I stopped for gas and witnessed an ICE arrest. Then, I spent days looking for the man who was detained

Last Thursday, when I pulled it to a gas station in Maryland, Takoma Park, and when I was uncomfortable how the Pit Stop would go to the CNN office on the Washington DC, I was uncomfortable with how to add time.

But when I placed the pump in the gas tank, I noticed a man with a full -curved man towards me. I barely registered that it looked with panic – Maybe he’d miss the bus? – When a few things happen at the same time.

Standing in front of the pump 1, a black Kia station was robbed and reached the level with it. Immediately, the passenger gate opened and a man in Hakis jumped a full hundred Balaklava and a tactical vest.

“Why were you running?” He asked again and again Spanish. He continued to throw the questions, but I just heard that the man he was chasing clearly gave an answer.

“What is your name?” The masquerade man asked.

“Samuel,” he replied.

I looked at Kia’s roof to see the driver went out and stopped there with a rifle. While making eye contact, a hikers shifted on the bridge of his nose. Still, my brain took a few beats to process what I saw:

It was an concern of ice.

‘New World we live in’

He placed my go to work in the morning in the middle of the migration of the new president Donald Trump and deportation pressure.

Personally, I didn’t see an ice arrest – just news and online videos. And even though it was true, I didn’t know anything about Samuel – or I wasn’t witnessing the interaction that made him sprint from the parking place – he didn’t feel anything about this encounter.

First, the masked men were using a KIA – a family cart that I didn’t typically associate with law enforcement officers. And SUV, General Maryland Flag License License labels. Although it may seem like law enforcement officers, I didn’t hear that they described themselves. Tactical equipment said “the police, but they did not seem to be connected to a particular department or agency, and I couldn’t see a badge.

While watching the driver hiding the rifle on the SUV body, I thought of taking my phone to start recording. But almost as soon as the thought came to me, I pushed it.

I am a black woman in America. I saw how the police could increase even the most calm situations – and that felt already accused.

Therefore, as I wanted to handcuffs the first agent Samuel and know if it was “legal or illegal ,, I stood among the pumps and decided to clarify what I was watching.

I was listed when I wanted to see Samuel’s newspapers. There was a time when the masked men could squeeze my grandmother and grandfather into the corner and prove that they had the right to be in their neighborhoods. The whole scene seemed to repeat history.

The Pump’s POP surprised me and I noticed that the driver of the other car at the station was starting to record. I became an architect, I slipped into my driver’s seat, I crank the car and wandered around to take my own photos.

But in seconds, agents put Samuel behind Kia and quickly moved away.

I left my car and walked towards the other witness. It’s enough to say we’re both stunned.

“I think he said his name was Samuel?” I said.

The man told me that he was a lawyer in a public defender office and scribbled his name on a legal pad. We both stopped for a rhythm before saying üm new world we live in ”.

I forgot to ask the lawyer.

What I saw from the arrest took less than five minutes, but he felt terrible and surreal. I never heard of why the agents were detained to Samuel. When the masked men put him behind the blackened SUV, I felt the kidnapped someone watching.

When I went to work, I dictated the notes on my phone and immediately told my editors and colleagues what I saw. We acknowledged that it would be a good idea to get the shots from the lawyer, and then the reality began to begin.

In panic and fear, I forgot to ask any of the normal journalism follow -up questions. I only knew that the first name of the prisoner was caught and the other audience was a public defender.

I started looking for Samuel.

‘Everyone is afraid’

I reached ICE to see if his agents were active in the area that morning and whether they were detained a man named Samuel.

I also sent an e -mail to the office of the public advocate for Washington, DC, Maryland state and nearby Montgomery County. They all agreed to ask around and see if the lawyer’s statement was matched with a colleague.

Then I went back to the gas station. Until recently, I lived less than 5 miles from where Samuel was caught. This side of Takoma Park is a suburban, strictly connected, mainly immigrant community. Also, not far from where Kilmar Abrego Garcia was. When you win In a local home tank.

