An immigration enforcement operation Saturday surprised employees and customers at a car wash in Long Beach, resulting in seven detainments, according to the general manager of the business.
The immigration raid was carried out in a matter of minutes by federal agents at Bixby Knolls Car Wash on Wardlow Street.
“I’ve been working here for 46 years and I’ve never been through this. We have good, honest people who pay their taxes,” said Ramón Paz, general manager of the car wash.
The manager added that among those detained were one person from Honduras, three from El Salvador, and three from Mexico.
“They took away seven good, honest, noble people. People who deserve to have a job,” Paz said.
At least four of those detained had documentation granting them legal status in the country, according to Paz.
“Some of them have papers. I spoke with them, but they told me they had to take them because they didn’t have a document proving that they were,” Paz said.
The raid took place just days after the Supreme Court gave immigration authorities the green light to resume mobile patrols in Los Angeles and seven other California counties. According to lawyers, this measure increases the risk of detentions based solely on appearance or location.
“All these raids have something in common: they are picking people up without even asking their names,” said Kathia Quirós, an immigration lawyer. “That’s why it’s extremely important that if we encounter ICE, we have our documents proving our identity, who we are, and the document proving that we have legal status.”
Telemundo 52 has contacted the Department of Homeland Security for more information about the raid but has not received a response.
The recent immigration enforcement operations in Los Angeles and other parts of Southern California are part of President Donald Trump’s campaign promise to carry out a mass deportation plan.
As of September 11, more than 58,000 migrants had been detained by ICE since the start of President Trump’s second term, according to NBC News, which used public and internal ICE data, as well as data from Customs and Border Protection (CBP). About 29.4% of those detained had criminal convictions; 25.5% had pending criminal charges; 45.8% were listed as “other violators.”