U.S. Marines. Watch our mini documentary where we sat down to talk with Narciso and his wife, Martha.
Narciso Barranco spent 24 days locked up after being violently arrested by a snatch squad of federal immigration agents in Santa Ana on June 21.
Barranco, an undocumented landscaper, has been in the U.S. for over 30 years. On the day of his arrest, he was weeding outside of an IHOP.
"I came for the same reason, well, I think, like many families that arrive in this country. To find a life where we can better ourselves a bit and have more to offer our family," Barranco said.
Videos of his arrest went viral on social media. Masked agents can be seen macing and pinning Barranco to the ground, then repeatedly punching him in the head and neck before shoving him into the back of an SUV with a baton.
Barranco says he is still healing from the mental, emotional, and physical toll the arrest and detention took on him, a trauma that is being inflicted on thousands of immigrants across the nation.
Nearly 60,000 immigrants are being held in ICE detention facilities, representing a 50% increase from 39,000 immigrants held during the Biden administration in December 2024, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation analysis of ICE detention statistics.
“There are things from your childhood that you remember when you’re grown and they still hurt, after 40-some years. Now imagine this, it’s barely been two, three, it’s going on three months. It’s a struggle that’s going to take time,” Barranco said.
He was released on bond from the for-profit ICE detention center in Adelanto operated by Geo Group, Inc. His deportation case is pending and has forced him and his family to contemplate whether they will be torn apart by a border.
We want to keep bringing you these stories…
…But we truly cannot without your sustaining support. From ideation to production to post-production, this documentary took, collectively, over 100 hours of work – all on top of our day jobs. Beautifully and powerfully telling Narciso and Martha’s story required multiple reporting trips, building trust, stitching media together, research, transcribing and translating interview audio, and much more. It becomes a work of art that tells the story of some of our most impacted community members.
We do this so that you, and everyone you share this with, has a grounded understanding of one of the most important stories of our time: the terror that is being waged in working-class immigrant neighborhoods at the hands of federal agents acting as secret police.
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