Immigration raids at Anaheim car washes prompts a family's fight for their father
Scenes of car washes being raided by federal immigration agents across Southern California had instilled fear that the family's patriarch, an undocumented immigrant from Colima, Mexico, would not be safe.
Gomez-Garcia's family made preparations beforehand and rehearsed what he should do in the event of a raid.
They cautioned him not to answer any questions from Immigration and Customs Enforcement or any other federal agent. Gomez-Garcia, an Anaheim father of three, insisted that he would be able to outrun any raid.
All the while, President Donald Trump's federal immigration crackdown continued at area swap meets, outside of Home Depot stores and at public parks.
'My father mentioned that he had a dream the night before that ICE took him,' said Andrea Gomez, his daughter. 'That dream, unfortunately, turned into a real-life nightmare.'
Gomez-Garcia headed to work on July 3 at around 9:30 a.m., a routine he kept for more than 20 years. Less than an hour into his shift, federal immigration agents raided the car wash and apprehended at least three people.
Cellphone video from a bystander captured a federal agent arresting Gomez-Garcia at his workplace. Placed in an unmarked car, Garcia-Gomez suffered an injury when a bystander hurled an object and shattered the tinted window next to his passenger seat.
Federal agents eventually took him to a hospital to treat the resulting eye injury.
That same day, U.S. Border Patrol agents had raided Euclid Hand Car Wash in Anaheim, which shut the business down for the rest of the long Fourth of July weekend.
According to Anaheim officials, agents with Border Patrol, ICE and Homeland Security Investigations carried out another enforcement action at Euclid Hand Car Wash on Wednesday that led to the arrest of two people.
Spokespersons for U.S. Customs and Border Protections and ICE did not respond to TimesOC requests for comment by press deadline.
Word of the latest raid spread to 'carwasheros' in the city, who feared they could be next, and signaled how such businesses have been repeatedly targeted since immigration raids ramped up in June.
'Car washes are easy access,' said Flor Melendrez, executive director of the CLEAN Car Wash Worker Center. 'They're out in the open. It is hard to tell what is and what isn't private property. That is a major reason why car washes have been so impacted by these raids.'
Melendrez said that car wash raids are also quick work for federal immigration agents, with enforcement actions typically lasting just five to 10 minutes.
CLEAN has compiled a list of at least 56 car wash businesses raided throughout Southern California through Wednesday. With Euclid Hand Car Wash's most recent raid added, masked federal agents have arrested approximately 112 workers, according to the group's tally.
Some car wash businesses have been raided more than four times in recent weeks.
'This isn't about public safety,' said Anaheim Councilmember Carlos Leon. 'Folks are being targeted at their jobs where they are working hard to provide for their families. It's something that, unfortunately, we've seen happen in the city. But the raids aren't helping anybody in the community feel safer.'
Gomez-Garcia, according to his daughter, received a call about a car wash raid in Anaheim a few minutes before his own arrest, but he decided to keep working.
Andrea spoke to her father the day after his arrest. Immigration authorities held him at an ICE detention facility in downtown Los Angeles. Since Garcia-Gomez has diabetes, high blood pressure and suffers from seizures, ICE allowed his family to drop off prescription medications, protein shakes and a warm jacket.
Through the holiday weekend, Andrea organized a GoFundMe page that has collected more than $18,000 in donations. The Gomez family also held a car wash on June 6 to raise additional funds.
While the Gomez family has received a lot of support from the community, others took the fundraising car wash as an opportunity to yell, 'You don't belong here' and 'Go back to Mexico.'
The hateful comments disappointed Andrea, but won't deter the family from rallying around Gomez-Garcia.
On Monday, Andrea visited her father at the ICE detention facility. She said he still wore the same blue shirt he was wearing when federal agents took him into custody. She reported that his eye looked swollen from the injury.
'We only had about five minutes to talk to him,' she said. 'We told him everything that our family has been doing for him, what our community was doing for him, and that he isn't alone.'
Family members advised him not to sign any self-deportation papers. Gomez-Garcia responded by saying he felt like a slave in detention.
Since then, Gomez-Garcia has been transferred to the Adelanto ICE Detention Center, where he reports better conditions. His family recently met with an attorney.
'We want to fight his case because he's no criminal,' she said. 'He's a really hard-working man who came here to give us a better life.'
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