Community members in Los Angeles are on edge after what appeared to be federal immigration officers targeting street vendors Monday morning.
A coalition of immigrants’ rights groups rallied near Eagle Rock Plaza where they say they spotted federal immigration agents staging earlier in the day.
Los Angeles City Councilmember Ysabel Jurado was among those speaking out against the alleged immigration enforcement operations.
“They were driving down throughout our neighborhood, which is mostly people of color in a diverse constituency, just taking people who looked like criminals because they were brown,” she said at the rally.
Jose Hernandez, who has operated his longtime taco stand in Highland Park, said he was temporarily detained Monday morning and driven away. He said that agents later released him, dropping him off about eight blocks from his place of business, when he was able to show proof that his immigration paperwork was being processed.
In Spanish, he told KTLA’s Carlos Saucedo that he plans to keep working.
“But others are living in fear knowing that enforcement operations in Los Angeles are possibly being ramped,” he said in Spanish.
The coalition of advocates claim at least five street vendors were detained in the area, including a man with children who attend Los Angeles Unified School District schools.
Witnesses said the father was taken from his taco shop at Figueroa Street and York Boulevard, a bustling Highland Park neighborhood, around 1:30 p.m.
Federal immigration agents in detaining an L.A. street vendor on Jan. 12, 2026. (@HighlandPark90042)
Federal immigration agents seen in L.A. during apparent immigration raids targeting street vendors on Jan. 12, 2026. (@HighlandPark90042)
Federal immigration agents seen in L.A. during apparent immigration raids targeting street vendors on Jan. 12, 2026. (@HighlandPark90042)
Federal immigration agents seen in L.A. during apparent immigration raids targeting street vendors on Jan. 12, 2026. (@HighlandPark90042)
A street vendor seen detained by federal agents on Jan. 12, 2026. (TikTok: Ceelokk23_)
Good Samaritans seen packing up the belongings of a street vendor reportedly detained by federal agents on Jan. 12, 2026. (viewer image)
Jose Medina said he witnessed the arrest.
“I seen him get thrown into the Suburban,” he explained. “They took him. So basically, they all ran, they all scattered and he got caught.”
Medina said that after the man was chased, tackled and detained, his taco shop was left unattended, prompting him to pack up the father’s belongings for safekeeping.
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“I’ve only seen it on TV, but then I see it live,” he said. “They’re my people. It just went through my blood and I said, ‘I just have to help them out.’”
Yet another street vendor only identified as Lidia said that when she came to work, the father was already gone.
Like other undocumented workers in the area, she said she’s living in fear and realizes the sacrifices she must take to feed her children.
KTLA has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security, which houses the agencies responsible for immigration enforcement, for comment on the apparent operations.
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