American citizen detained under ICE hold in Florida
A US-born man is in custody on a 48-hour U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement hold at the Leon County Jail in Tallahassee, Florida, after he was charged as an 'unauthorized alien' who entered Florida without being inspected by immigration officers, according to Leon County court records.
Juan Carlos Lopez-Gomez, 20, was arrested by Florida Highway Patrol Wednesday when the car in which he was a passenger was pulled over for a traffic stop, according to his attorney Mutaqee Akbar.
Lopez-Gomez was born in Grady County, Georgia, where he currently lives in the city of Cairo. He was crossing the Florida state line for his work in construction in Tallahassee, about 45 minutes away from home.
The Georgia man appeared in court virtually before Leon County Judge LaShawn Riggans Thursday. The judge was handed a copy of his birth certificate brought by Lopez-Gomez's mother, Sebastiana Perez.
'In looking at it, and feeling it, and holding it up to the light, the court can clearly see the watermark to show that this is indeed an authentic document,' Riggans said, according to the non-profit news outlet Florida Phoenix, which had a reporter in court for the hearing. The Florida Phoenix first reported the story.
According to court records, Riggans found no probable cause for the charge of crossing into Florida illegally, but said she didn't have jurisdiction to release Lopez-Gomez because of the ICE hold.
An ICE hold, or immigration detainer, is when ICE asks law enforcement agencies to notify it 'before releasing a removable alien' and to 'hold the alien for up to 48 hours' to give DHS time take the migrant into custody.
CNN contacted ICE, the Florida Highway Patrol and the Leon County Sheriff's Office but did not immediately hear back. A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said the agency is looking into the incident.
Akbar said family members were told by the ICE detention officers that Lopez-Gomez is expected to be released Thursday evening.
Thomas Kennedy, a spokesperson for the Florida Immigrant Coalition, who was at the Leon County courthouse to assist Lopez-Gomez's family, said the law the Georgia man was arrested under was temporarily blocked by a judge. SB 4-C penalizes illegal immigrants over the age of 18 'who knowingly enter or attempt to enter this state after entering the United States by eluding or avoiding examination or inspection by immigration officers.' The bill was signed by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis in February but was temporarily blocked this month by Judge Kathleen Williams, according to the Tallahassee Democrat.
'It's a series of horrors,' said attorney Alana Greer, the director and co-founder of the Community Justice Project which represents the Florida Immigrant Coalition, adding that, 'no one should have been arrested under this law, let alone a US citizen.' Greer is not representing Lopez-Gomez.
'The judge, the prosecutor, the sheriff and the jail are basically all throwing their hands up and saying, 'ICE told us to hold him, so we're going to keep holding him,' even though no one disagrees with the fact that he's a citizen. So they're right now unlawfully holding a US citizen. They've dismissed the underlying criminal charges, so the only reason they're holding him is because ICE sent a piece of paper over that says, 'Please hold this person for us. We'll come pick him up later,'' Greer said.
