The family members of a U.S. citizen who was taken into custody by federal agents in downtown Los Angeles on Tuesday are demanding answers as she was detained while on her way to work.
Andrea Velez, a Cal Poly Pomona grad working in merchandising at a shoe company, had just been dropped off by her mother and sister for the workday when they saw her being taken into custody, adding they had barely even driven a block before the arrest began.
“They didn’t have vests that said ICE or anything,” said Velez’s sister Estrella Rosas. “Their cars didn’t have license plates.”
She says that her mother was driving away when she looked in her rearview mirror at what was described by police as immigration enforcement.
“In the rear mirror she saw my sister was kinda, like, attacked from the back and she was already on the floor,” Rosas said.
Video shows a growing crowd of onlookers yelling as officers surround the 32-year-old woman. Her family members were too scared to get out, as Rosas’ mother has residency but not full U.S. citizenship.
They’re also worried that Velez may have been holding pepper spray, which they say she always carries in her hand when walking downtown, when agents approached her.
Witnesses told CBS News Los Angeles that no one asked for her identification, but her family believes that it was nothing she actually did that led to her arrest, but rather the way she looks.
“Just because of the color of our skin, they think we’re criminals,” Rosas said. “My sister was there, so they were like, ‘Oh, she looks Hispanic, so let’s take her too.’”
As of Tuesday night, they have still not been able to find out where Velez is being held and are worried it could be days before they finally do.
CBS News Los Angeles has reached out to the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement for information on Velez’s arrest but has not yet heard back. An inquiry was also made asking how agents check a person’s status when they first come into contact, and how they find the people they’re targeting in enforcement operations.
Some of the video circulating online, showing Velez’s arrest, also shows a group of Los Angeles police who appear to be aiding federal agents in the immigration operations.
Later Tuesday, officers told CBS News Los Angeles that they were called to the area after receiving a 911 call reporting a kidnapping at the location. When they arrived, they say that they saw that a federal immigration operation was underway and stayed to maintain peace because they were concerned by the growing crowd and the federal agents.
The saddest part of this post is that th title has to stipulate that the disappeared is a US citizen. Because so many now are willing to accept that disappearing non-citizens is just hunkydory.
For me the point I want to make is that none of us are safe. We need to protect due process for everyone. Yes there are a subset of people that don’t care about the gov. deporting non citizens. If they see it’s happening to citizens, maybe they will start to care, maybe they will see how wrong it is to violate the rights of immigrants. I dunno. Like how do you reach these people to show them how wrong it all is?
Don’t go to a second location with someone who makes you uncomfortable
You may disappear, you’re trusting this person or people who make you uncomfortable with your safety.
Fight for your life.
If you’re gonna lose that fight, drag one with you.
Our ICE officers are now facing a 500 percent increase in assaults against them while they carry out enforcement operations
Those are rookie numbers.
As a practical matter, most or all of these people are wearing body armor. It isn’t full coverage, but it would make shooting them effectively a great deal more difficult. They also operate in large groups, which makes attacking any one of them a lot more dangerous.
The first civilian to shoot at them will almost certainly be killed within seconds. Anyone nearby is also likely to be hit, either accidentally or intentionally. Uninvolved civilians anywhere nearby are also likely to be hit. The agents are unlikely to care about their backstops or about collateral damage.
Any attack on possible government agents that is not part of a well-planned group response, using appropriate weapons, is going to result in civilian casualties and is unlikely to have any effect on the agents. That is not to say it couldn’t be done, but a few people responding with concealed carry weapons are not likely to succeed.
The human bite force is enough to easily remove a finger, it takes 33 pounds of force to crush a human trachea, and it only takes 7 pounds of force to rip a human ear clean off and/or to pop an eyeball out.
Not related to what you’re saying, just a big Mythbusters fan is all.
Remember. Shoot first. Determine whether they were ICE or human traffickers later since they didn’t provide identification.
Actually, ICE are human traffickers considering we know, as a fact, that they’ve kidnapped actual American citizens.
So yeah, just shoot.
If you are standing by watching as the gestapo commits genocide, you are aiding the gestapo. Think about that when it’s your turn to be a bystander.
I keep looking for the helpers, as Mr Rogers said to do, but I’m not seeing much help.
I put up signs at least. I try to leave zines and literature and argue with people online.
I know there is more to be done, but I don’t know. I hope that there is some justice done, and that I am doing enough.
If you don’t see the helpers, you need to be the helper. The bystander effect is a real thing.
I’m genuinely trying. I have a very specific mission I’ve been working on for a year. There has been no success. There is no support. I need community, I need to see others doing the same.
I have done everything short of violence, and I cannot do violence.
Kudos to just not having it in you to hurt people.
What’s the project?
Mental health justice - primarily for children.
Mental health care in southern states is a hell right now. A lot of child welfare agencies have taken Trump’s election as permission to stop functioning.
I also used to work with a lot of undocumented children, but it’s no longer safe to be a trans teacher. So I do independent outreach, education. Trying to make all children feel valued.
It can take a lot to make a kid feel worthwhile at the best of times. That it’s anyone’s goal at all is already a pretty huge comfort, I think. Shit, you managed to not crumple to hate, even now. That’s our humanity, that’s what we’re fighting for, anyway. Always good to see it. I’ll take it anywhere I can find it.
Didn’t Biden deport over 4 million without needing gestapo tactics? It’s clear that even the deportations aren’t really the main goal, it’s fear and repression of the population.
And it’s being reported that Trump is even deporting people at a lower rate compared to Biden, which is very telling when you consider how little attention this was getting with Biden.
The one good thing about this administration is that the cancer has been drawn out like the poison from a wound. Now, everyone can see it. This problem has been festering like a wound since the enactment of Civil Rights laws. But it has been burried. It was there. It always was. Just out of sight, thus out of mind. Look around everyone. Look at who is doing this. Never forget, and never forgive.
The problem is you’re asking for cognizance from the population of “I’m not affected therefore it’s not a real problem”. This will not change until a blonde white girl they can rally to their cause is accidentally deported
The police are traitors to America, and should be considered ICE collaborators at Nuremberg.
An inquiry was also made asking how agents check a person’s status when they first come into contact, and how they find the people they’re targeting in enforcement operations.
Yeah if you can’t answer this question within 4 months of this shit, it might be a good time to report the only other option. But no, let’s keep giving them the benefit of the doubt in the media.
Do not forget, anyone working any police job is an enemy, and anyone reporting on it unfaithfully is also the enemy.
Yeah sorry I genuinely don’t understand the people saying call 911 as some form of protest or help for the victim like the cops aren’t gonna show up to support the white dudes totallyinsisting they should be there. The best you accomplish is making a dispatchers job more difficult and they are the real first responders, worst is clogging lines for an actual emergency.
You forgot to put an asterisk explaining why you singled out a race for no reason at all, even though it had nothing to do with whatever point your were trying to make.
Your only real enemy is the rich, and anyone protecting them, never ever forget that.
Edit: very slick, I wonder who downvoted
I did, and you have no life experience if you think race doesn’t play into it
This is what happens when you don’t follow Stranger Danger. Any stranger could try to abduct you at any time, so you must be prepared.
Of course it’s another pretty young woman. These people are just human traffickers, not law enforcement.
Ok… time to start (legally) carrying a firearm every time I leave the house ATGATT
This lady was the second person arrested by them during this timeframe. The first person, a guy who was apparently defending a tamale street vendor, might have also been a US citizen.
I presume they’re all U.S. citizens until proven otherwise in court.
That’s how it should be.
