Latest news with #OperationTrojanHorse
Los Angeles Times
5 days ago
- Los Angeles Times
‘They run, we chase': Immigration raids test limits of 'probable cause'
Matilde suffered a heart attack after she was held by immigration agents at a Lowes parking lot and can no longer go to the store without breaking down. Narciso Barranco, a gardener accused of threatening heavily armed agents with a weed whacker, still wakes up with headaches after he was beaten during his arrest. Jaime Alanís Garcia died after falling 30 feet from a rafter as agents stormed his workplace. The aggressive tactics led by Border Patrol agents hundreds of miles from their posts have left communities jarred, people injured and businesses gutted. 'I can't erase the masked faces from my mind,' said Matilde, a 54-year-old mother who is still gripped with fear about the raid in Pacoima. In a bystander video posted on social media, she appears to faint after agents grabbed her from behind. A doctor told Matilde, who asked that her full name not be used, that she had a heart attack. Civil rights activists, city leaders, immigrants and their advocates were hopeful that the indiscriminate sweeps targeting Latinos were over in July after a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order, ruling that Border Patrol agents' profiling tactics violated the 4th Amendment. They were even more heartened when the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals rejected the government's argument that their tactics were lawful and upheld the restraining order. But this week, Customs and Border Protection struck in Los Angeles again, raiding a car wash and a Home Depot, grabbing anyone who ran from them. 'We are not leaving,' said Border Patrol Sector Chief Greg Bovino, who has been leading the operations in California. The temporary restraining orders prohibits agents from stopping someone solely based on their race, language, job or location. Mayor Karen Bass said it appears as if the Wednesday raid at a Home Depot in Westlake — dubbed 'Operation Trojan Horse' — violated the order, but city attorneys are still trying to determine the facts. The legal wrangling will continue over the ways agents decide who to target and the level of use of force they use for non-criminal enforcement. The government on Thursday asked the U.S. Supreme Court to lift the judge's order. Now other parts of the country are watching the events in California, expecting federal agents to target their immigrant communities, particularly in states with no judicial orders blocking them. 'We saw the videos, the images coming out of Los Angeles. We definitely thought we would be next,' said Rey Wences, with Illinois Coalition for Immigrant and Refugee Rights, which runs a hotline that monitors raids. 'We're just waiting for the shoe to drop.' The Times reviewed dozens of witness and surveillance videos, pored through criminal complaints and interviewed lawyers, advocates, bystanders and experts to understand how on-the-ground operations have unfolded this summer and where the points of contention are. Border Patrol agents were driving down West Olympic Boulevard in Montebello — a largely Latino community — when surveillance footage captured their white SUV make a U-turn and pull into the driveway of a tow yard at 4:32 p.m on June 12. As Homeland Security Investigations special agent Nicholas DeSimone later wrote in a federal criminal complaint, the operation was not preplanned but rather part of a 'roving patrol'— a controversial tactic that lawsuits link to racial profiling and was widely used in the Los Angeles area after the raids started in June. 'Roving patrols,' according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection, involves agents on foot or in a vehicle simply looking for people who might be undocumented, a practice traditionally focused on the border region. Within minutes, agents had arrested two people at the tow yard. They also cornered a U.S. citizen, Brian Gavidia, who is now part of a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of these stops. Video of the stop taken by his friend went viral and raised red flags early in the crackdown that agents were indiscriminately targeting people because of the way they looked. 'I'm an American, bro,' Gavidia can be heard saying to the agent, as his friend narrates. 'These guys, literally based off of skin color!' The purpose of a roving patrol is for border agents to deter or respond to illegal activity, according to the agency. These tactics are a departure from agents targeting specific immigrants based on information they have on the person, such as serious criminal histories or removal orders. And while agents have been carrying out roving patrols for more than a decade, they are controversial and untested at such a large scale in the interior of the country. In July, the ACLU of Southern California, Public Counsel, other groups and private attorneys filed a lawsuit in L.A. challenging the constitutionality of the roving patrols and requesting the temporary restraining order. During a hearing, Mohammad Tajsar, an ACLU attorney, told U.S. District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong that plaintiffs had documented an 'overwhelming record' showing the government 'has a policy and practice of conducting so called roving patrols throughout this district to stop individuals without ever making a particularized, individualized assessment of reasonable suspicion that the person is in the United States in violation of U.S. immigration law.' 