Plea About ICE: Jimmy Kimmel Urges Voters To Remember Video

Jimmy Kimmel issued a plea about ICE ahead of the November 3 midterm elections, telling viewers to keep the agency in mind when they vote. The comedian, 64, shared footage of an arrest in Los Angeles and called the conduct shown “sickening.”

The clip, posted by Al Jazeera and first shared by Justin Theroux, showed agents confronting a bystander during an immigration operation. Kimmel wrote that “masked thugs with zero oversight” were “kidnapping people across the country,” criticizing what he described as a lack of oversight.

Kimmel’s Plea About ICE Followed Los Angeles Arrest Footage

The video showed agents tackling Venezuelan national Angel Luis Gonzales Lobo, 27, into bushes during a targeted operation on Friday, October 30. A nearby man with two dogs appeared to try to intervene or move a pepper-spray canister, according to the report. An agent appeared to push him into the bushes and point a handgun at his face before putting it away.

Local officials criticized the tactics as aggressive and dangerous. The footage also showed the agent returning to Gonzales Lobo, who was on the ground. The report said it appeared that agents may have used a Taser before restraining him and placing him in a truck.

Damari Butler, who filmed the incident, told ABC 7, “It was a no-questions-asked thing.” He said the encounter became a tussle in the bushes after agents approached Gonzales Lobo. Butler described the scene as chaotic and said he feared for the bystander when an agent pointed a gun at him.

Butler said he thought the man with the dogs might be killed. He also said it appeared agents may have used a Taser on Gonzales Lobo while he was on the ground, then tried to hogtie him before putting him in a truck. Those details are Butler’s account of the footage and incident.

Kimmel posted his message to Instagram Stories, urging followers to remember the clip while voting. He described the footage as showing a “sickening” incident, emphasizing his criticism of immigration enforcement.

A Federal Order Sets Limits on Warrantless Arrests

The report also described a recent court order covering immigration arrests in Southern California. U.S. District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong issued a preliminary injunction on September 2 that was unsealed on September 16. It blocks officers from making warrantless arrests unless they determine a person is likely to escape.

Frimpong said officers must consider the totality of circumstances known to them when assessing whether someone might escape. She also ordered the government to document probable cause thoroughly before obtaining a warrant. The mere fact that a person is in the country illegally, she said, does not by itself justify a warrantless arrest.

The order applies in the Central District of California, including Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties. The lawsuit was filed the previous fall by the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, Public Counsel and Los Angeles immigrant advocacy groups during an unprecedented increase in enforcement in the region.

The video drew attention to an arrest and an officer’s treatment of a nearby bystander, while the court order addresses when warrantless arrests may occur. Kimmel’s post asked viewers to consider the footage before voting on November 3.