Families concerned over location of California immigrant detainees

Yahoo

11-06-2025

Those arrested during the immigration raids in Southern California have been taken to various locations, with some being transferred more than once to federal detention facilities.
Some of their exact whereabouts are unknown to their families and even to local authorities. According to various reports, some of the detainees are being processed and held at the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles. As of Wednesday morning, the building is under the protection of the U.S. military, even though state and local officials say it is not necessary.
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The detention center is also ground zero for demonstrators. On Tuesday, many gathered in front of the building, praying for the detainees.
However, many questions remain, with most of them unanswered, about those detained.
'Workplaces that were raided, and you had individuals detained, and their families don't know where they are. They have not been able to be in contact with them, they have been denied legal counsel, none of these things happened in past immigration enforcement,' explained Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass on KTLA 5 Morning News. 'People who are legal, they get their annual immigration appointment, they go to the office to check in and then they're detained.'
The Department of Homeland Security has not revealed how many people in total have been taken into custody since the raids began on June 6.
When KTLA 5's Annie Rose Ramos reached out to the agency for a statement, they responded with photos and a history of some of those detained, calling them 'the worst of the worst.'
Among them was a detainee from Colombia who had been previously arrested for domestic battery, child endangerment, assault with a deadly weapon, grand theft, and narcotics violations.
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Another included a Mexican national who Homeland Security said had previous criminal convictions for sex with a minor, narcotics violations and a hit and run.
'American people should know some of the individuals that we picked up on these ICE operations, child rapists, child molesters, murders, convicted arsonists, truly the worst of the worst in the streets,' Assistant DHS Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told Fox News. 'My message to Mayor Bass and to Governor Newsom and these rioters that they back is that ICE will not be deterred. We will not be intimidated by this riot or violence. We will keep going. We will only ramp up ICE operations, and we will continue to get these criminals off of our streets.'
In the meantime, new reports claim that even those without a criminal history are also being detained. ICE agents have been spotted all over Southern California since last Friday, including in Oxnard, where there were raids as recently as yesterday.
'Instead of focusing on undocumented immigrants with serious criminal records and people with final deportation orders, the strategy both parties have long supported, this administration is pushing mass deportations,' California Governor Gavin Newsom explained in an address to the state on Tuesday evening.
One Southern California family, whose uncle was taken into custody during a raid on Friday in Los Angeles's garment district, says he doesn't even have access to his attorney while in federal custody.
'We tried to go see him, but they said no, because they were not letting anybody and not even the lawyers,' his niece Kamilla Ponce explained.
Erica Perez's mother, who has lived here for 35 years, was also detained by ICE agents while attending her immigration hearing in court last week in Oxnard. Her daughter is now speaking out and described the conditions her mother has experienced as she is being held inside the downtown L.A. federal facility.
'She told me to take care of my siblings, and it's going to be okay. She told me about all the women inside, banging on doors, begging for food,' Perez said holding back tears. 'They were so hungry that they would pretend that they were drinking like Starbucks.'
The Coalition for Human Immigrant Rights, known as CHIRLA, operates the Rapid Response Network hotline. That is a hotline people can call, particularly immigrant families, or anyone who works with immigrants who have seen these ICE raids, or know someone who has been detained,.
As of Wednesday morning, CHIRLA reports that approximately 300 people have been detained since the raids began last week.
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