'This practice is officially sanctioned,' Tajsar said during the hearing. ACLU lawyers had already sued over indiscriminate sweeps in February, after Bovino oversaw roving patrols in Kern County the month before. They argued the agency had a history of detaining people during these patrols without establishing reasonable suspicion of their immigration violation, and of threatening physical harm against those who refuse to comply. 'Border Patrol's interior sweeps demonstrate a pattern of noncompliance with the statutory and constitutional limits on its authority,' attorneys argued in that case. Specifically, they alleged the agency was relying on race or ethnicity to justify stops, using physical abuse if a person refused to voluntary questioning and detaining people who declined to talk. Past lawsuits show that Border Patrol agents determined on the fly who to stop, based on the slightest behaviors, from people slowing abruptly, speeding up, avoiding eye contact or not sitting upright. But the agency's own data show that roving patrols don't often yield many people that are breaking the law. In Border Patrol's El Centro sector, where Bovino is stationed, from Oct. 1, 2023 to March 31, 2024, agents conducted 1,114 roving patrol stops, according to a 2024 DHS report. Of roving patrol stops, only 160 were categorized as 'Apprehensions Deportable.' On June 17, Vivaldo Montes Herrera was pushing a trash can across the parking lot of the plaza he's cleaned for years when he spotted a marked Border Patrol truck, out on a roving patrol, coming straight toward him. Surveillance footage captured Montes Herrera pushing the trash can away and starting to run. Even before the Border Patrol truck stopped, an agent opened the door and dashed after the custodial worker. To the agents, the fact that Montes Herrera ran helped create reasonable suspicion that he was in the country illegally. As Border Patrol captioned an Instagram video last month: 'When they run, we chase.' Across the country, people now wrestle with the question of what do when confronted by immigration agents: Do I run? Even people who are in the country legally have tried to make a break for it. In one case, despite having legal status, Domingo Rueda Hernandez ran behind bags of soil during a raid that unfolded outside of a Home Depot in Hollywood. In another instance captured on video, a U.S. citizen is splayed out on a sidewalk in El Monte as two men with vests that read 'Border Patrol' kneel over him. 'What the hell, man,' the man told the agents in perfect English. 'I'm not doing nothing wrong.' 'Then why were you running?' an agent asks. Government and civil rights lawyers both agree that somebody running from an agent, in some cases, can be grounds for reasonable suspicion. But it doesn't determine whether an arrest can actually be made. In her ruling, Judge Frimpong did not order the agents to stop the practice but expressed misgivings about it, noting that the government hadn't explained 'why fleeing upon seeing unidentified masked men with guns exiting from tinted cars without license plates raises suspicion.' In El Monte, when Montes Herrera was being detained, Adrian Martinez, a worker at a Walmart in the plaza, tried to intervene and was arrested alongside him. Martinez said he heard agents laughing at Montes Herrera and calling him 'dumb for running.' 'We wouldn't have chased him if he wouldn't have ran,' Martinez recalled the agents saying. 'They make it seem like, 'Oh, we're not going toward them unless they run,' but they do the most to get them to run,' Martinez said. 'If I was that man,' he added, 'I would have ran too.' 'Eres ciudadano Americano,' the Border Patrol agent, identified only as J.C., asked a man in the Montebello tow yard. 'Are you an American citizen?' The response is not captured on the footage, but the man is placed in handcuffs soon after. 'Can I ask you a question?' an immigration agent asked a man at the Santa Fe Springs swap meet. 'Where were you born?' 'Tustin, Santa Ana. Why are you asking?' the guy taking the video responds. Immigration agents said arrests in June and July often stemmed from 'consensual encounters.' 'The individuals were free to walk away and terminate the encounter, decline to answer questions and refuse to provide requested identification documents,' Kyle Harvick, who heads patrol for the El Centro Sector, said in a court declaration defending the practice used across the Southern California raids. 'While some of the individuals encountered freely answered questions about their names and place of birth and provided identification documents, others refused to answer questions and/or walked away from the encounters without any further interaction.' Civil rights and immigration lawyers say that armed, masked men forcefully barking questions to vendors or people in a Home Depot parking lot is anything but a consensual interaction. 