Left-wing media and activists are exploding Monday over video and interviews out of Alamo, Texas, claiming Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents “brutally attacked” two American teenagers who say they were driving to turn in paperwork to join the Marines.
But at this point, we do not know the full story.
According to reporting first aired by Telemundo and then amplified by The New Republic and The Daily Beast, the two U.S. citizen teens stopped last week near Santos Livas Elementary School in Alamo while ICE agents were arresting parents outside the school.
According to the reports, the teens said they were on their way to submit paperwork to enlist in the United States Marine Corps when they stopped to record an ICE operation near an elementary school in Alamo, Texas.
One of the teenagers was identified as 17-year-old Luis Ochoa.
Video recorded by TikTok user @big.t.33 appears to show federal agents removing one teen from a vehicle and striking him while he was on the ground. The reports also claim that the teens were pepper-sprayed during the confrontation.
Ochoa reportedly fled to a nearby fast-food restaurant to seek help. He said agents later detained him despite his repeated claims that he was a U.S. citizen.
According to The Daily Beast, Ochoa said one agent responded:
“I don’t give a damn. Your parents can’t help you now.”
The two teenagers were reportedly held for approximately eight hours.
Ochoa’s mother said the incident caused her son to reconsider joining the Marines.
“How are they supposed to serve a country that doesn’t even uphold their basic rights?” she reportedly told Telemundo.
WATCH:
@big.t.33 #icecream #fyp #fypシ゚viral #puro956 #alamotx ♬ original sound – BiG Timo puro(956)
The video does not show what the teens did immediately before the force was used. It does not show how close they got to an active federal arrest, whether they ignored lawful orders to back off, or whether agents believed they were interfering with the operation.
Americans have seen this pattern before. The mainstream media has a long history of rushing to push emotionally charged narratives about immigration enforcement, only for additional facts to later emerge.
In November 2025, social media erupted after ICE detained a 17-year-old U.S. citizen high school student in McMinnville, Oregon, during lunch. Activists framed it as agents snatching a kid at school.
The rest of the story: the stop happened off campus, DHS said the teen and another U.S. citizen driver were arrested for impeding federal officers, and family video captured an agent telling the teen to get out of the car after he announced he was a citizen. TGP noted at the time that the left’s version left out the “impeding” part.
The Gateway Pundit previously reported on a case involving a five-year-old child in Minnesota after liberal outlets claimed ICE had targeted and detained the child. DHS offered a sharply different account, saying the child’s father fled from agents and abandoned him in a vehicle, prompting an ICE officer to remain with the child for his safety.
The Gateway Pundit has also previously highlighted the important distinction between peacefully recording law enforcement and physically interfering with an active federal operation.
In a July report, agents warned a woman that she could be arrested after she allegedly positioned her vehicle in front of an ICE truck and refused repeated orders to move.
The Gateway Pundit has reached out to DHS and ICE for comment on the Alamo incident, including what the video does not show. We will update this report if and when they respond.
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