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As immigration in Southern California intensifies, several patterns appear to emerge about federal goals.
Some sweep appears to be concentrated in a particular workplace, while others seem to be randomly selected.
Agents were found at Whittier courts and libraries, as well as at the Home Depot and Fountain Valley businesses in Huntington Park and Santa Ana, according to officials and media reports.
According to eyewitnesses and advocates, the first to arrive outside the Home Depot on Southtown Avenue in Pomona in April arrived outside the Home Depot on Southtown Avenue in Pomona around 8:30 a.m. Tuesday.
A Department of Homeland Security official said 10 people had been arrested in enforcement action. Immigration advocates had estimated that 25 people had previously been arrested.
Home Depot Focus
Home Depot in Los Angeles’ Westlake area was targeted last Friday.
Federal officials provide little details about how they select their targets and how long the operation will last.
“What I’m telling you, we’re going to continue to enforce the law every day in LA,” US border policy advisor Tom Homan said Sunday. “Every day in LA, we enforce immigration laws. We don’t care if they like it or not.”
The Wall Street Journal reported that offensive tactics have been proposed by Stephen Miller, White House official and leader in the administration’s promotion against clinical immigration.
Frustrated that authorities had not made sufficient arrests, Miller reportedly told immigration officers in late May to do random sweeps, not just those with arrest records.
“He directed them to target Home Depots. Home Depots usually meet for employers or 7-Eleven convenience stores. Miller bets that he and a few agents could go out on the streets of Washington, D.C. and arrest 30 people immediately,” the Journal reported, citing sources.
Local officials involved
The sweep rattled local officials.
“We’ve seen the video on social media of people who are truly actively detaining people by what looks like both masked ice agents and armed ice agents,” said Orange County director Vincent Salmiento.
The supervisor told the public who could be engaged in the protest that “we don’t change the story here and we don’t make it into a villain.”
Immigration enforcement agents were seen detaining people in donut shops, warehouses, restaurants and gyms, according to Casey Conway of the Orange County Rapid Response Network.
The immigration advocacy group ran a hotline and received several calls about the sweep around 8am. The group sent representatives to several locations to confirm federal activities, Conway said.
People were also in custody outside Home Depot in Huntington Park.
Huntington Park mayor Arturo Flores said President Trump’s immigration enforcement “has nothing to do with public safety.”
“Federal agents entered peaceful communities, arbitrarily targeted the Latinos community, leaving a trajectory of destruction,” Flores said in a statement. “We stand together as a community, unite and condemn the federal government’s ongoing campaign for domestic terrorism.”
Target attack
Not all attacks are random.
In late May, ICE and Homeland Security Investigations agents ran search warrants at Buona Forchetta and Enoteca Buona Forchetta in San Diego. It caused conflicts with residents.
Yasmeen Pitts O’Keefe, a spokesman for HSI, a branch within ICE, said the warrant was related to “an violation of employment and illegal foreigners and violation of false statements.”
She said four people living in the country were illegally detained. Citing on the ongoing investigation, she did not provide any other details.
A search warrant filed by federal authorities and obtained by San Diego media accused the restaurant of “deliberately employing both illegal immigrants and individuals not permitted to work in the United States.”
The warrant said five years ago, authorities said restaurants used fake green cards to hire 19 undocumented workers, some employing 12-hour shifts without breaks, and were subject to verbal abuse. Follow-up tips came earlier this year.
According to the authorities, the investigation found multiple cases of workers using forged documents containing social security numbers.
In a statement, Buona Forchetta said it is working with lawyers to find and support employees and their families. He also said he is providing support to staff who have witnessed and experienced the incident first hand. They did not respond immediately to the warrant claim.
Details on the cause of the attack on downtown LA’s atmospheric targeted apparel have not been made public, and no court documents have been filed.
“When hiring employees, the atmosphere is just always hiring people who believe they are legally entitled to the law and have a legal right to work in the United States,” said Benjamin Gulak, a lawyer representing the atmosphere. “We reached out to the government to learn more about the attack, but we haven’t learned anything about it yet, and the atmosphere will follow the law and continue to support its employees.
The Times reported that the company was the focus of its early investigation.
Times staff writers Brittny Mejia and Anita Chabria contributed to this report.
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