Latest news with #GregBovino
Fox News
4 days ago
- Fox News
Inside the ICE raid ‘Trojan Horse' at Home Depot in California
U.S. CBP chief patrol agent of the El Centro Sector Greg Bovino joins 'America Reports' to discuss a major I.C.E. raid at a Home Depot in California where numerous illegal migrants were arrested.
Sky News AU
6 days ago
- Sky News AU
Border Patrol agents burst out of a truck and arrest up to 16 people at Home Depot raid
Federal agents have arrested up to 16 individuals during a raid on a Home Depot in Los Angeles, California. On Wednesday, several members of the Department of Homeland Security and Border Patrol agents targeted a region gripped by MS-13. According to Fox News, the raid happened around 7 am local time at MacArthur Park in LA, where federal agents were seen bursting out of the back of a truck. The notorious MS-13 gang reportedly has strong control of the area, explaining why the raid happened and numerous arrests were made. Border Patrol Sector Chief Greg Bovino, who has led several raids since June, labelled Wednesday's raid as 'Operation Trojan Horse'.
Associated Press
6 days ago
- Politics
- Associated Press
Federal agents hid in back of rental truck at start of raid outside LA Home Depot
LOS ANGELES (AP) — U.S. Border Patrol agents jumped out of the back of a rented box truck and made arrests Wednesday at a Los Angeles Home Depot store during an immigration raid that an agency official called 'Operation Trojan Horse.' The early morning raid near downtown LA came just days after a federal appeals court upheld a federal judge's order blocking the Trump administration from conducting indiscriminate immigration stops and arrests in Southern California. 'For those who thought immigration enforcement had stopped in Southern California, think again,' acting U.S. Atty. Bill Essayli posted on the social platform X after the raid. 'The enforcement of federal law is not negotiable and there are no sanctuaries from the reach of the federal government.' Messages were sent to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security seeking details on the raid, including how many people were arrested. U.S. Border Patrol Sector Chief Greg Bovino reposted Fox News reports of Monday's arrests on X, calling the action 'Operation Trojan Horse.' Photos on social media showed the moment the rear door of the rented Penske truck opened, revealing several uniformed agents with guns. A spokesperson for Penske Truck Rental said the company was looking into the use of its vehicles by federal officials, saying its regulations prohibit transporting people in truck cargo areas. 'The company was not made aware that its trucks would be used in today's operation and did not authorize this,' spokesperson Randolph P. Ryerson said in an email. 'Penske will reach out to DHS and reinforce its policy to avoid improper use of its vehicles in the future.' Since June, the Los Angeles region has been a battleground in the Trump administration's aggressive immigration strategy that spurred protests and the deployment of the National Guards and Marines for more than a month. Federal agents have rounded up immigrants without legal status to be in the U.S. from Home Depots, car washes, bus stops, and farms. Some U.S. citizens have also been detained. Lupe Carrasco Cardona, an educator with Union del Barrio, said members of her advocacy group were conducting regular patrols at the Home Depot early Monday when they saw a Penske truck pull into the parking lot, advertising work to the day laborers there. Immigrant workers, some with legal status and others without, often wait in Home Depot parking lots to be hired for various day jobs. 'They opened the back, they hopped out and they started indiscriminately just grabbing people,' Cardona said. Unmarked white vans with U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents arrived shortly after the truck to participate in the operation, Cardona said. The organization has identified three street vendors and four day laborers that were arrested, but they were still trying to account for others. Family members said one street vendor tried to show evidence of holding asylum before he was arrested, she said. Last month, a federal judge temporarily blocked federal agents from using racial profiling to carry out indiscriminate arrests after the ACLU, Public Counsel and other advocacy groups sued over the practices. Attorneys for the government argued that the order hinders agents from carrying out immigration enforcement, but the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal on Friday upheld the order. Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, has previously said that 'enforcement operations are highly targeted.' The National Day Laborer Organizing Network condemned Wednesday's raid, calling targeted workers the backbone of the local economy. 'Today's raid staged by agents in cowboy hats jumping out of a rented van with a TV crew in tow marks a dangerous escalation in the Trump Administration's assault on immigrant communities, the courts, and the people of Los Angeles,' Pablo Alvarado, the group's co-executive director, said in a statement.
