On the heels of two viral Immigration and Customs Enforcement “kidnapping” hoaxes, immigration activists are claiming this week that a United States citizen was wrongfully “abducted” and hauled off in an unmarked van amid protests against the ICE raids in Los Angeles.
However, immigration authorities say that the suspect, Los Angeles nurse Amanda Trebach, was actually arrested on charges of interfering with federal officers by blocking vehicles during deportation operations.
Trebach is an activist organizer on the Harbor Area Peace Patrol, which monitors nearby ICE activity and accordingly alerts illegal aliens of “abductions” in the Los Angeles area. As part of this coordinated surveillance, patrollers often post pictures of license plates belonging to ICE “kidnapper” vehicles.
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Left-wing accounts on social media are claiming that ICE agents confronted Trebach without provocation, threw her to the ground, and “violently” detained the activist while she was peacefully participating in an August 8 “community patrol” on Terminal Island.
Terminal Island serves as the staging ground for ICE raids across Los Angeles. For months, Harbor Area Peace Patrol has been monitoring the movement of federal immigration officers and government vehicles around Terminal Island.
Footage of the arrest shows a face-down Trebach pinned to the pavement and handcuffed by masked officers, believed to be ICE agents, before being escorted away.
In a viral X post that garnered 29,000 likes, Project Liberal executive director Joshua Reed Eakle said federal agents assaulted and “disappear[ed] an American citizen.”
“If they can do this to a nurse on a public street, they can do it to you,” Eakle wrote. “This is America under Trump.”
“Justice-driven” news outlets Truth Out and Democracy Now! also spread the “political kidnapping” story. The Los Angeles Times ran an article, mentioning Trebach’s arrest, on how to “safely” conduct patrols. The guide included links to activist organizations that offer training sessions and sign-up opportunities for joining a rapid-response network, which sends out “cells” of anti-ICE operatives to counter immigration enforcement actions.
Meanwhile, Customs and Border Protection paints an entirely different picture of what happened.
A spokesperson for CBP said Trebach was jumping in front of moving cars, causing some drivers to swerve out of the way, when Border Patrol officers were trying to leave Terminal Island.
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“She continued to hit the car with her signs and fists while yelling obscenities at agents,” the CBP spokesperson told the Washington Examiner. “After vehicles evaded her, she again physically blocked and impeded CBP from completing their duties.”
CBP agents then arrested Trebach for allegedly impeding and obstructing federal law enforcement, the spokesperson said.
“Secretary Noem has been clear: Anyone who seeks to harm law enforcement officers will be found and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” the agency spokesperson added.
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On Sunday, National Nurses United announced that Trebach, formerly a member of the California Nurses Association, an NNU affiliate, was freed from federal custody without any criminal charges against her.
Trebach’s detainment drew demonstrations outside the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles, demanding that authorities let her go. As the protests escalated in the evening, the Los Angeles Police Department eventually declared an unlawful assembly, citing a mob surrounding the responding officers, attacking cars, and hurling projectiles.
“Her release is a testament to the power of organizing resistance and solidarity against the ongoing attacks by the Trump administration on our lives and livelihoods, felt sharply and painfully by our immigrant and migrant communities,” NNU’s statement said.
NNU thanked efforts led by Unión del Barrio, calling for Trebach’s release and the dismissal of all charges leveled against her. Harbor Area Peace Patrol also thanked Unión del Barrio for “securing” Trebach’s release from a 36-hour hold.
At a “Free Amanda” press conference, Unión del Barrio members called their “comrade” Trebach “a political prisoner,” claiming she was targeted by “fascist” federal agents for her activist work.
Unión del Barrio and NNU are involved in organizing the anti-ICE resistance along the West Coast.
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Unión del Barrio, an open borders advocate, is a socialist San Diego collective seeking “liberation …rooted in class struggle.” Among its tenets, Unión del Barrio “actively reject[s] any and all governments, laws, national borders, and definitions of citizenship.” To achieve a so-called unified “Nuestra América,” the continent’s reunification under Mexican rule, Unión del Barrio aims to bring “a revolutionary process to the masses.”
NNU, the largest U.S. union of registered nurses, provides patients living in the U.S. illegally with “Know Your Immigration Rights” guidelines and coaches them on how to navigate ICE encounters at medical appointments and hospital visits.
In response to the Trump administration’s crackdown on illegal immigration, NNU leadership met with healthcare employers to demand that hospitals hold training programs educating staff about “cultural competence” and treating “undocumented” patients.
Beyond immigration activism, NNU helped to mobilize the “No Kings” protests, a nationwide day of demonstrations against the Trump administration, according to the movement’s “Partners” page.
NNU, whose super PAC reportedly spent nearly $1 million on ads and other support for self-described socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) ‘s 2016 presidential run, also lobbies for a full government takeover of healthcare at the federal and local levels.
The group had gained notoriety during its pressure campaign to pass a 2017 bill that would have established a single-payer healthcare system in California, covering all residents regardless of immigration status.
After state Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon (D-Los Angeles) shelved the $400 billion single-payer plan over financing concerns, NNU’s executive director RoseAnn DeMoro posted a picture of a knife bearing Rendon’s name stabbed in the back of a California grizzly bear. Rendon said he received a flood of death threats, including threatening messages referencing the then-recent congressional baseball shooting, following DeMoro’s tweet.
