Two people who were at the immigration facility early this morning said they were waiting for relatives who were going through immigration proceedings when they heard gunshots. They crouched in their cars for safety, they said, but struggled in the darkness to see who was firing.
Denise Robleto, 38, said she was in a van in the parking lot waiting for her mother to come back from a check-in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement on her asylum case when the shooting started. Ms. Robleto had been trying to encourage a young woman she had just met who was nervous about reporting to immigration authorities. As soon as they heard the popping sounds, Ms. Robleto said, the woman and her baby hopped in the car. They saw smoke coming from a nearby law office building. “It was one shot after another after another after another,” Ms. Robleto said. “But I could not leave — my mother was inside.”
Officers eventually arrived, and she and other witnesses were rounded up in a room inside the building, where she was reunited with her mother. Ms. Robleto said she was concerned that the shooting would inject more tension into a Latino community already living under the constant fear of ICE raids.
“I hope officers remember that in a situation like this, they are here to protect everyone,” she said, “regardless of whether they have papers or not.”
Arianny Sierra, 25, said her husband went into the facility just before 6 a.m. for a check-in for his asylum case. She and their 9-year-old son were waiting for him in the parking lot when they heard a series of pops.
“I thought they were fireworks,” she said, but then they noticed sparks and smoke coming from a nearby building. She panicked, grabbed her son and jumped into their car.
They huddled in the front seat trying to hide until officers arrived and escorted them into the facility. Inside, they were reunited with her husband, she said, but it was chaos.
Jazmine Ulloa is a national reporter covering immigration for The Times.
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