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Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Will mom get detained? Is dad going to work? Answering kids' big questions amid ICE raids
By the time Josefina and her husband sat down to talk, the immigration raids had been going on for days, and protests over the federal actions had turned violent in parts of downtown Los Angeles. At night, they could hear the helicopters from their Boyle Heights home. The couple couldn't afford to put off the conversation any longer — fear was mounting over the potential separation of their family. Josefina's husband, a garment worker, is an undocumented immigrant from Mexico. When U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers raided the Ambiance Apparel garment factory June 6, the couple's 15- and 19-year-old children had texted their father in a panic. He, too, works at a garment factory. Should he go to work? That's what they had to hash out Tuesday night. The couple was seated in the dining room. Their children were engrossed in a movie in the living room. The parents had not wanted their kids to hear the conversation — and figured they were out of earshot. They weren't. 'Dad should just stay home,' the teenagers insisted. And with that, the whole family was part of a difficult conversation. It was not how the couple had scripted it, but Josefina came to terms with keeping the kids in the know. 'I've done my best to shield them, but they have a lot of questions,' said Josefina, who like others in this report asked that she and her family not be fully identified over safety concerns. 'They're trying to understand what happens after this. So what I've been offering them is that this isn't how things are going to be forever, that there's power in community.' Conversations like the one in Josefina's dining room are unfolding across the Los Angeles region, as families with undocumented members grapple with fraught questions pushed to the fore by the Trump administration's chaotic crackdown on what he has called a "Migrant Invasion." Could mom be arrested? What happens if dad can't go to work? These and other queries are sparking excruciating — and potentially life-altering — discussions centered on planning for the possible deportation of a family member. Parents are often conflicted about how much to tell their children — even when dealing with ordinary issues. But the intense anguish some feel at this moment has exacerbated the dilemma. Child psychologists and counselors said children should be brought into the fold for these crucial conversations in age-appropriate ways. Doing so, said licensed clinical social worker Yessenia O. Aguirre, will help kids reckon with a moment suffused with anxiety. "I would counsel people to have the conversations from early on," said Aguirre, who is co-developing a coloring book for parents to help them navigate fears and anxieties related to immigration. "Kids can know about real dangers and still have a joyous childhood. We don't have to protect our kids from things they are already going to hear from the news, social media, and from just going to school." If there was ever a week in which children might have heard about issues related to immigration, it was this past one in L.A. Aggressive sweeps by ICE were met with fierce resistance by protesters and others beginning June 6. A Home Depot in Paramount became a flash point after border patrol agents began massing there early on June 7. Eventually, the scene erupted, with demonstrators clashing with authorities, leading to multiple arrests. The episode was one of the triggers that led the Trump administration to deploy National Guard troops to L.A. over the objections of Gov. Gavin Newsom. ICE forays deep into neighborhoods have continued, sparking new outrage. On Wednesday, The Times reported that a 9-year-old Torrance Elementary School student and his father were deported to Honduras. The cascading events have made it a profoundly uncertain time for immigrant families. And that can spawn anxiety, said psychologist Melissa Brymer, a director at the UCLA-Duke National Center for Child Traumatic Stress. But there are, she said, simple actions parents can take to help children, such as organizing a comforting family meal or arranging for other relatives to check in on a youngster to increase their sense of security. Even asking kids if they are getting a good night's sleep can spark a wider discussion about how they are faring. "Kids are usually willing to talk about it from a sleep perspective," Brymer said. Crowded around the dining room table, Josefina and her husband told their children that they would decide whether he'd return to work by Friday. Even though the kids were now part of the conversation, it was still going to be the adults' decision. They had to weigh the risk of a workplace raid and the husband's possible arrest against the financial implications of losing a vital source of income. The family was trying to save money to pay for a legal defense, Josefina said, should her husband be detained. 'We don't have the money to be like, 'Oh yeah, quit your job,'" Josefina said. Until the teenagers overheard their conversation, Josefina hoped they knew enough to draw comfort from the family's plans. She said, for example, that the kids know what to do if ICE officers come to their house and which lawyers to call if their father is detained. That, experts said, is the right instinct. Aguirre said that preteens and teenagers "pick up on our moods," and may understand more than parents realize. "They are sensing our anxiety, they are looking at our behaviors," she said. "They may want to listen in and see what's underneath if we aren't speaking up." When broaching a tough topic, older kids should be given "space to vent," Aguirre said, and parents should resist the urge to immediately tell their children not to be scared or worry. Instead, they can empathize, telling them, "It makes sense — we are all so scared." Parents can also convey that they have a plan, and clue the kids in on it. "At that age," Aguirre said of teenagers, "it is more of a family dynamic — where they are included." Some scenarios — such as detainment of a parent — are dark. But kids should be made aware of them, Brymer said. "I think it's truly important that we talk to kids about potential separation," she said. "Kids are worried about that, and so let's make sure we talk it over with them. How may a potential separation impact them?" As for Josefina's family, they decided that her husband — who immigrated from Mexico when he was in elementary school about 40 years ago — would return to work. "He decided, 'I still have a responsibility, and I still want to help provide,'" she said. For their 15-year-old daughter, having a plan has made her feel safer. 