Lee County sheriff’s deputies on Wednesday arrested a man who was present and broadcasting live to Facebook during a federal immigration raid at Bear Creek Arsenal in Sanford the day before.
Christian Enrique Canales, 27, of Sanford has been charged with communicating threats and placed in the Lee County Jail under a $5,000 secured bond.
Canales had apparently arrived at Bear Creek Arsenal around 9:30 a.m. Tuesday to help a friend after receiving word of the raid. As he did, he began broadcasting a Facebook Live video in which he shows his ID to agents in the parking lot and is told he can leave the property. In addition to saying on the video that “[ICE] doesn’t give a —-. They do not care” about splitting up families, he can also be heard to say to agents that “you need a f—— bullet proof vest,” and that if he had his “f—— gun,” he would “shoot both of you b——.”
Video below: (Warning … while The Rant did its best to bleep expletives in the video below, our Spanish is terrible … so those words got by)
Canales was quoted by at least one media outlet following the raid. He told Rewire.News on Tuesday that when he was leaving his shift Tuesday morning, he received a call from a friend employed at Bear Creek:”
“My friend said he was going into work and there was a lot of guys who looked like cops around. He told me he was scared and he wanted to know if I could check it out for him,” said Canales, a U.S. citizen. “I wanted to do what I could to help, but when I got there, the place was already surrounded. I saw people that I knew getting pulled aside by ICE. We are a small community here, and this hurt us. The family members of the people who got taken don’t even know where they are. ICE hasn’t told them where they’re being held or what’s going to happen.”
“People told me, and I saw it myself, Lee County sheriffs had checkpoints nearby after the raid,” Canales said. “They worked with ICE, and all of the checkpoints were in places where mostly Hispanic people live.”
“It was frustrating to see ICE agents show up in bulletproof vests and go after people who are just trying to work. We’re all supporting each other, but it’s still scary,” Canales said. “It’s so weird here right now, so quiet and calm because people are hiding out. It’s hard to put into words what it’s like. My mother was deported when I was 14, so I know how it feels to have your family taken.”
Meanwhile, a GoFundMe campaign set up to cover the cost of Canales’ bond appeared on Wednesday evening. He is also charged with driving on a revoked license.
Be legal and you will not have to worry!!!!!!!!!!
He says “lame a** country”…. If this country is so lame then why are there people from soooo many other countries willing to BREAK THE LAW just to live here? This is the greatest country on the planet. Go get a green card so you don’t have to worry about stuff like this happening to you!
Karrie, is not as easy as you think. If it was that easy, don’t you think people would already have it. God bless you.
Karrie, this “lame a** country” is so much better than what some people have to live through in their home countries. It is very much worth it to them to be here illegally rather than to risk their lives. And by the logic of “just get a green card,” it would be the same as telling poor people to “just get a house!”
It’s not the same as telling poor people get a house it’s like poor people find a job and stop begging. Everyone says it’s not as easy to get a green card or visa as everyone thinks. How would you know if you never tried? That’s admiring defeat before ever trying. People that’s been here years have yet to try and get papers or visas. Why? Because they don’t care to. They countries are so bad then why wouldn’t they do everything they can to stay somewhere that’s so much better than before. That’s like living in a trailer, poor, not having enough money but doing everything you can to get by and then finally getting a nice home better job more money and you simply stop paying the bills and start buying things you never needed. It’s just counter productive.