Two staff members at a Southern California surgery center are accused of assaulting U.S. immigration officers and interfering with an ICE investigation in a confrontation captured on video.
Jose de Jesus Ortega, 38, of Highland, and Danielle Nadine Davila, 33, of Corona, were charged in a federal complaint with assaulting a federal officer and conspiracy to prevent by force and intimidation a federal officer from discharging his duties during a July 8 altercation in Ontario, about 50 miles east of Los Angeles.
Ortega was arrested Friday morning and expected to appear Friday afternoon in a Riverside courtroom. Authorities are searching for Davila. It was not immediately clear whether they have attorney show could comment on the cases against them.
According to the affidavit filed in support of the complaint, two Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers were conducting immigration enforcement operations in Ontario when they were following a truck that turned into a surgery center parking lot. Two of the three men ran away and a third, identified by authorities as a man from Honduras who was in the United States illegally, was “partially detained” near the surgery center entrance.
The man pulled way before he fell to the ground with an ICE officers, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. Ortega and Davila then interfered with the arrest, the agency said.
Video showed the struggle in a hallway just inside the building.
LA County Sheriff Robert Luna clarified his department’s limited cooperation with federal immigration officials. Darsha Philips for the NBC4 News at 11 p.m. on July 17, 2025.
“Ortega and Davila, both dressed in medical scrubs, impeded and interfered with the arrest,” the office said in a news release. “Davila by wedging herself in between the officer and the alien, pushing the officer, and shouting, ‘Let him go!’ and ‘Get out!’ Ortega by grabbing the officer’s arm and then his vest.”
The man was eventually detained by federal officers.
If convicted, the defendants face up to eight years in federal prison for assault and six years in federal prison for conspiracy.
“This story is another example of a false narrative echoed in the media in furtherance of an agenda to delegitimize federal agents,” said United States Attorney Bill Essayli. “The illegal alien arrested inside the surgery center was not a patient. He ran inside for cover and these defendants attempted to block his apprehension by assaulting our agents. It doesn’t matter who you are or where you work, if you assault our agents or otherwise interfere with our operations, you will be arrested and charged with a federal crime.”
The ICE operation came after weeks of immigration enforcement operations around Southern California. The Department of Homeland Security has said the operations, including ICE raids, will continue as part of the Trump administration’s mass deportation plan, a central promise of his presidential campaign.
Essayli told Today in LA Friday that his office has filed more than 50 criminal federal complaints, which are at different stages in the legal process.
Nearly 56,400 migrants have been detained by ICE nationwide since President Trump began his second term, according to NBC News, which is tracking immigration enforcement using ICE data both public and internal as well as data from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection agency. Nearly 29% of the people detained have criminal convictions; 24.6% have pending criminal charges; 47% were listed as “other immigration violator;” and 11.9% were fast-tracked for deportation.