Carlos Jimenez, a US citizen and father of three from Ontario, California, was driving to his job at a food pantry on 30 October 2025 when he encountered ICE agents conducting an operation near a children's bus stop. He approached slowly to warn them about incoming schoolchildren. ICE officer Eusebio Ortiz pointed a firearm at his face, cursed at him, and threatened to shoot. When Jimenez attempted a three-point turn to leave — blocked by agents' vehicles — Ortiz fired multiple rounds into the car without warning, hitting Jimenez in the back and right shoulder. No officer was in his path. What followed was not an apology but a cover operation. FBI agents trailed Jimenez to the hospital, pulled a nurse away from his care, removed him from his bed with a bullet still lodged in his body, locked him in a waist restraint, and drove him back to the shooting scene for interrogation. While bleeding and vomiting in the van, he was told not to ruin the vehicle. DHS publicly claimed Jimenez had "attempted to run officers over," and the Department of Justice charged him with assault on a federal officer using a deadly weapon. The lawsuit, filed Friday in federal court seeking $25 million, alleges the charges were fabricated from the ground up. The criminal complaint cited no statement from the shooting officer claiming he felt in danger — even though DHS publicly called the shots "defensive." The FBI claimed two neighbors witnessed the incident and corroborated the government's version. When defense lawyers interviewed those same witnesses, both denied making any such statements and said they hadn't known about the shooting until news reports. The case collapsed when it faced scrutiny. Jimenez's defense team sought access to officers' text messages, and a judge ordered the government to produce the communications. Prosecutors then offered diversion — charges dropped in October if Jimenez met certain conditions — rather than comply with the disclosure order. The lawsuit alleges this was a calculated move to avoid revealing what those communications contained and to prevent deposition of the FBI agent who allegedly fabricated witness statements. The charges were formally dismissed last week. Jimenez still carries bullet fragments near his lung. The lawsuit alleges excessive force, assault, false arrest, and malicious prosecution. His case is not isolated: Francisco Longoria, another Southern California man, was shot by ICE during a traffic stop last year and similarly faced criminal charges that were later dropped. The DOJ office in Los Angeles has prosecuted 113 people for alleged crimes against immigration officers since last spring. Of those, 33 had charges dismissed and nine were acquitted by juries — a combined failure rate approaching 37 percent. The pattern is structural, not incidental. An enforcement agency shoots or confronts civilians, the machinery of federal prosecution is deployed to retroactively justify the use of force, and the cases disintegrate when subjected to adversarial process. DHS has repeatedly accused people of "weaponizing" vehicles against officers, but a Guardian review in July found most such claims fell apart in court. The prosecution is the punishment — the medical disruption, the restraints, the charges hanging over a person's life for months — regardless of whether a conviction is ever obtained. DHS declined to comment. The FBI declined to comment. The DOJ spokesperson in Los Angeles did not address the lawsuit but noted Jimenez "could have exercised his right to take the case to trial" — framing diversion as a choice rather than a concession extracted by the threat of disclosure.
