ICE Deploys Tear Gas into Home To Take a Migrant; 'They Kept Throwing Things At Us'

Juan Ramón Hernandez-Limon, 28, was startled when ICE agents approached him while he swept his front porch in San Antonio, Texas, on Friday, January 31. The agents did not have an arrest warrant, so Hernandez-Limon retreated into his home, where his wife, their one-year-old daughter, and two other minors were present.

The interaction was followed by a six-hour operation that involved local, state, and federal agents equipped with military-style vehicles. While waiting outside Hernandez-Limon's home, the agents obtained the arrest warrant they needed and proceeded to break windows and doors, deploying tear gas into his home, according to a new report by Univision.

Hernandez-Limon's wife spoke anonymously to a network reporter to discuss the incident. She said the family was trying to exit the household but was afraid of being struck by the objects the agents were throwing into their home.

"They broke the back doors and windows," she recounted. "We were all taking the initiative to get out of the house—but they kept throwing things at us, and we didn't want to risk it with the baby."

Videos circulating online show HSI agents throwing objects directly at the windows, breaking them, as white smoke surrounds the home. The agents can be heard saying, "Open, please. Get out of the house," in Spanish. At the end of the six-hour operation, the family exited the household, and agents arrested Hernandez-Limon.

In a federal court hearing on February 5, ICE agent Michael Dryja confirmed that the agents were aware of the baby's presence before deciding to throw tear gas into the home, according to a local NBC affiliate. Dryja testified that Hernandez-Limon did not break any rules by going into his home after their interaction. He added that federal agents had been surveilling his home over the past month to verify he had re-entered the country illegally.

According to News4, Hernandez-Limon re-entered into the United States unlawfully. A former DACA recipient who was brought into the country when he was 6 months old, he had been deported in the past but returned. Meanwhile, Univision reports that Hernandez-Limon had been arrested in 2021 for the illegal possession of a firearm and that he has been deported twice already.

Hernandez-Limon is currently in federal prison awaiting his case to be reviewed by a federal court. If convicted for re-entry, he faces between two to 20 years in prison, followed by a deportation order, per 8 U.S. Code § 1326.