'If they are showing up in places with that display of force and authority and surrounding the people they're trying to talk to, that's no longer a consensual encounter,' said Eva Bitran, a lawyer with the ACLU of Southern California. Masked and armed agents surrounded Pedro Vasquez Perdomo and his co-workers as they waited at a bus stop in Pasadena on June 18. Vasquez Perdomo, who is a plaintiff in the L.A. civil rights lawsuit against the Trump administration, attempted to leave but was quickly handcuffed and put into a vehicle. 'At the time he was handcuffed, agents did not have reasonable suspicion of a violation of immigration law,' the lawsuit states. It was only after Vasquez Perdomo was taken to a nearby CVS parking lot that agents checked his identification. In another case, a man who had fled immigration agents at a Downey car wash seemingly avoided arrest by not talking. Video captured the man, in jeans and a blue work shirt, on the ground near his overturned bike as masked men in plain clothes or vests that read 'police' surrounded him. 'You don't have to tell them anything,' Melyssa Rivas, a Downey resident, told the man repeatedly as an agent walked up and put a hand on his back. Urged by the crowd not to speak, the man kept quiet. 'Have a good day,' the agent told the man, before walking away. Rivas and several others were recording the interaction, which she believes put pressure on the agents who were seeking to make an arrest. Without reasonable suspicion, agents cannot legally detain someone according to federal regulations that dictate immigration enforcement. The suspicion must be based on 'articulable facts.' If an agent can establish enough of those facts to determine there is reasonable suspicion to stop someone, they can. Trump administration lawyers say they consider a 'totality of the circumstances' to make that determination, including the occupation of those stopped and the location they were picked up. The masked, armed men pulled up to Beverly Car Wash in Montebello in white trucks with Texas plates. At least six agents, most wearing Border Patrol vests, made beelines to the brown-skinned men toweling down cars. 'What's your migration status?' an agent in camouflage asked a worker named Hector. Another agent cornered Edgar 'Gordito,' asking him the same, scoffing at his claim he was there as a Mexican tourist. One scared worker jumped over a nearby fence. An unmarked car followed her down the alley. Having fallen hard, she quickly gave herself up. During the raid, which lasted only two minutes, agents arrested three people. In his declaration, Harvick said certain businesses, including car washes, 'have been selected for encounters because past experiences have demonstrated that illegal aliens utilize and seek work at these locations.' At least 58 car washes have been hit, some of them more than once, according to the Clean Carwash Worker Center, which has been tracking the raids. After the Beverly Car Wash reopened weeks after the first raid, immigration agents hit it a second time. They arrested another two people who had just started working there. Although Harvick does not specifically reference Home Depot, so many have been hit that they have become a symbol of the raids. During a hearing last month, Frimpong called some of the locations that agents had hit 'general' and 'not necessarily associated with not having status.' 'As they said, bus stop, car wash, tow yard — maybe they're correlated with people who are low-income or have low income-occupations, maybe they're correlated with race or ethnicity, but they don't seem to be correlated with status,' Frimpong said.
Business Insider
5 days ago
- Business Insider
Border Patrol Trojan Horse Sends Home Depot Stock (NYSE:HD) Down Slightly
We know that, for the last several weeks, home improvement giant Home Depot (HD) has been something of a battleground in the ongoing campaign against illegal immigration. This point was underscored recently as Border Patrol agents used an attack worthy of myth and legend, drawing on the Trojan Horse to pursue illegal immigrants in a Home Depot parking lot. Investors were less than pleased by the latest assault, sending Home Depot shares down modestly in Thursday afternoon's trading. Elevate Your Investing Strategy: Take advantage of TipRanks Premium at 50% off! Unlock powerful investing tools, advanced data, and expert analyst insights to help you invest with confidence. The mission, which agency officials actually dubbed 'Operation Trojan Horse,' featured several Border Patrol agents in the back of a rented box truck in a Home Depot parking lot. At one point, the agents in question poured out of the back of the truck, guns drawn, in a bid to make arrests. Interestingly, Penske Truck Rental, which owned the truck in question, is looking into the matter, noting that '…its regulations prohibit transporting people in truck cargo areas.' Penske Truck Rental actually put up quite a fight around this, noting that it was '…not made aware that its trucks would be used in today's operation and did not authorize this. Penske will reach out to DHS and reinforce its policy