For about four hours, they described the toll of federal raids on Southern California. They spoke of masked agents tackling undocumented immigrants and U.S. citizens, of being denied food, water and phone calls to relatives while in custody.
One woman fought back tears as she recounted not having seen her husband since he was detained on June 21 after leaving a laundromat. One man described vomiting blood after contracting an illness at a detention center.
At a congressional hearing in Los Angeles on Monday, more than two dozen people testified to lawmakers about the fear and upheaval gripping Southern California immigrant communities after months of federal raids led by Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
The testimony came from men and women whose loved ones had been arrested or who had been detained themselves. Some had witnessed immigration arrests, and still others were local elected officials who described agents whose actions, they said, went outside the law.
“This is not public safety,” said Rex Richardson, the mayor of Long Beach. “This is racial profiling. This is abuse of power.”
Democratic members of Congress organized the hearing as part of their push to investigate reports of misconduct by federal immigration agents. Other hearings are expected to be held in other cities. The session on Monday drew lawmakers from California and across the country, including Representatives Jasmine Crockett of Texas and Maxine Waters of California.
Representative Robert Garcia, a Democrat who is the ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, said the message to the Trump administration was simply, “We are watching you.”
The Department of Homeland of Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the hearing. No representatives of the Trump administration attended the session.
Federal immigration officials have defended the crackdown, saying that they have been conducting targeted operations aimed at undocumented immigrants with violent criminal records. They have also said that if agents come across other undocumented immigrants, even those without criminal records, then they may also be detained during the operations. Since the raids began on June 6, about 9,000 undocumented immigrants have been arrested in the Los Angeles area by ICE or Border Patrol agents, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
The hearing, held at a municipal water district building in downtown Los Angeles, highlighted allegations of racial profiling and of mistreatment of detainees.
One man said in Spanish that he had been treated like a dog while in detention in San Bernardino County. One woman described seeing her co-workers at a carwash being detained during a raid. Another man who was detained described having to wear the same clothes for five days in a row.
Some of those who spoke said they were speaking on behalf of others who were too afraid to come forward themselves, out of fear of retribution by the federal government. One man said he feared he could now be targeted by ICE for testifying at the hearing.
“What we have seen is brutality for brutality’s sake,” Hugo Soto-Martínez, a member of the Los Angeles City Council, told lawmakers at the hearing.
One of those who testified about being arrested and detained was Andrea Velez, 32, a U.S. citizen.
Ms. Velez said she had been arrested and detained by federal agents on June 24 in downtown Los Angeles. That day, her mother and sister dropped her off at work, and as she was on the street, she saw masked agents chasing people.
“One of them ran towards me,” Ms. Velez told lawmakers. “Terrified, I used my work bag as a shield, but he slammed me into the sidewalk and accused me of interfering.”
An affidavit filed by a federal agent in Ms. Velez’s case said an ICE agent was running after a man when Ms. Velez stepped into the officer’s path and extended her arm, in what federal officials said appeared to be an effort to stop the agent from chasing after the man. Ms. Velez was then arrested. Videos that circulated on social media show Ms. Velez being carried away by someone who appeared to be a federal agent.
Ms. Velez told lawmakers that agents had refused to tell her their names while she was being detained and that she had not resisted arrest.
“They didn’t believe I was a U.S. citizen or bothered to check my ID,” she said.
Ms. Velez said she had been released two days later, and she added that she had not been allowed to contact her family during that time. Ms. Velez said that while she was being held at a federal detention center in downtown Los Angeles, in order to be able to drink water, she had to pay for a cup. Another detainee offered her a cup to use, she said.
Federal court records show that her case was dismissed in July. She said prosecutors had dropped it because of a lack of evidence.
The immigration crackdown in Los Angeles began on June 6 and drew an immediate backlash, leading to days of protests across the region. Officers clashed with demonstrators at times, and President Trump soon deployed the National Guard to Los Angeles. Mayor Karen Bass of Los Angeles, who put in place a nightly curfew downtown during the demonstrations, was among the elected officials who testified on Monday.
“We knew that we were part of the experiment to see how much the American people would tolerate,” Ms. Bass said at the hearing. “The fear that blanketed this city is difficult to describe, frankly, because it’s so hard to believe it actually happened.”
After the hearing, Mr. Garcia, a second-term congressman and a former mayor of Long Beach, said he had been struck by the testimony from Ms. Velez.
“Her story about not having access to even water when she was detained is outrageous,” Mr. Garcia said. “She has as much rights as anybody else in this country, and I think to have those stories in front of the Congress is really important.”
Jesus Jiménez is a Times reporter covering Southern California.
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