A DACA immigrant with disabilities is speaking out after he was swept up in a federal immigration raid near a car wash in Temple City.

Javier Diaz Santana with hearing disabilities said he was shocked when masked agents showed up at his work on June 12.

“I was so nervous,” Diaz Santana said through his sign language interpreter. 

Surveillance from inside the Temple City car wash showed agents enter the business as Diaz Santana recalled the officials shouting commands that he could not hear or understand.

“They tried to talk to me. They tried to see if I could talk. I couldn’t talk. I pulled out my phone to try to communicate, but they took it away,” Diaz Santana described the interaction, adding the agents confiscated his Real ID and wallet before placing him in handcuffs.

“I would ask them to take off my handcuffs, so I could sign. They said no, so I was struck,” he recalled.  

Diaz Santana’s family had no idea what happened to him until they tracked his phone to the federal detention center in downtown LA.

“For that to happen to him, to be treated like that is not right. He is not a criminal,” said Miguel Diaz, his brother, adding his family were not allowed to see him until they hired an immigration attorney.

The lawyer was able to track him in on the Immigration Customs Enforcement’s website, which showed Diaz Santana was being taken to El Paso, Texas as agents were trying to deport him to Mexico, a country he had left as a child more than 28 years ago.

“I have DACA. I’ve already applied. I went through the steps. I thought everything was fine. I was doing everything, following everything,” said Diaz Santana, who also has a valid work permit from the federal government and does not have any criminal history.

Diaz Santana also said the federal agents gave him documents to sign, but he did not understand because they were written in Spanish. He asked for an American Sign Language interpreter but never got one, he said. 

But the Department of Homeland Security denied Diaz Santana’s claims.

“Any allegations that ICE did not provide services to Javier Diaz Santana in order for him to have the ability to communicate with others is FALS,” the department said in a statement. “ICE medical staff provided him with a communications board and an American sign language interpreter.”

Diaz Santana’s attorney wasn’t able to see or talk to him until his detention hearing weeks later. He was then granted release and got to see his family.

“It is a travesty of justice, in my opinion,” Roxanne Muro, his attorney said.

Although this terrifying ordeal is done for now, Diaz Santana now fears DACA protections may soon be eliminated, putting him again at risk of arrest or deportation.