to avoid improper use of its vehicles in the future.' How far this initiative will get is anyone's guess. The Theft Ring Broken Meanwhile, Home Depot moved to take out a 'theft crew' that hit close to 200 stores throughout Northern California. And, reports noted, the judge in the case has delayed sentencing on the individuals that made up said crew in a bid to consider 'stiffer sentences,' reports noted. Over the course of four months, the four men involved stole $65,000 worth of merchandise from Home Depot locations. In some cases, the thieves reportedly hit the same location multiple times. In fact, reports noted, one Emeryville location had been hit 24 times by the crew in question. The method was almost disturbingly simple; they would walk in, take what they could, and walk right back out, taking their ill-gotten gains to flea markets to resell. Is Home Depot a Good Long-Term Buy? Turning to Wall Street, analysts have a Strong Buy consensus rating on HD stock based on 18 Buys and six Holds assigned in the past three months, as indicated by the graphic below. After an 11.04% rally in its share price over the past year, the average HD price target of $428.12 per share implies 11.07% upside potential.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
'Trojan Horse' Border Patrol raid involving Penske rental truck draws pushback
Los Angeles officials said they are considering "all legal options" after federal agents were seen jumping out of a Penske rental truck during a controversial immigration raid. More than a dozen undocumented immigrants were arrested near a Home Depot in Westlake on Wednesday, federal officials said, in what was dubbed "Operation Trojan Horse." The operation came days after a federal appeals court upheld a temporary restraining order against indiscriminate federal immigration stops and arrests in seven Southern California counties, including Los Angeles. MORE: 1,350 more National Guard members withdrawn from Los Angeles Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said the city is "considering all legal options" following the raid, which she claimed "looks like the exact same thing that we were seeing" before the temporary restraining order was issued. "It's hard for me to believe that that raid was consistent with the court order that said you cannot racially profile, you cannot racially discriminate," the mayor said during a press conference Wednesday. "We are not going to accept this situation, which was why we had a court decision and a temporary restraining order, and now that needs to be enforced and that needs to be upheld," she said. The temporary restraining order was issued in July as part of a class action lawsuit seeking to end what it alleges are unlawful immigration stops and arrests. A federal appeals court upheld the order on Aug. 1, in what Bass called a "victory for the City of Los Angeles." Mohammad Tajsar, a senior staff attorney at ACLU Foundation of Southern California, which represents plaintiffs in the lawsuit, said they are investigating the incident at the Home Depot and other raids reported in the region since Saturday. In a statement, he said "the evidence available so far raises serious concerns that the federal government may be in violation of" the order. The United Farm Workers, one of the plaintiffs in the class action lawsuit, also said it was "deeply troubled" by the raid. "While more investigation is needed, we have serious concerns that the federal govt may be in violation of the federal judge's July TRO," the organization said on social media. A DHS spokesperson said Border Patrol agents conducted a "targeted raid" at the Home Depot. The operation, dubbed Trojan Horse, "resulted in the arrest of 16 illegal aliens from Guatemala, Mexico, Honduras and Nicaragua," the spokesperson said. When reached for comment on the pushback to the raid, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesperson referred ABC News to the DHS spokesperson's statement and said no additional information was available at this time. MORE: Federal agents clash with protesters during ICE raid at Southern California farm Acting Los Angeles U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli issued a warning following the Home Depot raid. "For those who thought immigration enforcement had stopped in Southern California, think again," Essayli said in a statement on social media accompanied by footage of the raid. "The enforcement of federal law is not negotiable, and there are no sanctuaries from the reach of the federal government." During the Wednesday morning raid, Border Patrol agents were seen on video coming out of the back of a Penske moving truck in a parking lot and detaining day laborers. Following video and reports of the raid, Penske chided what it called the "improper" use of one of its trucks. "Penske strictly prohibits the transportation of people in the cargo area of its vehicles under any circumstances," the truck rental company said in a statement. "The company was not made aware that its trucks would be used in today's operation and did not authorize this. Penske will reach out to DHS and reinforce its policy to avoid improper use of its vehicles in the future."