'I feel like out of my whole family, I'm the least afraid of the stuff that's happening," she said. "I think it's because I have hope in our people in L.A.' Read more: Fears of ICE raids upend life in L.A. County, from schools to Home Depot parking lots Ana's son was set to graduate from eighth grade on Tuesday, and amid the ongoing ICE sweeps, her family had wrestled with whether to attend the celebration at his Mid-Wilshire area school. Her husband is an undocumented immigrant from Mexico. And she is a recipient of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, the 2012 policy that provides protection from deportation to immigrants without lawful status who came to the U.S. as children. The program has been the focus of a lengthy legal challenge and could eventually be ruled illegal. Their 14-year-old son knew the stakes. 'He understands what's happening — that there are arrests,' Ana said. Still, the family decided to attend the graduation. Even so, on the morning of the event, their son wanted to revisit the decision, asking his parents if they were comfortable with it. He even suggested they could watch the ceremony from home on a livestream the school had arranged. 'I told him, 'No, we're going to accompany you,'' Ana said. 'And we did. In the end it was worth it to be with him and applaud his successes.' Read more: Graduation day at Maywood Academy High, where students are 98% Latino, 100% all-American Experts could understand her decision. Maintaining a sense of normalcy — when it is safe to do so — helps kids stay on an even keel. Brymer recommends encouraging them to continue to go to school and summer activities if possible, and to participate in their typical social events. 'Kids do better with routines,' she said. "They should be allowed to play and interact.' Aguirre, however, noted that children crave "a sense of safety and connection with loved ones" more than they desire a "sense of normalcy." She added: "It might not be the best time to keep that normalcy — that puts a lot of pressure on parents." If attending a public event or milestone celebration presents a big risk, Aguirre said, parents might consider opting out, and making plans to ensure their presence is felt from afar. "Prep the child ahead of time and say, 'We are not able to physically be there, but we are so proud of this accomplishment,'" Aguirre said. She said parents might tell their child, "We are going to ask [a friend at the event] to blow this whistle, and when they blow it, know that we are there." "For eighth-graders, there would be heartache around not having parents there, but I can also imagine if anything were to happen, they would feel a lot of guilt," Aguirre said. On the day of Ana's son's graduation, the school auditorium opened hours early, so that families did not have to wait on the sidewalk. But the celebration was bittersweet, she said. Fear was palpable among both the students and the crowd. And familiar faces were absent. 'It's a little hard to face sometimes,' Ana said. 'But at the same time we have to be with them in these important moments in life.' Paige and her 8- and 11-year-old daughters stood in front of Long Beach Civic Center on Tuesday evening, alongside roughly 400 other protesters. They chanted slogans near the Port Headquarters building amid signs and swirling American and Mexican flags. 'Seeking safety is NOT a crime,' one sign read. 'Humans are not illegal,' said another. Read more: Immigration raids have shaken communities across Los Angeles County. How can you help? The family isn't new to protesting. Paige and both daughters took to the streets in 2020 after George Floyd's murder sparked outrage. But this time the issue is personal: The girls' father is an undocumented Mexican immigrant. 'Now that it's impacting our family significantly, it's a bit harder for her,' Paige said of her younger daughter. 'She's fighting for her family.' Paige is separated from the girls' father, and he lives elsewhere. It's been difficult for the kids to spend nights apart from him, she said. To allay their worries, he's stayed over a couple of nights. And attending the protest provided additional comfort, because it showed the children that they were part of a supportive community. In times of crisis, giving kids the chance to express themselves by participating in the moment helps them process their feelings, Brymer said. "People are out protesting because they love their culture, and they're trying to advocate for their rights and for rights of" others, she said. But participating doesn't necessarily have to mean protesting, which may not feel appropriate for some, Aguirre said. Instead, children can help in other ways, such as helping to deliver groceries for a vulnerable neighbor, she said. It's important, Brymer said, to acknowledge that children "really want to be those agents of change." Sequeira reports for The Times' early childhood education initiative, focusing on the learning and development of California children from birth to age 5. For more information about the initiative and its philanthropic funders, go to Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
Los Angeles Times
an hour ago
- Los Angeles Times
Wasn't the president supposed to be deporting criminals?
