Federal immigration enforcement indiscriminately targeted day laborers and street vendors at the Van Nuys Home Depot twice today.
The first raid took place at 7:30 a.m. when about seven vehicles filled with masked men wearing HSI (Homeland Security Investigations) and United States Border Patrol tactical gear began grabbing day laborers and street vendors without question and without presenting a warrant, according to witnesses at the scene.
Maegan Ortiz is the executive director of the Instituto de Educacion Popular del Sur de California (IDEPSCA), a nonprofit organization that operates the Day Laborers Community Job Center in the parking lot of the Van Nuys Home Depot.
“We think anywhere between 10 to 15 people were taken in the morning in the first raid,” said Ortiz. She added that agents violently arrested people, breaking two car windows and throwing a street vendor to the ground, who they later released because she told them she had legal papers.
By the time of the second raid, which occurred at around 11:45 a.m., volunteers and activists were already on the scene.
According to Ortiz, at least two dozen U.S. Border Patrol agents with full tactical gear, holding weapons and wearing face coverings, arrived in unmarked white vans.
“It was clearly a show of force,” said Ortiz.
“They came straight for the Day Labor Center,” she added. “I really do feel like we were being targeted.”
Activists and volunteers blocked the doors and stood in a line in front of the center as Border Patrol tried to peer into the windows. One volunteer said it looked as though the agents were even trying to find a hole to throw tear gas into the building.
They tackled and detained one laborer at the far end of the parking lot, but quickly left when they realized their operation was otherwise unsuccessful.
Now, Ortiz and the other workers at the center are connecting with the family members of those who were detained to help try and locate their loved ones and refer them to legal resources.
After two weeks of seemingly calmer activity, the raids today are the latest in a recent uptick across the city – including an operation at a Home Depot in Westlake/MacArthur on Monday, where Border Patrol agents charged out of a Penske rental truck.
The indiscriminate practice of detaining individuals without a warrant or probable cause is a blatant violation of the temporary restraining order (TRO) issued by a Los Angeles district judge two weeks ago and upheld by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals last Friday. The TRO prevents the government from stopping individuals in violation of the Fourth Amendment. The judge further ordered that the government is required to provide detained individuals with access to counsel.
“They’re targeting us. It’s a clear violation of the restraining order,” said Ortiz. “I would love to know directly from Mayor [Karen] Bass … what is she going to do?”
If the mayor and police and courts can’t hold these hostile criminal gestapo accountable, who will? These officers are scum. Pure and simple. Who will hold them to their own laws? Just get the damned warrants, and follow due process! Otherwise, you are more criminal then any of these hard working folks you are targeting!