5 days ago
- Politics
'Operation Trojan Horse' immigration raid involving Penske rental truck draws pushback
Los Angeles officials said they are considering "all legal options" after federal agents were seen jumping out of a Penske rental truck during a controversial immigration raid. More than a dozen undocumented immigrants were arrested near a Home Depot in Westlake on Wednesday, federal officials said, in what was dubbed "Operation Trojan Horse." The operation came days after a federal appeals court upheld a temporary restraining order against indiscriminate federal immigration stops and arrests in seven Southern California counties, including Los Angeles. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said the city is "considering all legal options" following the raid, which she claimed "looks like the exact same thing that we were seeing" before the temporary restraining order was issued. "It's hard for me to believe that that raid was consistent with the court order that said you cannot racially profile, you cannot racially discriminate," the mayor said during a press conference Wednesday. "We are not going to accept this situation, which was why we had a court decision and a temporary restraining order, and now that needs to be enforced and that needs to be upheld," she said. The temporary restraining order was issued in July as part of a class action lawsuit seeking to end what it alleges are unlawful immigration stops and arrests. A federal appeals court upheld the order on Aug. 1, in what Bass called a "victory for the City of Los Angeles." Mohammad Tajsar, a senior staff attorney at ACLU Foundation of Southern California, which represents plaintiffs in the lawsuit, said they are investigating the incident at the Home Depot and other raids reported in the region since Saturday. In a statement, he said "the evidence available so far raises serious concerns that the federal government may be in violation of" the order. The United Farm Workers, one of the plaintiffs in the class action lawsuit, also said it was "deeply troubled" by the raid. "While more investigation is needed, we have serious concerns that the federal govt may be in violation of the federal judge's July TRO," the organization said on social media. A DHS spokesperson said Border Patrol agents conducted a "targeted raid" at the Home Depot. The operation, dubbed Trojan Horse, "resulted in the arrest of 16 illegal aliens from Guatemala, Mexico, Honduras and Nicaragua," the spokesperson said. When reached for comment on the pushback to the raid, a U.S. Customs and Border Protection spokesperson referred ABC News to the DHS spokesperson's comment and said no additional information was available at this time. Acting Los Angeles U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli issued a warning following the Home Depot raid. "For those who thought immigration enforcement had stopped in Southern California, think again," Essayli said in a statement on social media accompanied by footage of the raid. "The enforcement of federal law is not negotiable, and there are no sanctuaries from the reach of the federal government." During the Wednesday morning raid, Border Patrol agents were seen on video coming out of the back of a Penske moving truck in a parking lot and detaining day laborers. Following video and reports of the raid, Penske chided what it called the "improper" use of one of its trucks. "Penske strictly prohibits the transportation of people in the cargo area of its vehicles under any circumstances," the truck rental company said in a statement. "The company was not made aware that its trucks would be used in today's operation and did not authorize this. Penske will reach out to DHS and reinforce its policy to avoid improper use of its vehicles in the future."
The Intercept
5 days ago
- Politics
- The Intercept
What Court Order? Federal Agents Keep Raiding LA Workplaces Despite Ban
As day laborers and street vendors selling breakfast lined the parking lot of the MacArthur Park Home Depot in Los Angeles early Wednesday morning, a yellow Penske moving truck pulled into the lot. Its driver claimed he was looking for movers, according to organizers, security guards, and a day laborer who witnessed the event and spoke to The Intercept. That's when a group of at least seven Border Patrol agents dressed in tactical gear stormed out of the back of the truck and rushed toward the day laborers and street vendors gathered outside. Chief Border Patrol Agent Gregory Bovino dubbed the raid 'Operation Trojan Horse,' sharing video on social media from a Fox News reporter who was embedded with agents inside the moving truck. Agents detained at least 16 people during the raid, which appears to be in direct defiance of a temporary restraining order a federal judge put in place in early July after immigrants rights groups sued the government. After a month of militarized raids and racial profiling throughout Southern California, Federal Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong of California's Central District, in response to a class-action lawsuit filed by community organizations and detained workers, delivered the Trump administration a major blow. She issued an order that prohibits federal agents from targeting individuals based on their race and ethnicity; whether they speak Spanish or English with an accent; their location such as a car wash, department store parking lot, or other worksite; or their occupation, such as landscapers or street vendors. The Trump administration appealed, but the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday upheld the temporary restraining order. The order had brought relative calm to the region in recent weeks, slowing what had been near-daily operations to occasional isolated incidents. But the Trump administration's Southern California campaign was not over. Since Friday's decision to uphold the temporary restraining order, federal agents have raided at least five other worksites in Los Angeles County, according to organizers and witnesses who spoke to The Intercept. Though it's unclear whether federal agents had warrants for the operations, the raids did not appear to be aimed at any specific individuals and took place at worksites that had been previously targeted, all with predominantly immigrant and Latino workforces. 