A Los Angeles nurse and community activist whose arrest drew protests and sharp criticism from local officials and advocacy groups was released from federal custody Saturday without criminal charges, according to National Nurses United.
Amanda Trebach, a registered nurse and member of the community group Unión del Barrio, had been detained Friday morning while monitoring immigration enforcement operations in San Pedro. Her release came after more than a day of demonstrations in downtown Los Angeles and calls from elected leaders who described the arrest as illegal and politically motivated.
Unión del Barrio said Trebach was taken into custody around 6 a.m. Aug. 8 while participating in a Harbor Area Peace Patrol outside the Terminal Island staging area, a Coast Guard base used by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection to prepare for raids across Southern California. The patrol, run by community volunteers, documents and monitors immigration enforcement activity.
Witnesses and video from the scene show masked individuals, identified by organizers as federal agents, pinning Trebach face down on the street, handcuffing her and placing her in an unmarked black van. The group said agents falsely claimed she assaulted a federal vehicle and alleged she was targeted for her political activism.
A spokesperson for Customs and Border Protection offered a different account, saying that “as Border Patrol Agents departed Terminal Island to conduct immigration enforcement operations, Amanda Trebach jumped in front of moving vehicles, causing drivers to swerve out of the way. She continued to hit the car with her signs and fists while yelling obscenities at agents. After vehicles evaded her, she again physically blocked and impeded CBP from completing their duties. Agents arrested her for impeding and obstructing federal law enforcement.”
“Secretary Noem has been clear: Anyone who seeks to harm law enforcement officers will be found and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” the spokesperson added.
“They charged at her and she dropped the poster,” said Cynthia Avina with Unión del Barrio. “The agents are claiming that she attacked them with that poster, and we know that that is not true. They are making false claims to try to intimidate us, to try to stop us from doing the work that we’re doing.”
Councilmember Tim McOsker called the incident “apparently illegal and unconstitutional” and said it violated a Ninth Circuit–upheld temporary restraining order restricting certain immigration raids. He reported the arrest to the Port Police, noting that Terminal Island falls under their jurisdiction.
Trebach, a U.S. citizen, works as a nurse in Watts, Compton and South Central Los Angeles. “She did not break ANY laws” and was exercising her constitutional rights, Unión del Barrio said in a statement. The group credited members of the Harbor Area Peace Patrol for recording video of the arrest, saying the footage helped secure her release.
News of her detention quickly spread, prompting a rally outside the federal detention center in downtown Los Angeles on Friday evening. The protest escalated when Los Angeles police declared an unlawful assembly, citing “the aggressive nature of a few demonstrators,” and shut down Alameda Street between Temple and Aliso streets. Police said officers attempting to contact an organizer were surrounded, and items were thrown at vehicles. By 11 p.m., a small group remained, lining the bridge over the 101 Freeway.
Her arrest occurred amid a new wave of federal immigration raids across the region, which critics say violate the court-ordered restrictions. Several cities, including Long Beach, have joined lawsuits filed by Los Angeles County and the city of Los Angeles challenging the federal government’s enforcement actions.
National Nurses United, which had urged members to rally for Trebach’s release, called her freedom “a testament to the power of organizing resistance and solidarity against the ongoing attacks by the Trump administration on our lives and livelihoods.”
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