There was the U.S. citizen who said she no longer feels safe after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer slammed her to the ground in downtown Los Angeles and later accused her of assault — a case prosecutors dismissed soon after.
The Long Beach mayor, who said immigration agents have seized more than 50 residents off the city’s streets — including 11 in a single afternoon last Thursday, among them a gardener tackled inside Polly’s Pies restaurant.
A Boyle Heights pastor who told of a mother who lost her young daughter after a failed organ transplant and was paralyzed over whether to cremate her or bury her, as she wanted, because she feared being deported and unable to visit her child’s grave.
During a congressional oversight hearing Monday in L.A., more than a dozen elected officials, experts and community members laid bare the impact of the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration crackdown. It was an exclusively Democrat event and no one spoke up in support of the raids.
Mayor Karen Bass and the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Robert Garcia (D-Long Beach), announced last month that Congress was opening “a broad investigation” into arrests of U.S. citizens by ICE officers, as well as a separate probe into immigration raids overall.
“We want to establish a record, because when the political winds change, we want to hold those accountable,” Bass said ahead of the hearing. “We want transparency and accountability for all of the egregious unconstitutional acts that are taking place. The raids might be off the nightly news, but they continue every single day, and we don’t ever want anyone to forget that.”
U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Texas described the current situation as “an American nightmare.”
The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
For months, agents have roamed the streets of L.A., toting guns and chasing down undocumented immigrants. The scenes that have played out here — protesters being arrested, immigrants dragged out of their cars — have been repeated in Chicago, Charlotte and other cities with largely Democratic leadership.
As of last month, federal authorities had arrested more than 7,100 undocumented immigrants in the Los Angeles area since June 6, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
Among those who provided testimony was Andrea Velez, a U.S. citizen who was on her way to work in June when masked men came running toward her. She described using her work bag as a shield, as an ICE officer slammed her into the sidewalk.
“They didn’t believe I was a U.S. citizen or bother to check my ID,” Velez said.
Prosecutors initially charged Velez with assault on a federal officer, alleging that Velez, who is 4 feet 11 inches, stood in the path of an ICE officer with her arms extended, striking his head and chest when they collided. Soon after, prosecutors dismissed the case.
Velez told committee members that she now carries her passport with her.
“I think it is shameful that this administration makes citizens feel like they have to carry a passport in their own country,” Rep. Mark Takano (D-Riverside) said. “No citizen should have to carry a passport in their own country to prove that they’re an American.”
Times staff writer David Zahniser contributed to this report.
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