Incident details
- Updated on
- Date of incident
- October 21, 2025
- Location
- Los Angeles, California
- Case number
- 5:26-cv-00561
- Case status
- Ongoing
- Type of case
- Civil
A portion of a court document related to the immigration detention of journalist Carlitos Ricardo Parias, who was shot in the arm and arrested by federal agents on Oct. 21, 2025, in Los Angeles, California.
Detained reporter files $50M claim against federal government
Independent journalist Carlitos Ricardo Parias lodged an administrative claim for $50 million against the federal government on Oct. 20, 2026, related to his violent immigration arrest in Los Angeles, California, a year prior.
Parias, who reports across the city on social media under the name Richard Noticias LA, was shot in the arm and arrested by federal agents on Oct. 21, 2025. He has been in immigration detention since, and faces deportation to his native Mexico.
In communications with local outlet L.A. Taco, Parias described squalid detention conditions, including unsafe water and bug-infested food. He also reported being denied proper treatment for his gunshot wound, having only received examinations with no follow-up care, such as surgeries or physical therapy.
Parias reconfirmed those conditions in a phone conversation with Freedom of the Press Foundation Deputy Director of Advocacy Adam Rose. The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker is a project of FPF, and FPF reimbursed Parias’ account for the call.
In an Oct. 20, 2026, news conference, his family, along with civil rights lawyer Denisse O. Gastélum, announced that they had filed for the $50 million penalty from the U.S. government to compensate for the use of excessive force during the arrest, substandard medical care afterward and the loss of Parias’ livelihood, according to local outlet the Los Angeles Wave.
The claim is a precursor to an eventual lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, reported Los Angeles Magazine.
“What we see through body camera,” Gastélum said at the conference, “is the indiscriminate attack by an ICE agent, shooting at a human being who’s in his vehicle with his hands up, simply asking, ‘Why are you detaining me?’”
Gastélum didn’t say if she believed Parias was targeted specifically for being a journalist, but when asked, commented, “I think he was a brown man in Los Angeles and in this country during this time.”
Independent journalist Carlitos Ricardo Parias was shot in the arm and arrested by federal agents in Los Angeles, California, on Oct. 21, 2025. As of August 2026, he remains in immigration detention at the Adelanto Immigration and Customs Enforcement Processing Center in San Bernardino County and faces deportation to his native Mexico.
Parias, who reports across LA on social media under the name Richard Noticias LA, has amassed over 100,000 followers on social video platform TikTok by covering neighborhood crime and police activity — and more recently, immigration enforcement.
Federal authorities were seeking to arrest Parias on an administrative arrest warrant issued as part of an immigration proceeding, according to the Department of Justice. That day, Parias had left his home and started driving when officers from ICE and the U.S. Marshals Service used their vehicles to box him in.
Body camera footage published by the LA Times showed agents smashing the window of Parias’ car. Speaking in Spanish, Parias can be heard saying he has nothing and asking why he was being detained. Agents ordered him out of the car and threatened to shoot him. An ICE officer fired his gun, and Parias screamed in pain.
The Department of Homeland Security told the Times newspaper that Parias was shot in the elbow and that a deputy marshal was also struck in the hand by a ricocheting bullet.
The DOJ charged Parias with assaulting a federal officer. In a news release, the department said Parias had accelerated his car toward one of the law enforcement vehicles, causing his car’s tires to spin and produce large plumes of smoke.
“The rear of the car began to fishtail, which caused the agents to fear that Parias might lose control of the Camry and hit them,” the release said.
In a court filing seeking Parias’s release from ICE custody, his attorney argued that the criminal case and subsequent ICE detainment were “false, fabricated, and driven by political retaliation against his anti-ICE activism and journalistic activities—not public safety or legitimate enforcement needs.”
In December 2025, a federal judge dismissed the criminal case against Parias with prejudice, meaning the charges cannot be brought against him again. The judge found that the government had violated his constitutional rights by denying him access to counsel while he was in immigration detention. He had faced up to eight years in prison.
After initially receiving treatment at a hospital, Parias’ attorneys told NPR that he has been denied adequate medical treatment, including pain medication and physical therapy, while in detention.
Parias has also endured cockroaches in his cell and wormlike creatures in his drinking water. In addition, the outlet L.A. Taco reported that his arm had turned purple from the gunshot wound. Parias has alleged retaliation as well for speaking out about the water quality in the facility, telling L.A. Taco that authorities have searched his cell twice since the story published.
Parias’ attorney Carlos Jurado told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that his client was first targeted by the government for his journalistic activity several months earlier, when a federal agent pulled Parias from a car while he was documenting an immigration raid.
The U.S. Press Freedom Tracker catalogs press freedom violations in the United States. Email tips to [email protected].