This will strike the literal-minded as illogical, but I think Huntington Park Mayor Arturo Flores, a Marine veteran of Iraq and Afghanistan, had a righteous point when he declared at a news conference with Southern California mayors that immigrants being rounded up by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in communities like his 'are Americans, whether they have a document or they don't.' 'The president keeps talking about a foreign invasion,' Flores told me Thursday. 'He keeps trying to paint us as the other. I say, 'No, you are dealing with Americans.'' California's estimated 1.8 million undocumented immigrants who have lived among us for years, for decades, who work and pay taxes here, who have sent their American-born children to schools here, have all the responsibilities of citizens minus many of the rights. Yes, technically, they have broken the law. (For that matter, so has President Trump, a felon, and he continues to violate the Constitution day after day, as his mounting court losses attest.) But our region's undocumented Mexican and Central American immigrants are inextricably embedded in our lives. They care for our children, build our homes, dig our ditches, trim our trees, clean our homes, hotels and businesses, wash our dishes, pick our crops, sew our clothes. Lots own small businesses, are paying mortgages, attend universities, rise in their professions. In 2013, I wrote about Sergio Garcia, the first undocumented immigrant admitted to the California Bar. Since then, he has become a U.S. citizen and owns a personal injury law firm. These Californians are far less likely to break the law than native-born Americans, and they do not deserve the reign of terror being inflicted on them by the Trump administration, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who has pointlessly but theatrically called in the Marines. 'So we started off by hearing the administration wanted to go after violent felons gang members, drug dealers,' said Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, who organized the mayors' news conference last week, 'but when you raid Home Depot and workplaces, when you tear parents and children apart, and when you run armored caravans through our streets, you're not trying to keep anyone safe. You're trying to cause fear and panic.' And please, let's not forget that when Congress came together and hammered out a bipartisan immigration reform bill under President Biden, Trump demanded Republicans kill it because he did not want a rational policy, he wanted to be able to keep hammering Democrats on the issue. But it seems there is more going on here than rounding up undocumented immigrants and terrorizing their families. We seem to have entered the 'punish California' phase of Trump 2.0. 'Trump has a hyperfocus on California, on how to hurt the economy and cause chaos, and he is really doubling down on that campaign,' Flores told me. He has a point. 'We are staying here to liberate the city from the socialist and the burdensome leadership that this governor and this mayor placed on this country,' Noem told reporters Thursday at a news conference in the Westwood federal building, during which California Sen. Alex Padilla was wrestled to the ground and handcuffed face down for daring to ask her a question. 'We are not going away.' So now we're talking about regime change? (As former Harvard law professor Laurence Tribe put it on Bluesky, the use of military force aimed at displacing democratically elected leaders 'is the very definition of a coup.') Noem's noxious mix of willful ignorance and inflammatory rhetoric is almost too ludicrous to mock. It goes hand in hand with Trump's silly declaration that our city has been set aflame by rioters, that without the military patrolling our streets, Los Angeles 'would be a crime scene like we haven't seen in years,' and that 'paid insurrectionists' have fueled the anti-ICE protests. What we are seeing play out in the news and in our neighborhoods is the willful infliction of fear, trauma and intimidation designed to spark a violent response, and the warping of reality to soften the ground for further Trump administration incursions into blue states, America's bulwark against his autocratic aspirations. For weeks, Trump has been scheming to deprive California — probably illegally — of federal funding for public schools and universities, citing resistance to his executive orders on diversity, equity and inclusion programs, on immigration, on environmental regulations, etc. And yet, because he is perhaps the world's most ignorant head of state, he seems to have suddenly realized that crippling the California economy might be bad politics for him. On Thursday, he suggested in his own jumbled way that perhaps deporting thousands of the state's farm and hospitality workers might cause pain to his friends, their employers. (Central Valley growers and agribusiness PACs, for example, overwhelmingly supported Trump in 2024.) 