A little more than a week after federal immigration agents swooped in on the Home Depot in the City of San Fernando and detained one person, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) came back again on Tuesday, Oct. 21, this time, taking at least three people from the store’s parking lot.
A self-employed contractor, who spoke to the San Fernando Valley Sun/el Sol on the condition of anonymity, said that one of those taken is his employee – 28-year-old Vicente Guerra Aldana. The contractor said he and Guerra Aldana were just about to finish up a construction job and stopped into the Home Depot to pick up a few things.
The contractor told Guerra Aldana to wait in his truck while he went first to Target, then Home Depot. After getting supplies from Home Depot, which he said took only about five minutes, he saw several ICE agents surrounding his truck and taking Guerra Aldana away.
The contractor captured the incident on video.
“I’m panicking because I have no idea what’s going on, I just see these guys taking my guy,” he said. “They didn’t even give me a chance to speak to him. They just put him in a black GMC [van] with what looked like … a black towel covering the window so that you couldn’t see inside.
“I was in the middle of it, and they kept telling me to back up, that I’m impeding a police investigation,” he continued. “I was trying to stay calm and composed, but at the same time, it was really hard for me to do that given the whole situation.”
He called out to one of the agents who appeared to be Latina, saying she should be ashamed of herself. She replied that she wasn’t.
At that time, a black van pulled up with four to six ICE agents wearing “military-style” equipment and masks. In a bewildering sequence of events, the contractor said that one of the agents told him to get closer because “we have candy.” When he did start to approach them, he was told they were going to f**k him up if he got too close.
“They’re kind of just looking at me, mocking me, laughing at the whole situation,” he said. “They’re telling me that if I take any step closer, they’re gonna drop me and they’re gonna slam my head [against the ground] and take me down.”
At one point, it almost seemed as if the ICE agents were going to get violent against him. The contractor had to step towards the van to move out of the way of another car that was backing out. The agents then lifted their rifles and became even more aggressive.
“I think they wanted to provoke me enough to where they had the right to actually hurt me,” he said. “I genuinely felt like they wanted to hurt me, and I think that’s why I feel so violated. … All the men inside that van were big white men, all covered up. They looked like a freaking right-wing militia group that was there to spread terror and hate, and they got a kick out of it.”
The contractor said that even a Home Depot employee was getting in on it, as he gave a thumbs-up to the agents as they took Guerra Aldana away. Even though the manager later came out of the store to check on him, the contractor said the employee made him feel even more violated and helpless.
Fortunately for the contractor, the agents didn’t take any further action against him. After about five minutes, the agents left the parking lot with Guerra Aldana and at least two more people, one of whom had been slammed to the ground. Two agents were at each side of the man who laid on the ground motionless.
“The whole entire interaction with them was just scary,” he said. “They were so aggressive, and it felt like the rules and laws did not apply to them whatsoever. I felt like they could do whatever they wanted, and I was at the [mercy] of whatever they wanted to do, and there was no way I could advocate, defend or even try to justify myself or anything like that.”
After they left, he talked with one of the workers in the parking lot, who claimed that ICE agents come by every day.
Tell Others it Can Happen to Them
Guerra Aldana worked as a farmer in his home country of Guatemala before he came to the United States about two years ago. He lives with his brother, both of whom send money to their parents, who are now too old to work.
The contractor described him as a “humble” person who enjoys the simple things, like taking long walks, and is very fond of animals.
He hopes that by spreading the message about who Guerra Aldana is and what happened to him, he can gain support from the community and find a lawyer who can locate Guerra Aldana and get him released.
Although he knows that what happened wasn’t his fault, the contractor admitted he feels guilty about what happened.
“I can’t fight the feeling … like it’s my fault for being there and for going to Home Depot to get materials at that time,” he said, holding back tears. “I know it could have happened at any time. It could have happened with me, it could have happened to him on his own time, but I just feel guilt and fear. That could be my dad next, or that could be my mom, or it could be a cousin or someone else.”
He knows there’s only so much he can do to protect his other employees, but for now, he’s decided to never shop at a Home Depot again if he’s traveling with someone else, even if it means he has to pay more for materials.
“I never thought I would be in this situation, and it can happen to anybody, and you just [have to] be careful, protect yourself, protect your people [and] protect the community.”
A GoFundMe was created on Tuesday to raise funds for Guerra Aldana’s legal expenses. To donate, go to: https://www.gofundme.com/f/detained-for-being-brown-help-vicente-get-justice.
National Immigration and Customs Enforcement
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