Federal agents drive off with 1-year-old girl after arresting her father in Los Angeles
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Federal immigration agents arrested a U.S. citizen and drove away from the scene of the raid in Los Angeles with a child in the backseat, lawyers and his family said Wednesday.
Video provided by immigrant advocates shows masked and armed agents arresting a man next to his car in the parking lot, with his 1-year-old daughter strapped into her car seat from behind. After the man is taken away, agents are seen getting into the front of the car and driving away with the girl still inside.
The man was a U.S. citizen who was at the scene of a federal immigration raid at a Home Depot store in Los Angeles, said Lindsay Toczylowski, co-founder of the Immigrant Defenders Law Center. Community members contacted the firm that handles immigration cases for help reuniting the family, but it said it did not represent the man because he is American.
“It was a dangerous act for armed men to get into a car with that child and take him away from the situation,” Toczylowski said, adding that relatives picked up the child from federal offices in Los Angeles later that same day. “They should have followed protocols that took the child’s best interests into consideration.”
U.S. Department of Homeland Security officials did not immediately respond to questions about why agents drove the man or took the child away.
A U.S. citizen was arrested for investigation of assault after carrying a hammer and throwing rocks at Border Patrol agents who raided a Home Depot store in Los Angeles on Tuesday with a child in his car, an agency spokesman said in an email. The spokesman said five immigrants were arrested on suspicion of immigration violations during the operation.
The man’s whereabouts were not immediately known Wednesday, more than 24 hours after his arrest. The family received a call from an unknown number on Tuesday to pick up the girl from the Border Patrol office in Los Angeles, which they did, her mother, Maria, told reporters. He said the child was in good condition, but wanted his father, who was born in California and worked in the restaurant industry.
Maria said she and the girl were both US citizens. He declined to give his last name to protect his grandson’s identity.
“This is a very scary thing,” he said in Spanish after watching the video. “You don’t know who these people are.”
