George Retes, 25, the U.S. Army veteran and father who made headlines earlier this year after he was stopped and arrested by ICE on his way to work, is speaking out in a new ad campaign launched to combat the Department of Homeland Security’s massive recruitment efforts.“What’s happening right now isn’t right. We’ve got to get accountability. [What happened to me] doesn’t define who we are as Americans,” Retes said in the video launched by Home of The Brave, an initiative opposing President Donald Trump.George Retes speaks out about his detainment by ICE. George Retes / Home of the Brave / Institute for Justice.Rete, who worked as a security guard at Glass House Farms in Camarillo, was arrested during an immigration raid at a Southern California marijuana farm over the summer as part of Trump’s aggressive immigration enforcement. He recalled the arrest during the ad, saying he told ICE agents he is a U.S. citizen who was just trying to get to work. However, the agents got “hostile” and eventually threw tear gas behind his vehicle and pepper-sprayed him in the face.“I’m just there coughing, eyes watery, can’t breathe. They approach my car, telling me to do different things, contradicting each other, I’m just trying to plead with them that I’m leaving. My driver’s side window just shatters,” Retes said.Retes said had ICE had just looked at his ID, they would have seen that he is a U.S. citizen.DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin confirmed at the time that Retes had been arrested but was released. On Wednesday, McLaughlin alleged in a statement to HuffPost that Retes “became violent and refused to comply with law enforcement” during the raid, “blocking their route and refused to move his vehicle out of the road. ”She said officers arrested Retes for assault.“No surprise, he’s part of an ad campaign to smear our federal law enforcement,” McLaughlin said in a statement. “This type of garbage being spread by agitators like Retes is directly responsible for the more than 1,150% increase in assaults against ICE law enforcement officers and an 8000% increase in death threats against our officers and their families.”Retes is among the at least 170 U.S. citizens who have been detained by immigration agents, despite Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem claiming last month that “no American citizens have been arrested or detained.”In the ad, he spoke out about his first night at an ICE detention center in downtown Los Angeles, stating he hardly slept and was placed on suicide watch. When a guard informed him he was to be released, Retes said he was not given an explanation or an apology. “I was locked up in here for no reason. I missed my daughter’s birthday for no reason, and it was just the loudest silence you could think of,” he said.Home of The Brave said in a press release that its ad with Retes is “a direct response to the administration’s $51 million propaganda blitz that’s being funded by the American taxpayers in order to recruit ICE agents who will do Trump’s bidding.” During Trump’s second term, ICE and DHS have poured millions of taxpayer dollars into their recruitment efforts, which have involved hiring voiceover actors and the disturbing use of AI. The agency has also run ads on streaming services such as HBO Max and Spotify, which received backlash and sparked a movement for listeners to cancel their paid subscriptions. Retes’ $250,000 video ad campaign will now run on those “streaming platforms targeting audiences exposed to DHS’ propaganda ads.”