'Our farmers are being hurt badly by, you know, they have very good workers. They've worked for them for 20 years,' Trump said. 'They're not citizens, but they've turned out to be, you know, great. And we're going to have to do something about that.' Like a lot of Californians, I feel helpless in the face of this assault on immigrants. I thought about a Guatemalan, a father of three young American-born children, who has a thriving business hauling junk. I met him a couple of years ago at my local Home Depot, and have hired him a few times to haul away household detritus. Once, after I couldn't get the city to help, he hauled off a small dune's worth of sand at the end of my street that had become the local dogs' pee pad. I called him this week — I have more stuff that I need to get rid of, and I was pretty sure he could use the work. Early Friday morning, he arrived on time with two workers. He said hadn't been able to work in two weeks but was hopeful he'd be able to return to Home Depot soon. 'How are your kids doing?' I asked. 'They worry,' he said. 'They ask, 'What will we do if you're deported?'' He tells them not to fret, that things will soon be back to normal. After he drove off, he texted: 'Thank you so much for helping me today. God bless you.' No, God bless him. For working hard. For being a good dad. And for still believing, against the odds, in the American dream. @ @rabcarian
Los Angeles Times
an hour ago
- Los Angeles Times
Fears of racial profiling rise as Border Patrol conducts ‘roving patrols,' detains U.S. citizens
Brian Gavidia had stepped out from working on a car at a tow yard in a Los Angeles suburb Thursday, when armed, masked men — wearing vests with 'Border Patrol' on them — pushed him up against a metal gate and demanded to know where he was born. 'I'm American, bro!' 29-year-old Gavidia pleaded, in video taken by a friend. 'What hospital were you born?' the agent barked. 'I don't know, dawg!' he said. 'East L.A., bro! I can show you: I have my f—ing Real ID.' His friend, whom Gavidia did not name, narrated the video: 'These guys, literally based off of skin color! My homie was born here!' The friend said Gavidia was being questioned 'just because of the way he looks.' In a statement Saturday, Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said U.S. citizens were arrested 'because they ASSAULTED U.S. Border Patrol Agents.' (McLaughlin's statement emphasized the word 'assaulted' in all-capital and boldfaced letters.) When told by a reporter that Gavidia had not been arrested, McLaughlin clarified that Gavidia had been questioned by Border Patrol agents but there 'is no arrest record.' She said a friend of Gavidia's was arrested for assault of an officer. As immigration operations have unfolded across Southern California in the last week, lawyers and advocates say people are being targeted because of their skin color. The encounter with Gavidia and others they are tracking have raised legal questions about enforcement efforts that have swept up hundreds of immigrants and shot fear into the deeply intertwined communities they call home. Agents picking up street vendors without warrants. American citizens being grilled. Home Depot lots swept. Car washes raided. The wide-scale arrests and detainments — often in the region's largely Latino neighborhoods — contain hallmarks of racial profiling and other due process violations. 'We are seeing ICE come into our communities to do indiscriminate mass arrests of immigrants or people who appear to them to be immigrant, largely based on racial profiling,' said Eva Bitran, a lawyer at ACLU of Southern California. When asked about the accusations of racial profiling, the White House deflected. Calling the questions 'shameful regurgitations of Democrat propaganda by activists — not journalists,' White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson chided The Times reporters Saturday for not reporting the 'real story — the American victims of illegal alien crime and radical Democrat rioters willing to do anything to keep dangerous illegal aliens in American communities.' She did not answer the question. McLaughlin said in a statement, 'Any claims that individuals have been 'targeted' by law enforcement because of their skin color are disgusting and categorically FALSE.' She said the suggestion fans the flames and puts agents in peril. 