Ramos-Brito, a cook, had no idea that was going on as traffic froze on Alondra in front of a Home Depot. A \u201cstay-at-home type of guy,\u201d he didn\u2019t even vote in the 2024 election because \u201cpolitics isn\u2019t my thing.\u201d <\/p>\n
But as the slender 30-year-old sat in his car, he saw federal immigration agents who had gathered across the street from the Home Depot fire flash-bang grenades at protesters who were screaming at them to leave. That\u2019s when the moment \u201cgot to me.\u201d <\/p>\n
Ramos-Britos, a U.S citizen, got out of his car to yell at la migra, accusing those who looked Latino of being a \u201cdisgrace.\u201d He said one of them shoved him into a scrum of protesters. After that, \u201call I remember were knees and kicks\u201d by agents before they dragged him on the pavement and into the back of a van.<\/p>\n
For hours Ramos-Brito and others stayed zip-tied inside as \u201ccraziness\u201d erupted outside<\/a>. Hundreds more residents arrived, as did L.A. County sheriff\u2019s deputies. Smoke from blazes set by the former and tear gas canisters tossed by the latter seeped inside the van \u2014 \u201cwe kept telling agents we couldn\u2019t breath, but they just ignored us.\u201d<\/p>\n Photos and footage from the Paramount protest went viral and sparked an even bigger rally the following day near downtown L.A. that devolved into torched Waymo cars and concrete blocks<\/a> hurled at California Highway Patrol vehicles. Soon, Trump called up the National Guard and Marines<\/a> to occupy the City of Angels under the pretense that anarchy now ruled here \u2014 even though protests were confined to pockets of the metropolis. Siccing the National Guard on cities is something Trump has since tried to replicate across the country in any place that has dared to push back against immigration sweeps. <\/p>\n Ramos-Brito spent two weeks in a detention facility in Santa Ana stuffed in a cell with undocumented immigrants facing deportation. He faced federal felony charges of assaulting a federal agent and was accused of being one of the Paramount protest\u2019s ringleaders as well.<\/p>\n Prosecutors tried to scare him into pleading guilty with threats of years in prison. Despite having no money to hire a lawyer, he refused: \u201cI wasn\u2019t going to take the blame for something I didn\u2019t do.\u201d<\/p>\n Federal public defender Cuauht\u00e9moc Ortega represented Ramos-Brito during a two-day September trial. Ortega screened video footage to the jury that proved his client\u2019s version of what happened and easily caught federal agents contradicting each other and their own field reports. <\/p>\n The jury took about an hour<\/a> to acquit Ramos-Brito on misdemeanor assault charges. He wants to move on \u2014 but the mendacity of the administration won\u2019t let him. <\/p>\n The lies it used to try to railroad an innocent man turned out not to be an aberration but a playbook for Trump\u2019s 2025.<\/p>\n The stretch of Alondra Boulevard in Paramount where a June 7 protest against immigration agents resulted in the arrest of 30-year-old Compton resident Brayan Ramos-Brito on allegations he assaulted one of them. A jury found him not guilty.<\/p>\n (Gary Coronado\/For The Times)<\/p>\n Lies, of course, have fueled the president\u2019s career from the days he was was a smarmy New York developer riding the coattails of his daddy. This year he and his apologists employed them like never before to try to consolidate their grip on all aspects of American life. They lied about the economy<\/a>, about the contents of the Epstein files<\/a>, about the efficacy of vaccines<\/a>, the worth of diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives<\/a>, our supposed noninterventionist foreign policy<\/a> and so much more.<\/p>\n Above all, or at least most malignantly, Trump and his crew lied about immigrants. The big lie. The lie they thought everyone would believe and thus would excuse all the other lies. They have lied about and maligned just about anyone they don\u2019t see worthy of being a so-called \u201cheritage American<\/a>,\u201d aka white. <\/p>\n Trump ran for reelection on a promise to focus on targeting \u201cthe worst of the worst\u201d but has shrugged his shoulders as most of the people swept up in raids have no criminal record<\/a> and are sometimes even citizens and permanent residents<\/a>. He vowed that deporting people would improve the economy despite decades of studies showing the opposite. Trumpworld insists immigrants are destroying the United States \u2014 never mind that the commander in chief is the son of a Scotswoman and is married to a Slovenian while vice president JD Vance\u2019s in-laws are from India. <\/p>\n The administration maintains unchecked migration is cultural suicide even as cabinet members sport last names \u2014 Kennedy, Rubio, Bondi, Loeffler \u2014 once seen by Americans of past generations as synonymous with invading hordes<\/a>. <\/p>\n This is where Frank Sinatra comes in.<\/p>\n Over the Christmas weekend, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller posted on social media that his family watched a Christmas special starring the Chairman of the Board and his fellow paisan, Dean Martin.