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Thursday, 26 March 2026

WATCH: Maryland Homeowner Goes Viral After Hiring Roofing Crew Employing Illegals, Calling ICE on Them as They Finished the Job — Six Workers Detained on Her Roof

 Emergency responders and workers in action at a residential site, with vehicles parked nearby and a ladder positioned against a building.

A homeowner in Cambridge, Maryland, has gone viral after allegedly calling Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on a roofing crew she hired, leading to the detention of six Guatemalan workers on her roof just as they were about to finish the job.

The incident took place on Wednesday and was livestreamed on TikTok.

According to eyewitness accounts and footage captured live from the roof, ICE agents arrived at the property, secured the perimeter, and took the six workers into custody while they were still working.

A legal coworker on the crew, Bryan Polanco, a Dominican national with permanent U.S. residency, livestreamed the entire encounter for approximately 30 minutes.

Polanco, who was not detained, narrated the events and later confronted the homeowner on camera, accusing her of waiting until the job was almost done before calling authorities.

WATCH:

In the video, Polanco can be heard stating that the workers had completed roughly three days of labor, including the tear-off phase, with old shingles visible on the ground, and that the homeowner still owed the crew approximately $10,000. He claimed she knew the workers’ immigration status from the start.

The video shows agents in tactical vests on the ground directing the workers to come down from the roof.

One clip even appears to capture the homeowner handing a ladder to the agents to help them gain access to the workers.

The roofing company involved appears to be Allied Remodeling of Central MD, based on the shirts worn by the workers, though the company has not issued a statement about the incident.

According to a Univision report about the incident in Spanish, the men were between 18 and 40.

“We had a project to start today… when they started the work, the owner of the house called immigration,” Polanco told Univision DC, according to a translation of the report. “What she did tell me, and I told one of the other guys, is that if immigrants come back again to finish the project, she’s always going to call ICE.”

“It is not the same to see it as to live it, it is that I have already seen many videos and sadly today I had to experience it and I feel that it is something that really moves you a lot,” Polanco added.

Iranian Navy Chief Responsible for Closing Strait of Hormuz Killed in Strike Along with Head of the IRGC Navy Intelligence Directorate

 

Iranian military official in uniform with insignia, seated against a backdrop of the Iranian flag, conveying authority and leadership.
Alireza Tangsiri/Image: Tasnim News Agency is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License./Author: Amin Ahouei

On Thursday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announced that Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy Commander Alireza Tangsiri was killed in a precision strike in Bandar Abbas.

Tangsiri frequently bragged on social media about closing the Strait.

On March 10, he wrote (translated from Persian), “At the beginning of the war, we declared—and we declare again—No vessel associated with the aggressors against Iran has the right to pass through #StraitofHormuz.”

“If you have any doubt, come closer and test it.”

According to the IDF, Tangsiri:

  • Served in this position over the past 8 years, following serving in several key positions in the IRGC Navy, including overseeing the regime’s terror activities.
  • Was responsible for the strikes throughout the years toward oil containers and trading ships, and constituted a central figure that threatened the maritime navigation and trade freedom in the Strait of Hormuz and the international maritime domain.
  • Throughout Operation Roaring Lion, led efforts to close the Strait of Hormuz and oversaw maritime terrorism carried out against countries in the Middle East, as well as against U.S. and other nations’ energy infrastructure.
  • Was directly responsible for disrupting the global economy and was subject to numerous international sanctions due to his personal involvement in carrying out terror attacks against vessels in international waters, as well as in the transfer of air defense systems and UAVs to Russia and Syria.

Image of Alireza Tangsiri, former commander of the IRGC Navy, highlighting his role in maritime security and operations in the Strait of Hormuz.
Image via IDF

IDF also announced the elimination of the Head of the IRGC Navy Intelligence Directorate, Behnam Rezaei.

“Rezaei was responsible for intelligence collection on regional countries and led cooperation with various intelligence organizations.”

In 2019, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) Tangsiri was sanctioned by the United States and other countries for his role in IRGC activities, including involvement with companies linked to drone (UAV) production for the IRGC.

Per OFAC in 2019:

Today’s action targets commanders of the IRGC’s Navy, Aerospace, and Ground Forces, in addition to the commanders of the IRGC Navy’s (IRGCN) five naval districts. These include the naval district commanders who are responsible for the IRGCN’s activities off the coast of the southern provinces of Khuzestan, Bushehr, and Hormozgan, which lie adjacent to the Persian Gulf and the Strait of Hormuz.

OFAC is designating IRGCN Commander Ali Reza Tangsiri pursuant to E.O. 13224 for acting for or on behalf of the IRGC.

As recently as February 2019, Tangsiri threatened that the Iranian regime’s forces would close the Strait of Hormuz, an international waterway, if U.S. sanctions stopped Iran’s oil exports, and that the Iranian regime is prepared to target U.S. interests in the region.

As the commander of the IRGCN, Tangsiri sits atop a structure—including those regional IRGCN commanders sanctioned today—that is responsible for the sabotage of vessels in the international waters.

U.S. Forces in the Middle East: Separating Fact from Iranian Propaganda

 

A naval crew member signals a helicopter during landing operations on a ship, showcasing maritime aviation procedures.
There has been no reduction of U.S. forces in the Iran theater. Photo courtesy of the U.S. Air Education and Training Command.

Pro-Iran propaganda on social media claims that most U.S. bases in the Middle East have been destroyed and are uninhabitable, and that the United States has abandoned all of its regional bases. No part of this is true.

