7-year-old boy in California watches dad get detained by ICE
CULVER CITY, Calif. - Seven-year-old Jorge Vasquez cried out uncontrollably as he watched ICE agents take his father away in handcuffs.
His 15-year-old brother, Brian, yelled, "I'll see you soon, Dad."
The emotional scene happened on Sunday around 2:25 p.m. when Arturo Vasquez was with his wife and two sons at the Culver City Car Wash.
He was there to wash the family car.
Brian said his father panicked when he saw ICE agents arrive and tried to leave, but agents stopped him and placed him under arrest.
A TikTok video shows witnesses at the car wash visibly upset.
Some shouted that they couldn't believe agents would do that in front of a child who was overcome with emotion.
Brian confirmed his father is undocumented and says he worked two jobs to support the family.
Over the weekend, several car washes were targeted.
Immigrant rights advocates and local leaders say these actions are tearing families apart and spreading fear through entire communities.
President Trump, however, campaigned – and won – on a promise to rid the United States of undocumented immigrants and spearhead mass deportations across the country.
Vasquez is among dozens of workers detained by federal immigration authorities in a series of raids in LA’s fashion district and at Home Depot parking lots in Southern California. More than 100 people have been detained.
The raids have triggered days of turbulent protests across the city and beyond and led Trump to deploy National Guard troops and Marines to the LA area, the latest development in the administration’s immigration crackdown. Protests in the city’s downtown have ranged from peaceful to raucous, with demonstrators blocking a major freeway and setting cars on fire over the weekend.
An estimated 950,000 people in Los Angeles County do not have legal immigration status, according to the Migration Policy Institute. That is about a tenth of the county’s population, and they include cooks, nannies, hotel employees, street vendors, gardeners, construction workers and garment workers.