A U.S. citizen who had just finished shopping in Granada Hills yesterday morning gave a firsthand account of an immigration raid, which involved a worker for a taco stand suddenly hopping into her car.
The incident occurred on Balboa Boulevard, between the parking lots of Trader Joe’s and Target. The woman, who spoke to the San Fernando Valley Sun/el Sol on the condition of anonymity, was in her vehicle leaving Trader Joe’s when she suddenly saw a woman running in the middle of the street attempting to hop on the hood of a car.
Next thing she saw was what appeared to be an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent on the other side of the street with his arms and legs spread out in “attack mode.” The driver began honking her horn and shouting to everyone nearby that ICE was in the vicinity.
The woman in the middle of the road saw the driver and ran towards her, hopped in her car and they drove off. The driver said the vendor immediately broke into tears and was shaking the whole time she was in the car. The worker had told her that these agents, who wore regular clothes and had no masks, had taken her male co-worker. Only one of them wore a vest.
She added that just a week ago, someone driving by the stand had shouted they were going to call ICE on them.
The driver spent the ride doing her best to comfort her passenger, although she admitted the situation also caused her to tear up.
“There are no words. It’s just terrible,” the woman said. “It’s one thing to see it [an immigration raid] on video, but it’s just horrible in person. … I had anxiety the whole day yesterday.”
Even today, some of that anxiety continues to linger. At the moment, she didn’t think about the repercussions, as her only priority was getting the vendor away from that location. But looking back on it, she could not help but think about the fatal shootings by immigration authorities in the past month – starting with Keith Porter Jr. on New Year’s Eve in Northridge, then Renée Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
Eventually, she dropped the vendor off with someone she could trust. While she was relieved, the vendor expressed her concern that she doesn’t have a job anymore and doesn’t know what she’ll do next.
“The whole ride, … she was just telling me that she’s never even stolen a dime,” the driver said. “Her family just migrated under five years ago because they wanted a better life. She does have a son, and that’s the only person she was thinking about in that moment. … She was like, ‘What would happen to my son [if I get taken]?’”
It was the first time the driver had seen an immigration operation so up close before. Afterwards, she couldn’t help but replay that event over and over in her head.
A day later, she admits to feeling scared but also empowered. Although the raids have been escalating, yesterday’s incident showed her that people can help immigrants who are being targeted for these operations. It makes her hopeful that she can save someone else in the future.
She hopes others will do what they can to help people and advises migrants to do what they can to protect themselves.
“Stay home, stay safe. Don’t go out unless you need to, and watch all of your surroundings before you get out of your car,” she said. “I don’t want people to be discouraged by the fact that they [ICE] are changing their tactics. I want us to be more on alert and to fight back more.”
who wrote this shit?