A screenshot shows ICE agents pulling a teenager from a car in Alamo, Texas, on Sept. 11, 2026. He and another 17-year-old were detained after recording an immigration enforcement operation near an elementary school. The teens say they were on their way to deliver paperwork related to joining the Marine Corps. (TikTok user @big.t.33)
Two teenagers detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Texas last week say they were on their way to deliver paperwork related to joining the Marine Corps. Video of the encounter appears to show an agent repeatedly striking one teen, while the other says he was pepper-sprayed.
The confrontation took place Sept. 11 in Alamo, Texas, after immigration officers conducted a vehicle stop, the Department of Homeland Security told Stars and Stripes in a statement Wednesday. The statement called the teens “anti-ICE agitators” and said they tried to obstruct officers.
Luis Ochoa, 17, told Telemundo in an interview Monday that he and a friend had been recording agents as they detained individuals outside a local elementary school. Ochoa identified the friend as 17-year-old JC Martin Villa in a Facebook post Saturday.
A partial video of the arrest that has circulated widely on social media does not show the events leading up to the confrontation.
A video Telemundo credited to TikTok user @big.t.33 shows the apparent vehicle stop outside an elementary school in Alamo. Villa is seen filming ICE vehicles as they drive away, while Ochoa walks toward a red Honda, talking on his phone. The video ends with the Honda entering a nearby McDonald’s parking lot.
DHS said the teens followed the ICE agents after the stop and one of them repeatedly banged on a government vehicle’s window. That is not shown in either video. DHS added the person refused an order to stop and resisted when agents tried to detain him.
The more widely shared video begins with Villa trying to open the door of the red Honda while an ICE agent grapples with him. After Villa gets inside, another agent blocks the car with his vehicle and helps pull him out.
The video later appears to show Ochoa in distress after being pepper-sprayed, while agents pin Villa to the ground and one appears to strike him repeatedly on the head.
Ochoa said on Facebook that he had been pepper-sprayed while seated in the driver’s seat with his hands on the wheel. He ran to a nearby McDonald’s to rinse his face with water, which is where agents detained him shortly afterward.
“Officers relied on their training to control the situation, and the agitators were placed under arrest,” DHS said in its statement. “Deportation officers sustained minor injuries and were treated at a local clinic.”
Photos shared on Ochoa’s Facebook page following the encounter appear to show marks that the pair claim they sustained during the incident.
Ochoa attempted to prove his U.S. citizenship to immigration officers, he said in the interview. He also said the pair had been on their way to deliver paperwork related to joining the Marine Corps.
The teenagers had “previously met with Marine Corps Recruiters,” Marine Corps Recruiting Command confirmed Wednesday, though neither had enrolled in the Delayed Entry Program.
The program allows qualified applicants to enlist through a Military Entrance Processing Station as early as age 17, before reporting for recruit training later.
The two teens were detained for about eight hours, Ochoa told Telemundo, adding on Facebook that the agents told them they intended to pursue federal charges.
DHS did not say whether any charges have been filed in connection with the encounter, but said that “any bystander or individual who assaults, obstructs, or violently attacks officers will be subject to arrest and prosecution permitted by law.”
It is not clear whether the detentions will affect the teens’ ability to join the Marines.
Marine Corps regulations require applicants to meet citizenship or qualifying immigration-status requirements and disclose certain encounters with law enforcement and the judicial system during the enlistment process. But the regulations do not state that detention or arrest alone would automatically bar enlistment.
Applicants with certain criminal records may require waivers or could be disqualified from enlistment, depending on the circumstances, Marine Corps’ Enlistment Processing Manual states. For example, “pending charges are a bar to enlistment,” it says.
Ochoa and his mother, Teresa, told Telemundo that the experience has caused both teens to reconsider joining the military.
“I really don’t want them to go, because honestly how are they supposed to serve a country that doesn’t even uphold their basic rights,” Teresa said.
