Holly MatkinFalmouth, MA – A woman seen in a viral video knocking a red Make America Great Again (MAGA) hat off of a man’s head at a Mexican restaurant is an illegal alien who is now facing deportation (video below).
The incident occurred on Feb. 15, as 23-year-old Bryton Turner and his friends were sitting at the bar at the Casa Vallarta Mexican restaurant, eating their meals, the Boston Herald reported.
That’s when a woman, later identified as Rosiane Santos, began yelling at him, wanting to know what the words on his hat said, Turner told the news outlet.
“I told her and she said, ‘Why would you wear that hat here?’” he recounted. “I said, ‘It’s America. I can wear this hat wherever I want.’”
But Santos wasn’t about to drop the issue, and continued to berate him.
Eventually, she got up out of her seat and marched over to him, then yanked his hat off of his head, he said.
“She started to throw a fit and cause a scene,” Turner explained. “She threw my hat across the bar three or four times before I took the video with my cellphone. I tried to take the video just so she would stop, but she didn’t.”
The video showed Santos as she walked up behind Turner and knocked his MAGA hat off of his head.
A moment later, she yanked the cap down over his face.
“That’s the problem. People like that,” Turner said in the video. “They want to lash out at people who are educated.”
The bartender, Geo Macarao, called 911 to have Falmouth officers come deal with the belligerent woman, the Boston Herald reported.
Turner showed them the video, and the officers proceeded to take Santos into custody.
But as they were leading her out of the bar, Santos lunged at Turner and hit him, landing herself an assault charge.
She later argued with the officers at the station, and refused to get out of the patrol car, police said.
“What are you going to do if I don’t?” she retorted, according to the arrest report.
After her initial arrest, Santos claimed she was the one who was a victim.
“I had a little bit to drink. Maybe that’s the reason that I couldn’t walk away, but being discriminated for so many times in my life, I just had to stand up for my life,” she complained, according to the Boston Herald.
“He’s not the victim. I am the victim,” she added. “I have been bullied, OK?”
Santos, a citizen of Brazil, was arrested again on Monday – this time by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
“[Rosiane] Santos is currently facing local charges for assault and other offenses,” ICE spokesperson John Mohan told the Boston Herald. “She is presently in ICE custody and has been entered into removal proceedings before the federal immigration courts.”
Turner said he decided to speak out about the attack because staying silent would just perpetuate the greater problem.
“We can’t let these people scare us. We can’t let these people win when they assault people who don’t agree with them,” he argued. “She’s obviously not very intelligent. She just sees a red hat and gets mad ‘cause it represents America, I guess.”
He said that Santos is now having to face the consequences for being in the U.S. illegally.
“This country has laws in place to keep its citizens safe. That’s what makes this country great,” Turner said. “She broke the law for a long time and it finally caught up with her.”
But Santos’ jail stay was short-lived, and she’s already back on the street.
“She has since been released from ICE custody after being entered into removal proceedings in federal immigration court and provided a Notice to Appear at a future date before an immigration court,” an ICE spokesperson confirmed to ABC News.
You can watch cell phone footage of the confrontation in the video below: