"If I saw a situation of injustice again, I would intervene again," says Jose de Jesus Ortega, 38, a resident of Perris, in the Inland Empire, a man "who has a big heart" and who became one of the two Samaritans who prevented the immigrant Honduran Denis Guillen continues to be brutally beaten by immigration agents.

Jose de Jesus Ortega and Danielle Nadine Davila, two employees of the Ontario Advanced Surgical Center, have been charged by the federal government with interfering in an immigration arrest on July 8.

The felony charges had been dropped, but U.S. Attorney Bilal A. Essayli has refiled the charges through a federal grand jury. They will have a hearing in April 2026.

Jose de Jesus tells La Opinion that he has always been someone who likes to help others.

“My mother [Araceli, originally from Tepic, Nayarit] taught me to reach out to those in need,” said Jose de Jesus. “She taught me not to let other people abuse another person.”

A video of the incident that went viral shows the two pleading for Honduran gardener Denis Guillen.

Attorney Carlos Juarez says he has a deep passion for defending immigrants and has now decided to defend the case of 38-year-old Jose de Jesus Ortega, a man “who has a big heart,” to the end, pro bono.

When asked why he was involved in the arrest of the Honduran gardener, he said he was thinking about the mistreatment he was receiving, “although maybe that had something to do with it, because they were hitting him and throwing him against a wall.”

“The young man [Denis Guillen] wasn’t trying to harm anyone’s life,” he added. “I understood that there was no reason for them to be hitting and kicking him.”

“They use the law to cover up their crimes”

Jose de Jesus Ortega also remembers the Honduran immigrant's eyes of terror,who initially clung to a door to avoid arrest.

“You could see he was very scared. He didn’t know what was happening and was looking for any kind of help anywhere,” he said.

He and his coworkers decided to intervene when the ICE officer began using physical force against them.

“I understood that the officer wasn’t going to stop at any point to get what he wanted,” he recalled. “That’s when I started letting him know to be more careful with the women because they were in the way…he was hurting my coworkers and what he was doing wasn’t right.”

The Good Samaritan, the son of Mexican parents, criticized the officer’s use of physical force to brutalize a human being.

“It’s not right. Even for any crime [the Honduran immigrant] committed,” he said. “It’s not right to use your strength to intimidate another person.”

Would you intervene in another case if you were given a second chance?

Of course! As people in civilian clothes, they wouldn't like someone doing that to their family members. So why are they using the law to cover up their crimes?

In defense of immigrants

Attorney Carlos Juarez, legal representative of Jose de Jesus Ortega, says he has a great passion for defending immigrants and has decided to defend him to the end free of charge.

“He is a man with a big heart,” says his client’s legal defender.

Ortega and Davila’s attorneys could have accepted plea deals with the prosecutor’s office if their clients pleaded guilty to a lesser crime when the felony charges were dropped.

However, they chose to litigate before a jury to claim their complete innocence.

“They didn’t do anything wrong,” said attorney Juarez. “It doesn’t surprise me that one human being defends another.”

Suarez told La Opinion that this was the reason why he offered his services without payment. He trusted his client's complete innocence, as shown in viral videos of the case.

“I have a great passion for defending immigrants,” the lawyer declared. “I saw that what he [Jose de Jesus Ortega] did was very noble.” He had interceded for someone who was being beaten.

After speaking with his client's family, Suarez decided to initiate Ortega's defense.

“At one point, the agent put his hands on Mrs. Davila, and he [Ortega] told him: she's a woman, don't touch her…defending her too was very noble and brave of you.”

For the lawyer, whose roots trace back to the state of Michoacan, Mexico,“Jose’s attitude is practically the same as the upbringing our parents gave us as immigrants, no matter if we’re from Mexico, El Salvador, Honduras, or Argentina.”

“Family means a lot to us,” he said.

In fact, he recounted that during a conversation he had with Araceli, the boy’s mother, she asked him, “Can you do something to correct this mistake?”

The woman was allegedly referring to the arrest of the Honduran immigrant based on racial profiling against Latinos, and the fact that it was carried out without a warrant and on private property.

“It was a cruel attack. It’s a political attack [against Latinos],” the lawyer said. “It’s a huge injustice.” In 46 years as a lawyer, I have never seen so much violence against people who want to do good for their neighbors,” Suarez emphasized.

Community Support in the Inland Empire

“Justice must be sought through truth,” said Javier Hernandez, director of the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice, regarding the situation of Jose de Jesus Ortega and Danielle Nadine Davila. “Our community must fight with our neighbors, raise our voices, and assert our rights.” They [Jose de Jesus and Danielle] are good guys who only asked for a search warrant.”

The activist emphasized that the charges against the two surgery center workers arise because “what they [the government] want is for us to live in fear, but they are wrong because we will not stop raising our voices and asserting our rights against an administration that wants to destroy them: justice for the poor, justice for the immigrant and for people who are different.”

Indicted by a Federal Grand Jury

Jose de Jesus Ortega, 38, of Highland, and Danielle Nadine Davila, 33, of Corona, are charged with felony assault, resisting, and obstructing a federal agent.

The employees of the surgery center in San Bernardino County allegedly “assaulted and interfered” with immigration officers who were attempting to detain an undocumented immigrant who He was fleeing from them.

In the July 8 video, however, neither defendant is ever seen hitting an ICE agent.

Both were screaming for a warrant for trespassing during the violent arrest of Honduran gardener Denis Guillen.

Trial in this case is scheduled for April 2026, attorney Carlos Suarez told La Opinion.

According to the superseding indictment and court documents previously filed in this case, on July 8,Two U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents conducted random immigration-related searches as part of their duties in Ontario.

“The agents were wearing official gear, including body armor, and were in an unmarked government vehicle,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Bilal A. Essayli of the Central District of California.

According to Essayli, the agents were following a truck carrying three adult males when it swerved into the parking lot of a surgery center in Ontario.

The agents approached the men after they exited the truck, and two of them fled.

The complaint states that one of the fleeing men, an undocumented immigrant from Honduras, was partially detained near the main entrance of the surgery center before resisting and driving away, causing both he and the ICE agent to fall to the ground.

“Shortly thereafter, a medical staff member assisted the immigrant to his feet and away from the agent,” the complaint states. The immigrant entered the surgical facility and was pursued by the ICE agent, who eventually detained him.”

However, the complaint does not indicate that Denis Guillen’s arrest occurred on private property or that the masked agents ever presented an arrest warrant.

“Ortega and Davila, both wearing medical uniforms, hindered and interfered with the arrest: Davila stood between the agent and the immigrant, pushed him, and yelled “Let go!” and “Get out!”; Ortega grabbed his arm and then his vest,” the complaint states.