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The truck carrying two suspected men living illegally in this countryside was pinned between a white rusty fence near a busy intersection in Hawthorn and two border guards.
Standing by the passenger door, two federal agents were handcuffing pregnant women, a US citizen, angering the crowd gathered there, urging masked agents to guard with non-fatal weapons and batons.
“Let her go, she’s pregnant,” the woman cried. “That girl is pregnant, I’ll let her go!”
“Back!” cried out the agent in the steel baton.
“We’re back!” the man responded loudly.
This month, the sweep near 120th Avenue and Hawthorne Boulevard was one of several that took place in this working-class city. All parts of Southern California’s immigration enforcement blitz have had a large impact on workers who live in the country, mostly illegally, as did the past employers of President Trump.
The incident was filmed on video and shared on social media along with subsequent attacks in the city, causing rage, fear and anxiety in a town with half its population of Latino. According to the US Census Bureau, at least 30% of the total population is also foreign-born. Some companies said the attacks have also affected them.
Recently elected Mayor Alex Vargas has not spoken about the immigration issues his city faces. He did not respond to requests for comment.
The demonstrators will waving Americans and Mexican flags during the “No Kings” demonstration in Los Angeles on Saturday.
(Carlin Steel/Los Angeles Times)
But two days after the incident at the intersection, a small group of young people gathered to protest the immigrant attack. They waved American and Mexican flags as dozens of cars ring out their support.
Pregnant woman Carrie Lopez Alvarado told NBC Los Angeles that the agent was chasing her husband and colleagues as she pulled into the parking lot of a building where the agent was being maintained. She said her husband opened the gate to drive when the agent stood up. She said she refused to let the agent into the property.
In a video she recorded and shared with the news station, Alvarado instructs her agents to leave, saying they were on private property. She said that the agent detained her for obstruction, but later released her. Soon after that, she began to experience abdominal pain and went to the hospital.
Alvarado could not be contacted for comment. The Department of Homeland Security did not answer questions about the project.
The white Toyota Tundra, which had been parked that day, remains in the small parking lot of the building, home to the live scan business. The window on the driver side was broken and crushed glass lay nearby.
Hawthorn, a suburb of South Bay, where the Beach Boys started in the 1960s and became a symbol of Southern California’s postwar beach culture, was a week of upskirts.
Over the past 50 years, almost 90,000 cities have been much more diverse, along with a considerable number of Latino immigrant communities.
The California State Guard Forces have recently been standing outside a federal building in downtown Los Angeles.
(Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
Standing outside her apartment on the corner of Acacia Avenue and 120th Avenue, just across from where the truck had stopped, Maria Perez, 68, a Cuban and American citizen, smoked a cigarette with her neighbor. She expressed her anger at the incident and the attacks taking place in the city and Greater Los Angeles.
“When I saw what happened here, I cried,” she said. “I was hurt like everyone else, but now there is fear not only here but also around town.”
Her neighbor, Reuben Esquibel, 43, said the attack would cause some people to be hidden.
“I’m not going to see anyone,” he said. “People trying to make a living are scared of leaving their homes. That’s scary.”
Jimmy Butler, 59, was at home when he began to hear the cry. By the time he traced the noise to the intersection, he saw a border patrol agent detaining the two men as well as pregnant women.
“I was mad at what happened that day,” he said. “How do you take people who haven’t committed a crime?”
Since then, he has said he is more vigilant to protect his neighborhood. The streets are lined with apartments that live with Samoans, Africans, Latinos and Black Americans.
When he recently heard him ring again, he feared that federal agents would return, but he was relieved when he learned that it was related to a group of young protesters.
“People are getting uneasy,” he said.
The Spanish Mass at St. Joseph’s Catholic Church is located on the corner of 119th Avenue and Acacia Avenue, where around 1,000 parishioners can be drawn in, Father Arturo Velascos said it is unclear how the June 1 incident and other immigrant attacks will affect attendees.
“The fact that they were here has something to ask ourselves. How about this Sunday?” he said. “I know people are scary. There’s a fundamental fear of anyone who’s not documented going to church or leaving the house, being caught in the ice and deported.”
Veracous said the church had held his own right workshop to tell people to stay vigilant and inform parishioners and the community. He said some people have expressed to him that they are afraid that immigration agents will enter the church to grab people.
“If they were going to come to a church packed into a parish, it would be bad for them because people wouldn’t tolerate it,” he said. “1,000 people don’t want to be mad at you.”
Elsewhere in the city, the attack appears to have kept people apart. On Hawthorn Boulevard, some businesses said there are fewer shoppers.
At 132nd Street, Denny’s general manager Gilberto Alvarez, 32, said he hopes to boost sales recently after another diner in the area burns out.
“We saw sales right away,” he said.
However, after the incident on Sunday, he saw the numbers dip again.
“We expected sales to be $13,000 instead of getting $9,000,” he said.
He said daily sales also fell from 500 to about 300.
Business owners in the area said they were also noticing a decline in sales. They said they called the workers sick, fearing they would be detained by federal agents. However, some small stores say they still don’t notice the difference.
On a recent Wednesday afternoon, Sergio Hernandez, 49, stood at the mouth of his driveway, thinking about life.
For over 30 years, Hernandez has lived illegally in the country. But now, amid the migrant raid, he is considering self-promotion to Mexico.
He said the attacks put him in constant state of fear and anxiety. They also put a financial burden on him.
Four years ago, he suffered a stroke, lost movement in his right arm, and therefore lost his job as a polisher in a metal store. Since then, he has been selling used items at local swap meets.
However, the presence of a border patrol vehicle forced him to stay home. They were scared of customers too, and several times he risked selling items at swap competitions, he realized that half of the food stalls were empty.
Unable to work, he has to immerse himself in his savings and worries that he will run out of money soon. He said he would go home if he couldn’t pay $1,300 on rent and bill.
Hernandez paused for a moment and found a white Chevrolet escalade with colored windows at a nearby intersection.
“Look, the second time a vehicle has passed here, it’s an immigrant and you can see the light,” he said.
He said it was a moment to make him high alert whenever he had to go to the store.
“You know – alive before you go outside,” he said. “But now, when people find immigrants, and whether it’s true or not, you should rather not.”
Hernandez said he didn’t know when he would return to Mexico. It is the simple fact that he is used to living his life in America that he is accustomed to living his life.
“I don’t know,” he said. “There are people who live on the streets and take their medicine. I’m trying to work here. Why are they chasing after me?”
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