ICE Pepper-Sprays, Punch Teens Outside School

American flag beside U.S. immigration document — Photo: Evgenia Parajanian / Shutterstock

Two teenage U.S. citizens say federal immigration agents pepper-sprayed them and punched one in the face while he lay on the ground, all because they stopped to film an arrest near an elementary school.

Quick Take

Two U.S. citizen teens say Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents pepper-sprayed and punched them near Santos Livas Elementary School in Alamo, Texas.
The teens were reportedly on their way to file paperwork to enlist in the Marine Corps when they stopped to film an ICE arrest.
One teen, 17, says he told agents he was a citizen and was told, “I don’t give a damn… Your parents can’t help you now.”
The pair were held for nearly eight hours, according to multiple reports, and video of the incident spread quickly online.

What Happened Outside The Texas Elementary School

The confrontation unfolded near Santos Livas Elementary School in Alamo, Texas, according to reporting from Yahoo News and Univision. Two teenage boys, both U.S. citizens, were driving to submit enlistment papers for the Marine Corps when they saw ICE agents making an arrest nearby. They pulled out their phones to record it.

What happened next escalated fast. Agents pepper-sprayed both teens, according to the reports, and video shows one of them pulled from the car and punched repeatedly in the face while he lay on the pavement. Univision’s Spanish-language report describes the same core details, saying the 17-year-old was struck and doused with pepper spray during the encounter.

The younger teen says he told the agents plainly that he was an American citizen. He says one agent responded with contempt, telling him his citizenship and his parents meant nothing in that moment. That quote, “I don’t give a damn… Your parents can’t help you now,” has circulated across multiple outlets covering the incident.

Hours In Custody Before Any Public Explanation

Both teens were held for close to eight hours before being released, according to the reporting. Univision notes that authorities had opened an investigation into the incident but had not issued any official public response explaining what triggered the stop or the level of force used. That silence leaves the teens’ account as the only detailed version currently on record.

Video circulating on social media shows agents restraining the two young men, but it does not capture everything that happened before the cameras started rolling. That gap does not change the core facts already documented: two citizens filming a public arrest ended up pepper-sprayed, struck, and detained for hours near a school. The dispute now centers on why.

A Story That Fits A Larger, Documented Pattern

This is not the first time ICE or Customs and Border Protection have faced accusations of excessive force against citizens or minors. The American Civil Liberties Union documented over 1,200 ICE-related incidents in recent research, including 214 children caught up in enforcement actions, 32 of them U.S. citizens. Nearly a third of those cases involved actual or threatened force, from pushing to pinning people to the ground.

The Department of Homeland Security’s own civil rights office has repeatedly logged complaints of “excessive or inappropriate use of force,” some involving pepper spray and physical assault allegations against detainees. A federal judge in California even ordered Customs and Border Protection to pay $1.5 million after officers wrongly detained a 9-year-old citizen and her brother in 2019. Courts have been clear that immigration agents generally lack authority to detain citizens at all.

None of that history proves what happened in Alamo beyond what the teens and witnesses have already described. But it shows this kind of allegation is not an isolated complaint in a vacuum. It fits a pattern serious enough that Congress’s own watchdog, the Government Accountability Office, has tracked thousands of similar civil rights complaints tied to immigration enforcement over the years.

Why This Case Cuts Deeper Than Most

These were not random bystanders. They were teenagers heading to sign up to serve their country, stopped for doing what any citizen has a right to do: record police activity in public. If the allegations hold up, agents met a teenager’s citizenship claim with contempt rather than caution, then used force against him near a school full of young children.

Americans who back strong immigration enforcement and those who criticize it should be able to agree on one thing: a citizen filming a public arrest is not a threat, and a future Marine deserves better than a beating before he even puts on the uniform. That should not be a partisan point. It is common sense.

Two 17-year-old U.S. citizens ready to serve in the Marines were reportedly pepper-sprayed and beaten by masked ICE agents in Alamo, Texas. [1]
Incident Details

• The Encounter: ICE agents boxed in the teenagers' car on the road and opened the doors.

• The Force Used:…

— FilaFresh (@filafresh) September 14, 2026

Investigators now have video, witness accounts, and named eyewitnesses to build a full record. The teens’ claims deserve a real answer from ICE, not silence. Until an official account arrives, the public has only the account already on the record, and it is a troubling one.