'Basically everything that they said not to do in the [temporary restraining order] was on a to-do checklist for today,' said a day laborer organizer at the MacArthur Park Home Depot on Wednesday who was not authorized to speak with the media. 'Racial profiling, check. Going to a Home Depot, check. That was on purpose to undermine the courts and to undermine the power of the law.' The organizer said witnesses had reported seeing agents brandishing firearms at bystanders in front of the Home Depot, including at U.S. citizens. 'There's so many violations to the Constitution, not just to migrants,' he said Border Patrol and the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to The Intercept's request for comment. Penske said it was not aware its truck would be used in Wednesday's immigration operation and said its policy 'strictly prohibits the transportation of people in the cargo area of its vehicles under any circumstances.' The company said it planned to reach out to the Department of Homeland Security to 'reinforce its policy to avoid improper use of its vehicles in the future.' Since Friday's decision upholding the temporary restraining order, federal agents raided a car wash in Lakewood, detaining two workers on Saturday; a Superior Grocers in Lynwood on Sunday; another Home Depot in Hollywood on Monday, where at least two individuals were taken; and the Magnolia Car Wash in Fountain Valley, Orange County, where agents on Tuesday detained four workers, according to CLEAN Carwash Worker Center. Among those taken in Fountain Valley was a father originally from El Salvador who was the main financial supporter for his mother, according to a GoFundMe page set up by a relative. Instituto de Educacion Popular del Sur de California, or IDEPSCA, which advocates for the rights of day laborers and immigrants, said it is still working to confirm how many people were detained at the Hollywood Home Depot on Monday. During that raid, federal agents used a horn that tamaleros use to call people over to buy tamales in an attempt to lure people to detain them, said Maegan Ortiz, executive director of IDEPSCA, in a video posted on social media. Read Our Complete Coverage Deceptive tactics used by immigration authorities were recently banned in the context of home raids as a part of a settlement in a separate class-action lawsuit based in Los Angeles. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of people who were lured out of their homes by ICE agents who claimed they were local law enforcement officers. The Penske moving truck plot on Wednesday may have been beyond the scope of that settlement, but still prompted concern from organizers. 'They had a lot of officers and did it quickly, and did not present warrants, and were targeting people indiscriminately,' said Zoie Matthew, an organizer with the Los Angeles Tenants Union, which has run a community defense center at the store since the initial June 6 raid. 'They were violating the TRO completely — which it seems like has been the case for the past several Home Depots they've hit this week.' Even after the restraining order was granted, Bovino, who is heading Border Patrol operations across California, doubled down, promising to deliver on Trump's pledge to carry out the largest mass deportation campaign in history with a daily quota of 3,000 arrests per day. 'Different day, different illegal aliens, same objective,' Bovino wrote on his X account on Wednesday, alongside an edited video montage of agents detaining workers at a car wash. 'We're on a mission here in Los Angeles. And we're not leaving until we accomplish our goals.' The Fox News reporter who embedded with agents, Matt Finn, quoted DHS on his X account, saying that 'MS 13 has a chokehold on this area, which is one reason they're carrying out the highly optic immigration raids.' The government and Fox News have both evoked MS-13 to justify a previous raid in MacArthur Park in early July in which ICE agents, alongside military service members, surrounded and swarmed soccer fields and other recreation areas where a summer camp was taking place — but made zero arrests. Even so, Wednesday's raids appeared to target only workers. The majority of people detained during immigration operations in the LA area in recent months do not have criminal records. Video taken by residents who live in an apartment directly overlooking the MacArthur Park Home Depot parking lot showed two Border Patrol agents yanking one man toward the pavement, while other agents pulled three women from a row of tables topped with food and drinks. The workers and vendors were led toward a white van parked in front of the Penske truck. A day laborer told The Intercept he managed to run inside the Home Depot with other workers during the raid and hid for a half-hour. He immigrated to the U.S. from Guatemala a year ago to stay with his cousin and to find work. 'I'm nervous,' said the man, who goes to the Home Depot every day to find work. 'I'm nervous because I feel like they're going to come back again,' he said. Even so, the man said he plans to continue returning to the store, the only place he knows where to find a job.
