The Longest-Detained Journalist in U.S. Custody Keeps Fighting
Carlitos Ricardo Parias — aka Richard LA — was shot by ICE officials and has been detained for more than 300 days
Carlitos Ricardo Parias, the community journalist known as Richard LA on TikTok, has been in immigration detention for more than 300 days — making him the longest-detained journalist in U.S. custody.
Parias might not fit a purist’s definition of a journalist. But don’t tell that to his more than 126,000 TikTok followers. Parias has delivered powerful on-the-ground reporting on underreported crime stories in the L.A. area and documented ICE raids in the region. He has created lasting community connections that would make the most-accomplished journalists envious.
The City of Los Angeles recognized his journalism work for shining a light on ICE enforcement sweeps. “He has risen to become this very credible, respected and admired citizen journalist,” a spokesperson for Los Angeles City Council member Curren Price told NBC News. “He did it with a lot of love and a lot of passion and in a very courageous way.”
While ICE denies that Parias’ case is about press freedom — following the playbook it used in the cases of Mario Guevara and Estefany Rodriguez — the facts show the agency has targeted him for his acts of journalism and for documenting the truth.
“We have circumstantial evidence that ICE was following him around when he was filming them,” Margaret Hellerstein, one of Parias’ immigration attorneys at The Jurado Firm, told Pressing Issues this week. “They were looking for him because of his activism and his journalism.”
How the nightmare began
On June 13, 2025, Parias was wearing a press vest and conducting his usual work of filming an ICE raid in South Los Angeles when a federal agent struck him with a vehicle. According to witnesses and on-the-scene videos, Parias was handcuffed and left on the sidewalk without medical attention. Eventually, a bystander drove him to the hospital. He was still cuffed.
On Oct. 21, federal agents boxed in Parias’ car near the Santee Education Complex, a high school in South Los Angeles. “Immediately and without warning, they smashed his window, as bodycam footage later showed,” Adam Rose of the Freedom of the Press Foundation wrote for The Intercept. “Panicked, Parias stepped on the accelerator — a meaningless move in a small car physically pinned by multiple large SUVs. Tires spun, the vehicles didn’t budge, and Parias quickly took his foot off the gas.”
Adam Rose
That’s when “one agent struggled to open the passenger door,” Rose wrote. “He fumbled with his gun, as his own bodycam showed, juggling it back and forth between his hands before shooting Parias in the elbow. A U.S. marshal was also hit.”
While Parias headed to the hospital, “the agents scurried into the security office of a nearby strip mall to check for surveillance footage. They downloaded it onto a thumb drive and deleted it from the mall’s system.”
Soon, Parias was charged with assault against a federal officer. But in December 2025, U.S. District Judge Fernando M. Olgin dismissed the case with prejudice, saying that the government had violated Parias’ right to counsel and also withheld evidence. Despite this ruling, he remains in ICE detention.
Not convicted
During this entire ordeal, Parias has never been convicted of anything. Yet he still remains detained in Adelanto, a private immigration jail with a history of abuse. He has committed no crime, and what should be a standard immigration case has turned into an ongoing nightmare that has sought to strip Parias of his humanity.
Under the Laken Riley Act, which became law in January 2025, the government can keep individuals detained in immigration jails based solely on allegations of a crime. In other words, the U.S. government no longer needs a conviction to cast anyone as a threat to society — just an allegation, whether it’s false or not.
For Parias’ lawyer Hellerstein, this is just a ploy to silence her client’s “protected speech documenting immigration enforcement.”
“ICE’s response, when they bother to respond, is that he wasn’t being targeted for First Amendment rights,” Hellerstein said. “He’s quote-unquote, ‘a criminal illegal alien.’ Because they are claiming that he’s detained because he’s a danger to the community and a flight risk, they don’t have to respond to these allegations that they targeted him for this First Amendment expression. They just say, ‘No, we didn’t.’”
Lack of medical treatment
Parias hasn’t received proper treatment since ICE shot him last October. Hellerstein said that a doctor recommended an MRI and an orthopedic evaluation — requests that ICE has denied.
“He is losing mobility in his arm and his hand,” Hellerstein said. “It looks purple and swollen. I have witnessed him attempting to move his arm. He’s not OK.”
Parias’ immigration case itself is stalled on multiple fronts. His underlying removal case is on appeal at the Board of Immigration Appeals. Two other habeas filings — a motion challenging Parias’ bond denial and a civil complaint alleging First Amendment retaliation — have sat before the same court since February, with no ruling or timeline.
Such delays have become standard in an overloaded immigration-court system, and Hellerstein said even a high-profile case like Parias’ is no exception. She also noted that they have pursued all legal remedies for Parias at this point.
Meanwhile, in July of this year, the government moved to transfer Parias to the Otay Mesa Detention Center in San Diego. “They said that he would be able to receive a higher level of medical care,” Hellerstein said. “We opposed that because there’s actually no evidence that he would have received that care. They didn’t provide any evidence. They just said, ‘There’s a bed available.’”
The move would also separate Parias from his son, Ulises, who visits his dad in Adelanto most Saturdays.
Still doing journalism
None of what Parias experienced — the shooting, the charges, the detention, the attempt to move him farther away from his family — has stopped him from doing his work. From inside Adelanto, Parias reported on worm-like creatures in the drinking water. He told L.A. Taco that Adelanto staff retaliated against him for his reporting, conducting two searches of his cell and confiscating a newspaper that had featured him.
Aisha Wallace-Palomares
“He knows that he could be retaliated against, but he’s still doing it. He’s still making these things public, in spite of what could be repercussions for him,” Hallerstein said.
Public pressure may be the only lever that could lead to Parias’ release from Adelanto.
“There’s so much media attention on him, which is great, and there are lawmakers and the public, and people are putting pressure on authorities,” Hellerstein said. “I’m not optimistic that ICE is going to do it out of the goodness of their hearts,” she noted. “Is ICE going to capitulate to this enormous amount of public pressure and request from lawmakers, or are they just going to keep him in there because they can?”
According to Hellerstein, that won't deter Parias from staying true to his work.
“It’s such a cliché to be like, ‘Oh, he’s so brave,’ but he is so brave,” Hellerstein said. “When he gets out, he needs some kind of award. He really needs to be honored for his journalism, not just for what he’s suffered.”
Teamwork
No concessions. The Block the Merger Coalition, which includes Free Press, launched a new public-facing petition to thank 12 state attorneys general who sued to block the dangerous Paramount-Warner Bros. merger and call on them to reject calls to settle the case.
NoParamountConcessions.com notes that any unenforceable concessions proposed in a backroom are a losing proposition and is asking the state AGs to uphold antitrust laws so workers in the entertainment industry, consumers and the general public get their day in court.
“Media deals of this scale can’t be salvaged with unenforceable pledges and empty promises,” Free Press Co-CEO (and Pressing Issues co-editor) Craig Aaron said. “The serious antitrust concerns in this case can’t be resolved via backroom negotiations and corporate PR stunts, but must be litigated in a court of law. Any talk of concessions is just wishful thinking from desperate billionaire owners who know that their plan to seize control of our media endangers our democracy.”
The kicker
“The government’s powers to enforce immigration laws and prosecute crimes do not erase the First Amendment. Journalists don’t surrender their rights because they lack immigration status. And the government can’t make a journalist disappear simply by locking him in a cell.”—Adam Rose, Freedom of the Press Foundation
About the author
Julio Ricardo Varela is the senior producer and strategist at Free Press. He is also a working journalist, columnist and nonprofit-media leader. He is a massive Red Sox, Knicks and Arsenal fan (what a combo). Follow him on Bluesky.
