By Jimie Ding and Christopher Weber
LOS ANGELES (AP) — As part of an immigration operation known as Operation Trojan Horse, U.S. Border Patrol agents jumped out of the back of a hired box truck and arrested people Wednesday at a Home Depot shop in Los Angeles.
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Only a few days had passed after a federal appeals court upheld a federal judge’s ruling prohibiting the Trump administration from making random immigration stops and arrests in Southern California when the early morning raid near downtown LA took place.
Acting U.S. Attorney General: If you believed that immigration enforcement had ceased in Southern California, you should reconsider. Following the raid, Bill Essayli made a post on the social media site X. There are no exemptions from the federal government’s authority, and the application of federal law cannot be compromised.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security received messages asking for information about the raid, including the number of people detained. Reposting Fox News stories of Monday’s arrests on X, U.S. Border Patrol Sector Chief Greg Bovino referred to the activity as Operation Trojan Horse.
Social media images captured the instant the rented Penske truck’s back door opened, exposing a number of armed, uniformed agents. According to a Penske Truck Rental representative, the firm is investigating federal officials’ use of their vehicles, as its rules forbid moving passengers in truck cargo areas.
Spokesman Randolph P. Ryerson stated in an email that the company was not informed that its vehicles will be utilized in today’s operation and did not approve of this. In order to prevent future misuse of its vehicles, Penske will get in touch with DHS and reiterate its policy.
The Trump administration’s tough immigration policy, which sparked protests and the deployment of the National Guard and Marines for almost a month, has made the Los Angeles area a battleground since June. Home Depots, car washes, bus stations, and farms have all been the scene of federal officials apprehending immigrants who do not have the proper documentation to be in the United States. A few Americans have also been taken into custody.
A Penske vehicle pulled into the Home Depot parking lot early Monday, announcing work to the day laborers present, according to Lupe Carrasco Cardona, an educator with Union del Barrio, whose advocacy group was on routine patrols at the store. For a variety of day occupations, immigrant workers—some with and some without legal status—frequently wait in Home Depot parking lots.
According to Cardona, they opened the rear, leaped out, and began randomly snatching individuals.
Shortly after the truck, unmarked white vans carrying U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers showed there to take part in the operation, Cardona added. Three street sellers and four day laborers were arrested, according to the organization, but they were still attempting to account for others. One street seller attempted to provide proof of asylum before being arrested, according to family members, she added.
A federal judge temporarily prohibited federal officers from making indiscriminate arrests using racial profiling last month after the ACLU, Public Counsel, and other advocacy groups filed a lawsuit against the agency for the tactics. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeal affirmed the injunction on Friday, despite government attorneys’ claims that it prevents agents from enforcing immigration laws.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s assistant secretary, Tricia McLaughlin, has stated in the past that enforcement actions are extremely focused.
The targeted workers are the backbone of the local economy, according to the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, which denounced the raid on Wednesday.
Pablo Alvarado, the group’s co-executive director, said in a statement that the raid, which was carried out today by agents wearing cowboy hats jumping out of a rented van with a TV crew in tow, represents a dangerous escalation in the Trump Administration’s attack on immigrant communities, the courts, and the people of Los Angeles.