<\/p>\n \u201cImagine watching that and thinking America needed infinity migrants from the third world,\u201d Miller sneered. It didn\u2019t matter that the crooners were proud children of Italian immigrants who arrived during a time where they were as demonized as Venezuelans and Somalis are now. <\/p>\n Take it from Sinatra himself. <\/p>\n In 1945 he released \u201cThe House I Live In,\u201d a short film in which he tells a group of boys chasing one of their Jewish peers to embrace a diverse America. In 1991 as his Republican Party was launching an era of laws in California targeting illegal immigrants<\/a>, Sinatra penned a Fourth of July essay<\/a> for The Times opposing such hate.<\/p>\n \u201cWho in the name of God are these people anyway, the ones who elevate themselves above others?\u201d Sinatra wrote. \u201cAmerica is an immigrant country. Maybe not you and me, but those whose love made our lives possible, or their parents or grandparents.\u201d<\/p>\n As 2025 went from one hell month to another, it really felt like Trumpworld\u2019s lies would loom over the land for good. But as the year ends, it seems truth finally is peeking through the storm clouds, like the blue skies Sinatra sang about so beautifully.<\/p>\n Trump\u2019s approval ratings have dropped greatly since his inauguration even among those who voted for him, with his deportation disaster playing a role<\/a>. Judges and juries are beginning to swat away charges filed against people like Ramos-Brito like they were flies swarming around a dung pile. Under especial scrutiny is Border Patrol commander Gregory Bovino, the public face of Trump\u2019s deportation ground game<\/a>.<\/p>\n In November, U.S. District Judge Sara L. Ellis ruled the federal government had to stop using excessive force in Chicago after months of agents firing pepper balls and tear gas<\/a> at the slightest perceived insult. Her decision reasoned that Bovino\u2019s sworn testimony about a Chicago under siege by pro-immigrant activists was \u201cnot credible\u201d because he provided \u201ccute\u201d answers when he wasn\u2019t \u201coutright lying.\u201d <\/p>\n Among the victims of those lies: Scott Blackburn, who was arrested for allegedly assaulting Bovino during an immigration raid even though videos showed the migra man tackle Blackburn<\/a> like they were playing sandlot football, and Cole Sheridan, whom Bovino claimed injured his groin while arresting him during a protest; federal prosecutors quickly dropped all charges against Sheridan when they realized there was a lack of evidence<\/a> to back up Bovino\u2019s story.<\/p>\n And then there is Ramos-Brito, who had to endure a federal trial that hinged on Bovino insisting he was guilty of assaulting a federal agent in Paramount. He shook his head in disgust when I told him about Bovino\u2019s continued tall tales.<\/p>\n \u201cJustice was served for me,\u201d Ramos-Brito said, \u201cbut not for others. I got lucky.\u201d <\/p>\n Brayan Ramos-Brito, 30, of Compton, was found not guilty of assaulting a federal agent during June\u2019s immigration enforcement protests in Los Angeles County.<\/p>\n (Gary Coronado\/For The Times)<\/p>\n We spoke in front of the Home Depot where the June 7 protest happened, where Trump\u2019s year of immigration lies went into overdrive. The day laborers who used to gather there for years weren\u2019t around. The gate where la migra and protesters faced off was closed.<\/p>\n Ramos-Brito still drives down that stretch of Alondra Boulevard for his snacks from the Chevron station that stands a block away from where his life forever was changed. It took him months to go public with his story. Scars remain on his ribs, back and shoulders.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s times when little moments come through my head,\u201d he acknowledged. <\/p>\n What finally convinced him to speak up was think about others out there like him. He now realizes speaking out against Trump\u2019s lies is the only way to stop him for good.<\/p>\n \u201cWhoever is going through the same that I did, keep fighting,\u201d Ramos-Brito said softly. \u201cThey should look at my experience to give them hope.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This is a column about lies. Big lies. Presidential lies. Dumb lies. The type of lies that have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":114997,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[2672,61485,61484,61483,8684,40396,61486,3982,48,52,51,27722,1637,47,50,49,1594,6336,592,1519,72],"class_list":["post-114996","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-administration","tag-alondra-boulevard","tag-bovino","tag-brayan-ramos-brito","tag-federal-immigration-agent","tag-frank-sinatra","tag-hell-month","tag-immigrant","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-lie","tag-life","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-other","tag-paramount","tag-people","tag-trump","tag-year"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114996","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114996"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114996\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1767190578_237_.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n![\"Brayan](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/1767190578_906_.jpeg\")
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