Federal agents raided a car wash in Culver City on Tuesday, taking into custody eight people there and nearly 30 overall in the Los Angeles area, according to reports.
Handy J Car Wash at 12681 Washington Blvd. was targeted alongside a Home Depot and several other sites, as reported by L.A. Taco.
The business’s owners confirmed to KTLA that eight employees were taken, and L.A. Taco said at least one of them was a lawful permanent resident of the U.S.
KTLA’s Annie Rose Ramos spoke to a relative of some of those taken.
“Eight total employees, one of them was my uncle and the other my godfather, who is a permanent resident and they still took him without asking for his identification or anything,” the relative said, adding that one of them was taken to downtown Los Angeles and the others remain unaccounted for.
In a statement, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said it was “a targeted immigration raid … that resulted in the arrest of eight illegal aliens from Honduras and Mexico.”
She identified several of those arrested as well.
“Esteban Leal-Ramirez illegally entered the country TWICE in 2007 and has been arrested for theft under an alias,” she said. “Julian Rizo-Rizo is a criminal convicted just this year of carrying a firearm in a public place—a federal felony offense for an illegal alien. Osman Rosmel Burgos-Martinez has been convicted for a DUI and has had a final order of removal since 2006.
“Under President Trump and Secretary Noem, if you break the law, you will face the consequences. Criminal illegal aliens are not welcome in the U.S.”
It’s the latest in a long string of much-criticized raids by federal officials.
Recently, a local high-schooler was taken as he was walking the family dog.
That teen, Benjamin Guerrero-Cruz, is “an illegal alien from Chile” who “overstayed his visa by more than two years, abusing the Visa Waiver Program under which he entered the United States, which required him to depart the United States on March 15, 2023,” a senior Department of Homeland Security official said in a statement to KTLA.
The DHS official also promoted the CBP Home App, which offers a free flight and $1,000 for self-deportations.
“We encourage every person here illegally to take advantage of this offer and reserve the chance to come back to the U.S. the right legal way to live American dream,” the official said. “If not, you will be arrested and deported without a chance to return.”
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