A street food vendor was seen clinging to a tree as federal immigration agents took her into custody in Ladera Heights.
On June 23, Aleca Le Blanc said she spotted several masked agents grabbing the woman while she was selling food outside a Home Depot store.
Le Blanc quickly walked over to the agents and asked for identification but was ignored.
She said the agents refused to identify themselves or provide proof of a warrant for the woman’s arrest. As they grab the woman, she clings onto a tree to avoid being taken.
Several more bystanders approach the group and demand that officers take their hands off her. The woman was eventually handcuffed and taken into custody.
“She was calm and quiet and just resilient,” Le Blanc told KTLA’s Ellina Abovian. “She held onto the tree, but eventually they were able to rip her off and shove her arms behind her back.”
Le Blanc said the agents were armed and pushed the woman into an unmarked SUV. Some of the agents’ vests appeared to have a Border Patrol insignia. As bystanders were heard yelling, “They’re kidnapping her!” the agents reportedly threw tear gas at the group before they drove off.
“These guys throw three canisters of tear gas at the five of us who were standing around,” Le Blanc said.
The street food vendor was later identified as Selena Vanessa Hernandez Ramirez, 25, from El Salvador. She is also reportedly the mother of a 5-year-old boy.
“Here’s the thing, whether she has a criminal record or not, the [agents] didn’t even know who she was,” Le Blanc. “She was clearly just being profiled, chasing a random woman with brown skin down the street.”
KTLA has reached out to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for details on Ramirez’s case and whether she will be charged with anything and is awaiting a response.
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