The gas station is a place where officials greet their normal customers warmly, and there is a table for the indigenous people to sit and chat while playing the lottery.

However, the people I talked about were unaware that ICE was in the area or that someone was arrested in Pump 1.

“Yes,” they said.

Although both people did not feel comfortable to share their names with a reporter, they both said that ICE had caught three people in the region that morning. When a man stopped him, they were taking coffee when the agents stopped him. Another was “just looking for a job ..

“Everyone is afraid – everyone,” he said. The other showed me a beautiful photo of the online arrests. Neither of them knew Samuel.

As I got away, I was impressed by the fact that Samuel was probably a family and friends who could not hear from him for days or even weeks.

He left the house that morning and actually disappeared.

‘Something extraordinary abnormal for seeing’

On Friday, I returned to the station to see if the manager had any surveillance appearance. At this point, I met Solomon, an Ethiopian immigrant. Ministry of Foreign Affairs Diversity Visa Program 25 years ago, he emigrated to America with a lottery and a green card.

CNN agreed not to share his last name because of his concerns about the current climate for immigrants. However, since he came to the United States, Solomon said he had gained a master’s degree and now he has the owner of an enterprise. This is the beauty of America, he added.

“If someone comes (and), if they can get into this soil, let’s treat them properly like a human being,” he said, and some people who take refuge in the United States escape from war, hunger and poverty.

“They don’t have any hopes, Sol Solomon said,“ But this is a wonderful country – great (clear) hope.

That afternoon my phone rang. Although I didn’t recognize the number, I instantly recognized the man’s voice. Sagar Vyas was the lawyer I met at the gas station.

This time, after an appropriate entrance, we started to compare the notes about what we see.

Vyas said, “It looked like one of the old terms after 9/11, Vy said Vyas, Vyas, the government without judgment The capture and transfer of the suspects to foreign places during the terror war.

Vyas told me that he typically sat in the driver’s seat while filling the tank, and when he went to hang the pump, he not only noticed the neck walker and the camouflage men.

While buying the pen and paper from the paper bag, Vyas said he had discussed whether he would record the incident as a South Asian man.

However, Vyas said he felt a sense of responsibility.

“When you grow up, he says, ‘When you see an injustice, get up for them,” he says. “Such soft sounds were behind my head.”

Nevertheless, he said he was deliberate about every move. While moving my car, Vyas said that he wanted his name from Samuel, but the agents scolded him.

“The two agents said something to each other, and they just decided to throw it into the car and take off,” he said. “Witnessing is an extraordinary abnormal thing.”

However, later, he and his wife admitted that he had only the power to carry witnesses. Like his proverb, he said, “A pot that is watched never boils.”

Iz We should all be a pot observer – as a community, as a human being, as the citizens of this country, ”he said.

If someone doesn’t follow the situation, he said it would boil.

‘Targeted application operations’

When I came to my table on Monday, I bought an ice spokesman an e -mail.

Partly, “35 -year -old Samuel Antonio Garcia Apilcano is an illegal alien from Honduras.”

According to ICE, he entered the country in 2023 and ordered a judge to be removed in absenteeism after he could not appear on a court’s history. ICE did not specify whether Samuel had any penalty history or whether they had previously interacted with law enforcement officers. A CNN Public Records search did not return any information about it.

“ICE, Washington, DC and the surrounding communities in the region in and around the region in order to make the intelligence -based, targeted application operations,” he said.

It took a few days, but considering the infrequent information I gave them, it was a little comfort to know that the ice officials found Samuel. And ice supplements Also on the riseSo I saw that it is reassuring to know that the men I saw are actually DHS agents.

However, the encounter wondered what was the tactics of ice application, migrant rights and the audience legally When they are caught.

As the Trump administration continues to pressures immigration, it becomes more and more likely that more Americans have the same experience I have done in their neighborhoods.

In a sincere way, I was shocked by what I was still witnessing. Despite the life of the armed federal agents where it is not rare, no one expects to detain someone in a unmarked car to go and go to masked men in the morning.

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