Immigration officers in Los Angeles arrested a US citizen near a Home Depot, with two officers then using his car to transport his toddler who was strapped in a car seat, according to advocates and family statements on Wednesday.A video, reportedly recorded by the Los Angeles Rapid Response Network, doing rounds on social media, shows the man against his car with restrained hands before being led away. Then, Two masked agents wearing protective gear entered his vehicle and drove off with his one-year-old daughter strapped to a car seat in the back.Bystanders captured footage of the agents in the vehicle, shouting warnings about the baby’s presence in the back seat.
Lindsay Toczylowski of Immigrant Defenders Law Center criticised the officers’ actions as risky, noting armed individuals transported the child. Her firm was contacted to assist in family reunification but couldn’t represent the man due to his American citizenship.The child was later collected by family members from federal offices in Los Angeles, Toczylowski confirmed.Later, a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson, quoted by Associated Press, stated the citizen exited his vehicle with a hammer and threw rocks during the Border Patrol operation. He faces assault charges, and officials discovered a reportedly stolen pistol from New York in his car. The agency did not explain the decision to drive the man’s car with the child inside.The operation resulted in five immigrant arrests for suspected immigration violations.Ed Obayashi, a California special prosecutor and police practices expert, explained that while local police handling DUI cases typically arrange towing and transport children separately, federal immigration raids present unique circumstances. Given the presence of onlookers recording, he believed the officers made an appropriate decision.The child’s grandmother, Maria, told reporters they received an anonymous call Tuesday regarding collecting the girl from Border Patrol offices in Los Angeles. The child is well but misses her California-born father, who works in restaurants. His current whereabouts remain unknown.Maria, who along with her granddaughter holds US citizenship, withheld her surname to protect the child’s identity. “It’s something very frightening,” she said in Spanish after viewing the video. “You don’t know who those people are.”
