Federal agents detained workers on one day outside Vannuy’s Home Depot during two raids Friday morning, raising questions about whether their actions violated a court order that prohibits them from using racial profiling to carry out indiscriminate immigrant arrests.
The operation took place around 7:35am, then at 11:50am outside Home Depot on Roscoe Boulevard.
The Department of Homeland Security, which includes Customs and Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday.
However, Greg Bovino, chief of the U.S. Border Patrol Division, told Fox News Friday that federal agents are always following the law during their enforcement operations.
“In Los Angeles today, the truth is – as you and I are talking, we have agents on the streets now with anxiety,” he said. “They are doing it again legally, ethically, morally.”
Many unmarked white vans began to circulate the parking lot, and immigration agents began to “grab people first, then ask people for their IDs.”
“[The agents] Ortiz said, “We came straight for the Day Labor Center. “It’s very clear that they’re targeting day workers and they’re targeting organizations.”
On July 11, US district judges issued temporary restraining orders blocking federal agents in southern California and central California, targeting people based on their race, language, occupation, or location, without a reasonable doubt that they are illegally in the United States.
At the time, immigration advocates believed the order would legally prohibit the indiscriminate halt of places such as Home Depots and car washes and indiscriminately halt Spanish-speaking workers like brown skin.
“This is a clear violation of TRO,” Ortiz said regarding Friday’s attack. “This is, in my opinion, light empty.”
The temporary restraining order was upheld last Friday by the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. The Trump administration then appealed to the Supreme Court, saying the ruling “threatens to support California’s Central District’s ability to enforce immigration laws by imposing a light empty outlook on all investigation suspensions.”
Following the temporary restraining order, Southern California has seen a significant drop in the number of undocumented immigrants to the number of arrested. However, there is anecdotal evidence that immigrant raids could be picking up steam in Los Angeles again.
The federal agents reportedly targeted a car wash in Lakewood on Saturday and a Home Depot in Hollywood on Monday, Ortiz said.
Then on Wednesday, customs and border protection agents jumped out of Pensuke’s rental truck and detained workers for a day at Westlake Home Depot in an assault called “Operation Trojan Horse.”
La Mayor Karen Bass raised concerns about whether the lawsuit violated a temporary restraining order and led the city Atty. Hydee Feldstein Soto examines the problem.
“To me, being a Home Depot Day worker is not a cause. [for arrest]Bass said Thursday.
At a press conference Friday, Feldstein Soto said the video of the Westlake attack appears to indicate that the Trump administration is violating a temporary restraining order from the court, but the matter is still under investigation.
“We are very aware of the fact that the Penske track appears to be engaged in many precise actions that TRO language specifically bans,” she said.
A Penske spokesman previously told The Times that the company had no idea that the truck would be used in its business and did not allow the federal government to do so.
If the City Attorney’s Office concludes that it has violated the order, it may take steps to identify the agents involved or promote stronger legal protections, Feldstein Soto said.
But Bovino defended the legality of the ongoing Home Depot raid.
“When we do law enforcement partners for the Border Patrol, CBP and Allied forces, we are always following the law. Whether it is a temporary restraining order… whether it is an applicable federal law, rules, regulations, and especially the US constitution,” he said in an interview with Fox News.
Bovino said the Trojan horse operation was a pre-enteration target manipulation rather than a promiscuous sweep.
“We have known that criminal activity has been ongoing for a long time, so we are not going to ignore it,” he said. “We’re chasing it, and that’s exactly what we did.”
He said of the 16 people arrested during the Trojan operation, at least six had “significant immigration and criminal history.” He said this reflects the trends seen in larger immigration operations, where between 30% and 40% of those arrested have a generally significant immigration and criminal history.
A time review of immigration and customs enforcement data in June found that the majority of people arrested in Southern California had no criminal history.
Of the 2,031 people arrested from June 1 to June 26, approximately 68% were not criminally convicted, and 57% were never charged with a crime.
Times staff writer Rachel Ulanga contributed to this report
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