Family speaks out after teen with disability is mistakenly detained by federal agents

The mother of a 15-year-old California boy who was briefly detained by federal agents at gunpoint in a case of mistaken identity recalled the terrifying interaction in an interview Wednesday.

Andreina Mejia said she was parked at the curb outside Arleta High School on Monday to enroll her daughter. At that time, her son, Baldemar Gutierrez, who has special needs, was with her.

All of a sudden, a truck pulled up behind Mejia’s car and a group of masked men poured out of the truck to surround her and her son, she recalled.

“Somebody approached me, and another person approached [Baldermar], pointing a gun and a Taser,” she said. “They pulled him out and they handcuffed him right away.”

Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Alberto Carvalho described the incident during a news conference Tuesday, adding that surveillance video captured armed agents wearing “police” and “Border Patrol” insignia taking the teen into custody.

“This young man was placed in handcuffs, presumably based on mistaken identity. He was not an adult. He was a 15-year-old boy with significant disabilities,” Carvalho said.

California, led by Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, has become a target in the tough immigration crackdown by President Donald Trump’s administration. Earlier this month, an appeals court kept in place a Los Angeles federal judge’s ruling that bars immigration agents from using a person’s spoken language or job, like day laborer, as the sole pretext to detain them.

The administration is also embroiled in a legal fight with the state over whether it violated federal law when it mobilized troops to Los Angeles this summer. The administration said the deployment of National Guard troops and Marines was meant to support immigration officials.

Carvalho said the agents involved in Monday’s incident left bullets behind at the scene. District police reached out to the agencies that had been there to ask them to return and collect the ammunition, Carvalho said, but were told that they could keep the rounds and use them for target practice.

“That’s not suitable for us,” Carvalho said. “Come and get what you left behind.”

In a post on X, the Department of Homeland Security said Border Patrol agents were not targeting the high school. The agents were looking for a Salvadoran national with prior criminal convictions and suspected of ties to the gang MS-13, DHS said.

The department did not respond to an NBC News email Tuesday night asking why the teen was detained and requesting more details on the incident.

Mejia said her son has been shaken up since the encounter.

“He breaks down, and he tells me he feels harassed. He tells me he doesn’t feel safe,” the mother said.

The teen, who has a hearing condition and speech delays, said the agents showed him a picture, asking him about a person they were looking for.

“They handcuffed me and kept telling me who this person is, and I was like, ‘I don’t know who that person is,’” Baldermar recalled.

Mejia also said the agents showed her the picture, and she responded that the person pictured was not her son. Baldermar kept repeating his name and told the men that he was a U.S. citizen, the mom said.

When the agents finally realized their mistake, they removed her son from handcuffs and implied it was a worthwhile experience for him, Mejia said.

“[One agent] was like, ‘Oh, we confused him with somebody else, but look at the bright side: You’re going to have an exciting story to tell your friends when you go back to school,’” Mejia recalled. “What’s exciting about getting guns pointed at you?”

Mejia added that agents could have asked for identification before placing her son in handcuffs.

Carvalho called the incident “unacceptable” and said district schools will have safety plans in place, including increasing patrols by school police so that they can alert schools of any potential immigration operations.

“That example says all we need to know about why these actions should not be taking place around schools. Bullets on the ground — what else do we need? Beyond the trauma, what else do we need?” Carvalho said.

Arleta is a neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley area, around 22 miles northwest of downtown Los Angeles.