car wash<\/a> on June 18, as he has for around 10 years, when agents who didn\u2019t identify themselves arrived and began interrogating people about their identity and immigration status, the lawsuit alleges. Hernandez Viramontes said he told them he was a dual citizen of the U.S. and Mexico and provided an ID.<\/p>\nBut agents \u201cexplained that his ID wasn\u2019t enough and since he didn\u2019t have his passport, they were taking him.\u201d According to the lawsuit, agents placed him in a vehicle, drove away, then after verifying his citizenship brought him back about 20 minutes later, \u201cbut not before his brother called his wife, who had become deeply worried.\u201d<\/p>\n
They dropped him at the car wash, with no apology. Shortly after, the car wash was raided again.<\/p>\n
He and others are afraid that their \u201cLatino appearance and accent\u201d will make them a future target, the lawsuit says.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe administration has been telling us that these actions are motivated by a desire to make streets safer,\u201d said Mark Rosenbaum, an attorney at Public Counsel. \u201cBut it\u2019s been shown now, and this is what we\u2019re going to show in our case, who their true targets are and what [their] true intent is and that is to terrorize and rip from families in our communities nannies and car wash workers and farmworkers.\u201d<\/p>\n
Between June 6 and 22, immigration enforcement teams arrested 1,618 immigrants for deportation in Los Angeles and surrounding regions of Southern California, according to the Department of Homeland Security. Arrests have involved controversial roving patrols and chases. Data that run through June 10 suggest the majority of those arrested have no criminal convictions.<\/p>\n
Lawyers argue that the \u201cpattern of illegal conduct\u201d is \u201cthe predictable result of directives from top officials to agents and officers.\u201d In May, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller reportedly directed top Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to go beyond target lists and have agents make arrests at Home Depots or 7-Eleven convenience stores as they sought to crank up their daily arrest numbers to 3,000.<\/p>\n
The lawsuit notes the administration dismantled internal accountability mechanisms and restraints governing the conduct of immigration agents and officers, shutting down multiple oversight agencies.<\/p>\n
After immigrants are detained, the lawsuit alleges that they are placed in a \u201cdungeon-like\u201d short-term processing center and ICE basement holding area in downtown L.A. known as \u201cB-18.\u201d Lawyers described the conditions as \u201cdeplorable and unconstitutional\u201d and alleged that those arrested had been deprived of access to counsel.<\/p>\n
Lawyers accused the administration of failing to \u201cprovide basic necessities like food, water, adequate hygiene facilities, and medical care.\u201d Detainees were allegedly subjected to overcrowding and did not have adequate sleeping accommodations.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnder such conditions, some of those arrested are pressured into accepting voluntary departure,\u201d the lawsuit states. \u201cThe government is aware that its actions are unconstitutional and contrary to officers\u2019 training, but deliberately persists because this system allows it to coerce removals, avoid public accountability, and ultimately \u2014given the limited bed space at longer-term detention facilities in the area \u2014 keep arrest numbers high.\u201d<\/p>\n
The lawsuit brought by a bevy of groups including the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, Immigrant Defenders Law Center, Public Counsel, ACLU affiliates across the state, UC Irvine Law School and private firms stems from an existing case filed by an immigration lawyer in Pasadena on June 20. Three of Stacy Tolchin\u2019s clients were picked up at bus stops and surrounded by armed agents, with no flight risk established and no warrant.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you stop people and ask questions later, you\u2019re gonna get everybody, and the law is really clear. You can\u2019t do that. That\u2019s illegal,\u201d said Tajsar. \u201cWe\u2019re not saying the government can\u2019t enforce immigration laws. We\u2019re not saying the government can\u2019t investigate whether somebody is in status or is not.\u201d<\/p>\n
But, he said, it must be done lawfully. \u201cWhat\u2019s happening here is flagrantly illegal.\u201d<\/p>\n
The lawsuit names, among other law enforcement officials, U.S. Border Patrol Sector Chief Greg Bovino, who is based near U.S. Mexico the border. Bovino, who has played a prominent role in the recent sweeps, is also under a federal injunction in Eastern District of California after a judge found his agents engaged in \u201ca pattern and practice\u201d of violating people\u2019s constitutional rights in raids in Kern County earlier this year.<\/p>\n
At a press conference Wednesday morning outside of the Bubble Bath Hand Car Wash in Torrance, one of the places hit by immigration agents, Maria, who was told by lawyers not to share her last name, said her husband was among the workers taken. <\/p>\n
\u201cHe was just going to work to support his family,\u201d she said. When her grandchildren ask about him, she said, \u201cI don\u2019t really know what to tell them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Emmanuel Karim Nicola-Cruz, the car wash owner\u2019s son, described how unmarked vehicles blocked the exits on each side of the business, federal agents entered restricted areas and would not respond to questions. <\/p>\n
Nicola-Cruz said he was initially under the impression that the business was being \u201crobbed,\u201d before he realized that agents were chasing down his employees.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was just a scary experience,\u201d Nicola Cruz said. \u201cTwo of my hardest workers started running, and they found probable cause to throw one onto the gate and another onto the floor … treating these people like criminals with no dignity.\u201d <\/p>\n
Emily, the niece of another person taken by ICE, said her uncle was slammed against a gate by an agent. She said she believes the new lawsuit may be the only way to keep federal agents accountable because her family has exhausted every other option. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re asking for truth, dignity and the basic right to help our loved one,\u201d she said. \u201cWe need help. We need action. We need answers before another family suffers like ours.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Masked, unidentified agents have been \u201csystematically\u201d cornering brown-skinned people in a show of force across Southern California, tackling…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":33455,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[2322,12424,6284,17239,51,8618,4155,12846,2444,50,4531,3546,27937,6280,27936,2549,52,4352],"class_list":{"0":"post-33454","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"tag-agent","9":"tag-arrest","10":"tag-car-wash","11":"tag-federal-lawsuit","12":"tag-headlines","13":"tag-immigrant","14":"tag-june","15":"tag-lawyer","16":"tag-los-angeles-times","17":"tag-news","18":"tag-officer","19":"tag-people","20":"tag-rampant-immigration-raid","21":"tag-region","22":"tag-siege","23":"tag-southern-california","24":"tag-top-stories","25":"tag-trump-administration"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114785483871655475","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33454"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33454\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33455"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}