A morning sweep near a Home Depot left at least six people detained. For those who watched it unfold, it wasn’t law enforcement—it was a manhunt.
By Nick Valencia
LOS ANGELES — I got there 45 minutes after it happened, and I could still feel it in the air. Not smoke, not sirens—something heavier. The kind of silence that follows violence. The kind that feels like it’s watching you back.
The ICE raid happened around 9:45 a.m. in a parking lot I’ve known all my life—just down the street from my grandma’s house, next to the Home Depot where we’ve bought supplies for our home for decades. It’s the same place our contractor goes when he’s between jobs, hoping to pick up day labor. It’s a place that, for many, means work. Stability. A chance.
But today, it became a trap.
By the time I arrived, the agents were gone. But the damage lingered. A middle-aged man in a blue shirt with a patch of missing hair on the side of his head stood near the scene, visibly shaken. In Spanish, he told me what he saw: a van pulling up, doors flying open, and suspected federal agents piling out “like dogs,” surrounding men who had been sitting there eating lunch.
“They just detained everyone within eyesight,” he said.
Witnesses said the agents wore masks and refused to identify themselves. No badges. No names. No warrants. Just gloves, tactical gear, and orders. The message was unmistakable: if you looked like an immigrant, you were fair game.
This wasn’t targeted enforcement. It was a sweep.
And it’s not just a theory—it matches what I’ve been told by a federal official familiar with these operations: “Cast a wide net. If you suspect, detain first. Ask questions later.”
That unofficial motto is playing out in plain sight across Los Angeles. Raids in Huntington Park. A man encircled by feds in Bell. Vendors disappearing along Figueroa. Agents refusing to identify themselves at hospitals and homes. It’s not just enforcement—it’s intimidation. And the scope is widening.
This is the second time ICE has hit this exact parking lot. This time, least six people were detained, according to eyewitnesses. There’s no indication that all of them had criminal records.
While I was interviewing an eyewitness, in the background I saw our family contractor. Until that moment, I had been wondering if he was OK. According to eyewitnesses, he had nearly been caught himself—but got in his truck and left just before the vans pulled up.
Maybe out of shock, he had circled back. His truck slowed as he saw me. He didn’t stop to talk. He didn’t roll down the window. But his face said enough. And as he drove away, I saw it clearly: the fear. The guilt. The bullseye on his back.
I’ve talked about this before, but the eyes stay with me. The look people give me when they realize no one’s coming to save them. When they understand that being in the wrong place at the wrong time—in this America—might mean you disappear.
And maybe the most haunting part of all of this: in the distance, I could see the sliding doors of the Home Depot. Open and close.
Business as usual.
Share this post