According to eyewitnesses and nonprofits, a group of immigrants tried to detain undocumented Day workers in the Inland Empire’s Home Depostore parking lot until community members stepped in.
Workers and community members at Day in Upland said about 20 federal agents appeared at Home Depot on Mountain Avenue in Upland early Monday.
“I arrived at 5:30am. There were about 20 officers here. They organized themselves and went to organize more elsewhere,” said the workers on the day identified in Spanish. “(Agent) has already been here twice.”
Other witnesses also said another immigration operation took place at the same location on Sunday.
Alexis Teodoro of Pomona Day Labor Center confirmed that immigrant officers approached a group of workers on a day searching for work in the parking lot, but said no one had been in custody since the surgery Monday morning
“An unmarked car was trying to take Day’s workers here,” Teodoro explained, adding that one day, a US citizen, one day workers deflected ice agents and gave undocumented friends time to escape detention.
“(The US citizen) was there and asked, ‘Hey, hire me for work.’ That allowed some people to escape,” Teodoro said.
Another US citizen, Tina Silva, jumped in and asked a federal agent to leave the parking lot at Home Depot.
“I told them goodbye,” Silver said. “I told them to leave with a megaphone. Anything I can do to threaten them and get out of the community.”
Another day workers who wanted to hide their identity for safety reasons said they were approached by one of their agents on Monday morning.
“The immigrants stopped me by the little tree at Home Depot and asked, ‘Good morning, ID, please’,” he explained in Spanish. “I showed him my license and he asked me if I had any other IDs. I took my green card out and he said, ‘Have a good day, sir.” ”
Teodoro suspected that no one was taken from the Monday morning attack on Mountain Avenue, but Home Depot was calling authorities to remove day workers from the parking lot.
“Please, Home Depot,” Teodoro said. “We don’t want you to call the police. They’re just looking for work.”
Teodoro also asked community members to film attacks and immigration operations, unless they were blocking the investigation.
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