A Houston teenager who is a U.S. citizen was beaten, choked and subjected to racial slurs when masked officers chased him and his father in an early-morning immigration-enforcement action, a local immigrant-rights group said Monday.

Arnoldo Bazan, 16, was on his way to school Thursday when an unmarked car pulled his father, Arnulfo Bazan, and the teen over. The teenager said during a news conference that he and his dad were pulled over by a car with no clear indication it belonged to law enforcement. The officers who approached did not identify themselves as law enforcement and wore uniforms that bore no official insignia, he added.

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“Their vests, they didn’t say ‘police,’ (Immigration and Customs Enforcement), nothing. And that’s when me and my dad got scared because they started hitting our window, tried to open the door,” Arnoldo Bazan said. “Me and my dad went to fight-or-flight mode and we just backed away.”

The father and son tried to flee and were eventually stopped by other vehicles. When they ran from the car, Bazan said, the agents tackled them in a restaurant-supply store. The incident occurred near the intersection of South Gessner Road and Beechnut Street.

“I saw they started choking him, kicking him, punching him,” Bazan said. “It’s when I reacted, I just ran to my dad and (another agent) grabbed my shirt. I didn’t hit nobody. I didn’t do nothing to nobody. I was just standing there recording on my phone. And they took my phone. Then that’s when they tackled me. I said I was underage, the dude started choking me more.”

Are ICE agents required to identify themselves?

Bazan said they were taken to a nearby parking lot where agents called him and his dad a racial slur and a “border hopper.” Bazan was eventually released after a few hours; his father remains in ICE custody in Conroe.

A spokesperson for the office of Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Houston did not immediately respond to questions from the Houston Chronicle about how agents are required to identify themselves, why Arnoldo Bazan’s phone was taken and whether the office could provide additional information about Arnulfo Bazan’s immigration history.

During an enforcement action when immigration agents conduct an arrest, they are required to identify themselves “as an immigration officer who is authorized to execute an arrest; and state that the person is under arrest and the reason for the arrest,” according to the federal government’s code of regulations.

‘This is not what America stands for’

A video taken by a bystander and provided to FIEL Houston, a local immigrant-rights group that organized the news conference, shows additional agents at a store where the Bazans were taken into custody. The agents in the video are donning vests that say “POLICE” but it’s unclear if the agents who initially tried to pull the Bazans over identified themselves, said Cesar Espinosa, the group’s executive director.

Espinosa said Arnulfo Bazan was previously deported at the border in 2000 and was convicted of driving while intoxicated in 2015, but served the punishment for that offense.

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Espinosa said the incident proves the aggressive immigration-enforcement efforts that have played out across the country are happening in Houston.

“When you have politicians or other people saying that this is not happening in Houston, think again. It is happening here, and we have ample proof of it,” he said.

Espinosa was recently removed from Houston City Council chambers after confronting local officials and Houston’s police chief about the local government’s cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Maria Bazan, Arnoldo’s older sister, said the incident should serve as another wake-up call to what’s taking place in Texas and beyond.

“We do ask for justice, not only for my family but for all those other families who are out there who cannot get their voices heard and who are probably feeling really scared right now,” she said. “What’s going to happen next, who’s next? Remember, they start with one group and it continues until they are surrounding us with fear. That is not what America stands for and that’s why we’re here fighting for what others cannot fight for.”

This article originally published at U.S.-born Houston teen says ICE agents beat him and his father during early-morning stop.