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Yahoo
Federal agents use Penske rental truck as 'Trojan Horse' to raid Los Angeles Home Depot
After weeks of relative quiet, Border Patrol agents raided a Home Depot in Westlake on Wednesday as a top federal agent warned, "We're not leaving," and posted images of half a dozen border agents running from a Penske truck through the parking lot. As many as 16 immigrants were reported rounded up and arrested in what U.S. Border Patrol Sector Chief Greg Bovino called "Operation Trojan Horse." The early morning raids revived fears of more widespread sweeps that organizers had hoped would ease with a federal judge's order, affirmed by a 9th Circuit Court of Appeals panel, that immigration officials cannot racially profile people or use roving patrols to target immigrants. "For those who thought Immigration enforcement had stopped in Southern California, think again," acting U.S. Atty. Bill Essayli posted on X, shortly after the raid. "The enforcement of federal law is not negotiable and there are no sanctuaries from the reach of the federal government." A day laborer, who identified himself as Cesar, said around 6:45 a.m. a yellow Penske truck pulled up to the laborers who had gathered in the parking lot. The driver told them in Spanish he was looking for workers. Several of the men gathered around the truck and then someone, it was unclear who to him, rolled up the back of the truck. Masked agents, one wearing a cowboy hat, jumped out and started chasing people. People scattered. "This is the worst feeling ever," said Cesar, who has been going to the home improvement store to pick up work for several years. Video on social media captured the moment the back of the rental truck opened. When Penske Truck Rental was asked about it, they said they were looking into it. "The company was not made aware that its trucks would be used in today's operation and did not authorize this," said Penske spokesman Randolph P. Ryerson. "Penske will reach out to DHS and reinforce its policy to avoid improper use of its vehicles in the future." He added: "Penske strictly prohibits the transportation of people in the cargo area of its vehicles under any circumstances." One worker who escaped was still shaken by the experience an hour later. He identified himself as Raul, and said he saw at least eight people get arrested. "That's one of their cars," he said pointing to a silver Toyota sedan. The Home Depot had been one of the scenes of the first raids in June that kicked off a more than month of operations in Southern California in which civil rights lawyers say federal agents indiscriminately arrested immigrants. The raids gutted businesses, spread fear and tore apart families. On July 11, a federal judge temporarily blocked federal agents from using racial profiling to carry out indiscriminate arrests after the ACLU, Public Counsel, other groups and private attorneys sued over the practices saying that the region had been "under seige." Department of Justice attorneys argued the order hinders them from carrying out federal immigration enforcement, but the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal upheld the order. For the past weeks since the restraining order kicked in in early July, Bovino has shared photos of arrests of undocumented immigrants, stating that some had active arrest warrants. With others, he referenced a lengthy criminal history, marking the arrests as more targeted than they had been prior. But organizers say a similar operation to the raid unfolded on Monday at a Home Depot in Hollywood that was the site of a massive raid in June. That operation also sparked concerns about violations of the TRO. Maegan Ortiz, the executive director of the nonprofit group Instituto de Educación Popular del Sur de California, known as IDEPSCA, said they began receiving word about an immigration operation at the Home Depot in Hollywood around 6:50 a.m. on Monday. 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
6 days ago
- Los Angeles Times
As many as 16 immigrants were reported rounded up and arrested in what U.S. Border Patrol Sector Chief Greg Bovino called 'Operation Trojan Horse.'
VIDEO | 00:16 As many as 16 immigrants were reported rounded up and arrested in what U.S. Border Patrol Sector Chief Greg Bovino called 'Operation Trojan Horse.'