Prior to the February 28 strikes on Iran, the Pentagon reduced personnel at several bases located within range of Iranian short-range missiles. The U.S. Fleet Headquarters in Bahrain was drawn down to fewer than 100 mission-critical personnel, and all ships left port. Both measures had been taken previously in 2025 ahead of earlier strikes on Iranian nuclear sites.

This tactical repositioning, a deliberate pre-strike defensive measure and part of a broader deception operation, is the kernel of truth on which Iran’s propaganda is built.

What the empty port actually represented was standard naval doctrine, not retreat. Dispersing ships is a common safety technique employed by navies around the world in times of heightened threat. A warship sitting at a pier is stationary, unable to maneuver or effectively use its own defensive systems.

Moving U.S. warships out of port in Bahrain was a prudent security measure; the Gulf state is well within range of Iranian missiles and long-range kamikaze drones, and U.S. military facilities in Manama did subsequently come under attack.

The U.S. military’s own strikes on Iranian naval vessels in port underscored the vulnerability of ships sitting pierside. Once at sea, the ships dispersed across the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean, where they remained active, maneuverable, and available for operations. Military analysts describe this “scattering” as a classic protective protocol designed to deny an enemy a stationary target. By moving into open water, ships become significantly harder to hit with the ballistic missiles and drone swarms that constitute Iran’s primary retaliatory capability. The port was empty. The fleet was not.

Two U.S. Navy Littoral Combat Ships, USS Tulsa and USS Santa Barbara, equipped for mine-clearing operations, were moved from the Middle East to Malaysia and then on to Singapore, where the Navy confirmed they were conducting scheduled maintenance. The U.S. and Singapore have an agreement that allows littoral combat ships to operate from Singapore as a logistics and maintenance hub.

After maintenance is complete, the vessels will likely return to the Middle East. In the meantime, while the threat of naval mines in the Strait of Hormuz remains a possibility, the more immediate danger to ships is from drones, reducing the urgency of redeploying the two mine-countermeasure ships.

As for U.S. bases, Iranian retaliatory strikes have caused infrastructure damage at several locations. Satellite imagery confirmed damage at Al Dhafra Air Base in the UAE, including to a compound, satellite systems, and radar equipment, though the base remains operational. The U.S. naval base in Bahrain sustained more significant damage, with strikes hitting warehouses and satellite dishes, prompting the departure of military families. Most Iranian attacks across the region were intercepted by host-nation air defenses.

The operational picture is one of expansion, not withdrawal. Prior to the latest reinforcements, 50,000 U.S. troops were already deployed across the Middle East. Kuwait hosts the largest concentration, approximately 13,500 personnel at Ali Al-Salem Air Base and Camps Arifjan and Buehring. Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar, the forward headquarters for U.S. Air Forces Central Command, houses around 10,000 service members. Bahrain hosts more than 8,300 personnel, including U.S. Naval Forces Central Command.

The Trump administration has since ordered approximately 2,000 soldiers from the 82nd Airborne Division to deploy to the region, on top of two Marine Expeditionary Units with their Amphibious Ready Groups, the 11th MEU and the 31st MEU, together bringing roughly 9,000 Marines and sailors to the theater.

The Iranian propaganda narrative conflates three distinct and unrelated developments: the pre-strike personnel drawdown, which was a deliberate deception tactic; Iranian missile damage to base infrastructure, which was real but largely intercepted; and the ongoing U.S. drawdown from Syria and Iraq, which predates the war. None of these constitutes abandonment.

As of late March, the U.S. has struck approximately 9,000 targets inside Iran since operations began on February 28 and is actively building combat power in the theater.

Thirteen U.S. service members have been killed in Operation Epic Fury. Six died in an Iranian drone strike on Port Shuaiba, Kuwait, on March 1: Maj. Jeffrey O’Brien, Chief Warrant Officer 3 Robert Marzan, Capt. Cody Khork, Sgt. 1st Class Nicole Amor, Sgt. 1st Class Noah Tietjens, and Sgt. Declan Coady.

Sgt. Benjamin Pennington was wounded during an Iranian attack on Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia on March 1 and died of those wounds on March 8.

Six more were killed when a KC-135 aerial refueling aircraft crashed over western Iraq on March 12. The full crew was Maj. John A. Klinner, 33; Capt. Ariana G. Savino, 31; Tech. Sgt. Ashley B. Pruitt, 34; Capt. Seth R. Koval, 38; Capt. Curtis J. Angst, 30; and Tech. Sgt. Tyler H. Simmons, 28.

As of March 24, 290 service members have been wounded. Of those, 255, approximately 88 percent, have returned to duty, with 10 remaining seriously wounded.

Five U.S. Air Force refueling tankers were struck and damaged on the ground during an Iranian attack on Prince Sultan Air Base in Saudi Arabia. The aircraft were not destroyed and are currently undergoing repairs.

Within the same 24-hour period, two additional KC-135s were involved in a mid-air collision, resulting in one aircraft being lost and the other damaged.

No U.S. warships have been confirmed sunk or put out of action by Iranian strikes, though infrastructure damage, including radar systems and satellite dishes, has been reported at multiple installations.

USS Gerald R. Ford arrived at Souda Bay, Greece on March 23 for maintenance and repairs following a March 12 fire in the aft laundry room, damage unrelated to combat. The Navy stated the carrier remains fully mission capable and that the port call is for assessment, repairs, and resupply.

The Ford has been deployed for approximately nine months, well beyond the typical seven-month deployment cycle, first in the Caribbean and then in the Middle East. With the Ford in Greece, USS Abraham Lincoln, operating in the Arabian Sea, is the only carrier actively in the war theater. USS George Washington remains in Yokosuka, Japan, completing in-port maintenance.