'DHS enforcement operations are highly targeted, and officers do their due diligence,' she said. 'We know who we are targeting ahead of time. If and when we do encounter individuals subject to arrest, our law enforcement is trained to ask a series of well-determined questions to determine status and removability. 'We will follow the President's direction and continue to work to get the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens off of America's streets,' she said. The unprecedented show of force by federal agents follows orders from White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, the architect of Trump's immigration plan and a Santa Monica native, to execute 3,000 arrests a day. In May, Miller reportedly directed top ICE officials to go beyond target lists and have agents make arrests at Home Depot or 7-Eleven convenience stores. U.S. Customs and Border Protection did not answer specific questions about the encounter with Gavidia and said that immigration enforcement has been 'targeted.' The agency did not explain what is meant by targeted enforcement. But a federal criminal complaint against Javier Ramirez, another of Gavidia's friends, said Border Patrol agents were conducting a 'roving patrol' in Montebello around 4:30 p.m. when they 'engaged a subject in a consensual encounter' in a parking lot on West Olympic Boulevard. The complaint noted that the parking lot is fenced and gated, but that, at the time of the interaction, the gate to the parking lot was open. The enforcement was part of a roving patrol in what John B. Mennell, a spokesman for Customs and Border Protection, said was a 'lawful immigration enforcement operation' in which agents also arrested 'without incident' an immigrant without legal status. Gavidia said he and Ramirez both rent space at the tow yard to fix cars. On video captured by a security camera at the scene, the agents pull up at the open gate in a white SUV and three agents exit the car. At least one covers his face with a mask as they walk into the property and begin looking around. Shortly after, an agent can be seen with one man in handcuffs calmly standing against the fence, while Ramirez can be heard shouting and being wrestled to the ground. Gavidia walks up on the scene from the sidewalk outside the business where agents are parked. Seeing the commotion, he turns around. An agent outside the business follows him and then another does. Gavidia, whom Mennell identified as a third person, was detained 'for investigation for interference (in an enforcement operation) and released after being confirmed to be a U.S. citizen with no outstanding warrants.' 'Video didn't show the full story,' he said in a statement. But it is unclear from the video exactly what that interference is. And Gavidia denies interfering with any operations. CBP, the agency that has played a prominent role in the recent sweeps, is also under a federal injunction in Central California after a judge found it had engaged in 'a pattern and practice' of violating people's constitutional rights in raids earlier this year. U.S. Border Patrol Sector Chief Greg Bovino, who oversaw raids that included picking people up at Home Depot and stopping them on the highway, has emerged as a key figure in L.A. He stood alongside Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Thursday at a news conference where Sen. Alex Padilla — the state's first Latino U.S. senator — was handcuffed, forced to the ground and briefly held after interrupting Noem with a question. 'A lot of bad people, a lot of bad things are in our country now,' Bovino said. 'That's why we're here right now, is to remove those bad people and bad things, whether illegal aliens, drugs or otherwise, we're here. We're not going away.' Bovino said hundreds of Border Patrol agents have fanned out and are on the ground in L.A. carrying out enforcement. A federal judge for the Eastern District of California ordered Bovino's agency to halt illegal stops and warrantless arrests in the district after agents detained and arrested dozens of farmworkers and laborers — including a U.S. citizen — in the Central Valley shortly before President Trump took office. The lawsuit, brought by the United Farm Workers and Central Valley residents, accused the agency of brazenly racial profiling people in a days-long enforcement. It roiled the largely agricultural area, after video circulated of agents slashing the tires of a gardener who was a citizen on his way to work, and it raised fears that those tactics could become the new norm there. The effort was 'proof of concept,' David Kim, assistant chief patrol agent under Bovino, told the San Diego investigative outfit Inewsource in March. 