A video posted on Instagram on Friday gives a glimpse of the outrage in Los Angeles over raids in which ICE agents stop people on the street and force them to prove they are American citizens.

Brian Gavidia, owner of El Guapo Auto Sales, who wore a T-shirt with the name of his small business, told Brittny Mejia of the Los Angeles Times that a Border Patrol agent stopped him and pushed him against a fence on Thursday in Montebello, in eastern Los Angeles County.

In a video recorded by a friend, outraged by the incident and suggesting Gavidia’s crime was “walking with brown skin,” the officer can be heard asking him to prove he was born in the United States by mentioning the hospital.

“I don’t know,” Gavidia said. “I was born here in the United States, in East L.A., man. I just proved to you that I have a Real ID here.”

Gavidia told the Times that he gave his Real ID to the agent, who never returned it. Later, on Instagram, he accused federal agents of racial profiling.

In a series of videos posted by Gavidia to Instagram, some of which were later reposted to X by journalist Pablo Manríquez, the Los Angeles native can be heard angrily denouncing the heavily armed federal agents who were rampaging through his neighborhood, detaining men suspected of being undocumented immigrants.

“Stop right there,” he said the agent told him. The agent then asked if Gavidia was an American.

“I am an American citizen,” Gavidia said he told the agent at least three times.

Despite his answers, the agent pushed him against a chain-link fence, put his hands behind his back, and asked him which hospital he was born in, according to Gavidia.

"I'm American, Motherfucker!": East Los Angeles Latinos Run ICE Agents Off Their Block After Racial Profiling Incident pic.twitter.com/fbDqvStk4j

— Pablo Manríquez (@PabloReports) June 13, 2025

Reeling from the encounter, Gavidia said he didn’t remember the hospital.

A video recorded by a friend shows two agents pinning Gavidia against a blue fence.He tells them they're twisting his arm. “I'm an American, bro!” Gavidia said in the video.

Gavidia told the Los Angeles Times, “He violated my rights as an American citizen,” his voice shaking with anger as he spoke by phone from work Friday. “It was the worst experience I’ve ever had. I honestly felt like I was going to die. He literally emptied the chamber of his AR-15.”

Gavidia’s clothes were dirty from work, and he said he thought that was part of the reason officers questioned him.

“I’m legal,” he said. “I speak perfect English. I also speak perfect Spanish. I’m bilingual, but that doesn’t mean you have to point fingers at me, like, ‘This guy looks Latino; this guy looks a little dirty.’ I’m working, guys. I’m American. We work. I’m Latino. We work.” He added, “It’s scary, walking around with brown skin, walking around dirty, coming home from work, there’s a good chance you’re going to get pulled over.” Gavidia said he still hasn’t gotten his Real ID back. He went to the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) Friday morning and said immigration agents stole his ID. He said he was told he’d have to reapply for another one.