Escaping an Immigration Raid in Los Angeles: "I Have Papers, But I Also Ran Away"

SPECIAL ENVOY TO LOS ANGELES"I ran out the way to the tow truck. They grabbed a guy who was sitting right there." Ander points to the entrance to the Home Depot parking lot in West Lake, where about thirty men now gather, like him, who show up here at seven in the morning every day looking for work. It's anything: demolition, moving, gardening, assembling furniture... While he explains how he escaped the immigration agents' raid a week ago, the man waves at the cars driving in. "I'm scared, especially after being so close, but I can't stop working. It's scary to be arrested and not know what will happen to you. I'm considering going back to Honduras, seeing how things are going," he admits, adjusting the brim of his cap. He's lived in the United States for six years and is undocumented.

Groups of migrants at the entrances to the Home Depot parking lot, a DIY store, are a common sight in Los Angeles early in the morning. It was in the Home Depot parking lot in Paramount, in the southwest of the city, where the incidents occurred.r the aggressive arrests that sparked the protests that have swept through the streets of downtown for a week. Most of the parking lots in this chain have been the target of immigration raids by ICE agents over the past seven days.

The fear that an ICE van might appear at any moment or that plainclothes agents might be present makes the atmosphere heavy with distrustful glances. "Before the arrests started here, there were usually about 80 of us, and we always found work," Ander explains. The raids have not only frightened the migrants, but also the clientele. "Normally, I worked every day, but since last Friday, I haven't had any work. The situation is very bad everywhere; it seems they're afraid to give us work, too."

On a normal day, working between five and eight hours, Ander says he can earn about $100 a day. "It depends on the task; for example, the last job I had was moving a piano, and they paid me about $80." The 43-year-old must divide what he earns between paying rent, food, and helping his family in Honduras. "I have a mother, a wife and eight children. In addition, I have to pay the debt of the coyoteRiberto, a 46-year-old Guatemalan who is also undocumented, also complains about the decline in work. "I come here every day, but now it's hard to find work," he laments. tamales that Roney and Juana (42 and 43 years old, respectively) have set up. They came from Guatemala three years ago to try to earn a better living and send money to their four children. migrates suddenly appeared with the vans and they had already caught a man. We ran away and left the store," Roney says, as Juana shows him TikTok posts about the places where ICE has been seen this morning. Social media has become a key element in staying alert about the agents' movements and which areas to avoid.

One of the men standing and eating a snack, Antonio, joins the conversation: "Even I ran away." The man is from Mexico and claims to have legal status in the country. "I have a work permit, but I still ran away. I don't want to take any chances with those people." He explains that he is somewhat concerned about the atmosphere in the city. "I've never seen anything like this, and the worst part is that they attack hardworking people. I don't think it's wrong that they want to kick out people who come to commit crimes, but all of us here want to prosper."

At one point in the morning, one of the security guards approaches the small group of men and greets them familiarly. "I wasn't there on Friday when it happened, but I saw the videos and you could see them in all their forms. I don't understand why they're so aggressive if they're not hurting anyone, they just stay in the doorway without bothering anyone," explains Marcos (a fictitious name to preserve anonymity), who is also Hispanic. "It makes me sad because those people are just looking for work; they don't deserve it. My parents were immigrants too."