'Testing our capabilities, and very successful. We know we can push beyond that limit now as far as distance goes.' Bovino said at the news conference that his agents were 'not going anywhere soon.' 'You'll see us in Los Angeles. You'll continue to see us in Los Angeles,' he said. Bitran, who is working on the case in the Central Valley, said Miller's orders have 'set loose' agents 'with a mandate to capture as many people as possible,' and that 'leads to them detaining people in a way that violates the Constitution.' In Montebello, a 78% Latino suburb that shares a border with East Los Angeles, Border Patrol agents took Gavidia's identification. Although they eventually let him go, Ramirez, also American and a single father of two, wasn't so lucky. Tomas De Jesus, Ramirez's cousin and his attorney, said authorities are accusing him of 'resisting arrest, assaulting people' after agents barged into a private business, 'without a warrant, without a probable cause.' 'What is the reasonable suspicion for him to be accosted?' De Jesus questioned. 'What is the probable cause for them to be entering into a private business area? ... At this moment, it seems to me like they have a blanket authority almost to do anything.' Ramirez has been charged in a federal criminal complaint with assaulting, resisting or impeding a federal officer. Authorities allege that Ramirez was trying to conceal himself and then ran toward the exit and refused to answer questions about his identity and citizenship. They also allege he pushed and bit an agent. Montebello Mayor Salvador Melendez said he'd watched the video and called the situation 'extremely frustrating.' 'It just seems like there's no due process,' he said. 'They're going for a specific look, which is a look of our Latino community, our immigrant community. They're asking questions after. ... This is not the country that we all know it to be, where folks have individual rights and protections.' A third individual was detained on the street for investigation for interference and released after being confirmed to be a U.S. citizen with no outstanding warrants. Even before the video was looping on social media feeds, Angelica Salas — who heads one of the most well-established immigration advocacy groups in Los Angeles — said she was getting reports of 'indiscriminate' arrests and American citizens being questioned and detained. 'We have U.S. citizens who are being asked for their documents and not believed when they attest to the fact that they are U.S. citizens,' said Salas, executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights. 'They just happen to be Latino.' The Supreme Court has long held that law enforcement officers cannot detain people based on generalizations that would cast a wide net of suspicion on large segments of the law-abiding population. 'Some of the accounts I have heard suggest that they're just stopping a whole bunch of people, and then questioning them all to find out which ones might be unlawfully present,' said Ahilan Arulanantham, co-director of the Center for Immigration Law and Policy at UCLA Law School. An agent can ask a person about 'anything,' he said. But if the person declines to speak, the agent cannot detain them unless they have reasonable suspicion that the individual is unlawfully here. 'The 4th Amendment as well as governing immigration regulations do not permit immigration agents to detain somebody against their will, even for a very brief time, absent reasonable suspicion,' he said. Just being brown doesn't qualify. And being a street vendor or farmworker does not, either. A warrant to search for documents at a work site also is not enough to detain someone there. 'The agents appear to be flagrantly violating these immigration laws,' he said, 'all over Southern California.' Gavidia said the agents who questioned him in Montebello never returned his Real ID. 'I'm legal,' he said. 'I speak perfect English. I also speak perfect Spanish. I'm bilingual, but that doesn't mean that I have to be picked out, like, 'This guys seems Latino; this guy seems a little bit dirty.' 'It was the worst experience I ever felt,' Gavidia said, his voice shaking with anger as he spoke from the business Friday. 'I felt honestly like I was going to die.' On Saturday, Gavidia joined De Jesus in downtown L.A. for his first-ever protest. Now, he said, it felt personal.
