On Thursday morning, immigration agents arrested one of the nation’s most well-known undocumented immigrant fathers. He was just trying to drop his daughter off at school in California. The incident occurred just before 7:45 a.m. as the father walked towards his family truck, wearing a blue outfit. Agents quickly surrounded him during arrest. They transported him as the whole incident unfolded in full view of a security camera video feed.
The arresting moment was caught on tape by the father’s wife, who saw the horrifying scene as it occurred. She documented everything up close, including shots of the agents putting her husband into a grey sedan. That scene proved overwhelming to their then 14-year-old daughter, who fled back into the house in tears. In her anguish and disorientation, she gave voice to every child’s panic—someone had kidnapped my daddy.
It is not immediately clear which agents participated in the arrest. NBCLA contacted both the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security for comments on this shocking incident. Neither agency has answered thus far.
His family has now spent more than 21 years living in the United States after emigrating from Puebla, Mexico to pursue greater opportunities. The father is the parent to three other children and has a grandchild. His continued detention has a devastating impact on his family.
One of Lou Passia’s favorite sayings, painted on a sign and displayed on the family home. Questions about how we treat immigrant families and how their arrests occurred will surely dominate the conversation. This event illustrates how messy immigration enforcement is in practice. It exposes the profound emotional cost of these attacks on the victims themselves and their families.