Federal immigration agents detained a man in Cypress Park on Tuesday whose toddler was strapped into the back seat of his vehicle, according to video shared with The Times. After two agents climbed into his car \u2014 along with their weapons \u2014 they drove off with the child as onlookers protested.<\/p>\n
The 32-year-old man who was detained during the enforcement operation at a Home Depot was a U.S. citizen, according to an immigration lawyer who spoke with his family. A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told The Times on Tuesday night that the man allegedly \u201cexited his vehicle wielding a hammer and threw rocks at law enforcement while he had a child in his car.\u201d
\n\u201cHe was arrested for assault and during his arrest a pistol was found in his car, that is reported stolen out of the state of New York,\u201d the statement read. \u201cThe individual has an active warrant for property damage.\u201d<\/p>\n
The incident was among several immigration enforcement operations in L.A. County, activists said, after agents were seen early Tuesday amassing outside of Dodger Stadium. In Cypress Park, the Los Angeles Rapid Response Network \u2014 a coalition of more than 50 organizations and groups and over 1,500 volunteers \u2014 said a member of their group recorded masked agents detaining the father before agents got in the car and drove off with the toddler. In the video, people could be seen confronting agents as they tried to drive away with the child.<\/p>\n
The toddler has since been reunited with her family. Lindsay Toczylowski, co-founder of Immigrant Defenders Law Center, confirmed that the man in the video was the father of the child. She said the firm had reached out to the family thinking that the father would be in immigration custody but then learned that he and his toddler were both U.S. citizens.
\nShe said the law firm would now be working with the federal public defender\u2019s office \u201cto ensure he\u2019s represented if he\u2019s not released shortly.\u201d She said the toddler, who turns 2 in January, is safe, although \u201cthe family is obviously traumatized by the incident.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said the family received a call from federal immigration authorities and were told to pick up the child at the federal building in downtown Los Angeles. \u201cThe fact that they were getting into that car, heavily armed, with masks on their face, they put that toddler in extreme danger,\u201d she said. \u201cIt should shock everyone\u2019s conscience that we have masked armed men behaving like that with a U.S. citizen father and a toddler who were just going to run an errand at Home Depot on a random Tuesday.\u201d<\/p>\n
Immigrant rights groups said the roving enforcement operation in Cypress Park was just one of several that were carried out across Los Angeles County on Tuesday.
\nAngelica Salas, executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, whose group is part of the coalition, said people were pulled off roofs in Glendale and Burbank as well as at bus stops. She said at least one CHIRLA member was detained at a bus stop while their two daughters were at school.
\n\u201cIt was a crazy day,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s just awful and it started with this arrest and it continued during the entire day.\u201d<\/p>\n
Salas speculated that the operations were spurred by California\u2019s special election on Proposition 50. The ballot measure to redraw the state\u2019s congressional districts was crafted by the state\u2019s Democrats in response to President Trump urging Texas and other GOP-majority states to modify their congressional maps to favor Republicans, a move designed to maintain Republican control of the U.S. House of Representatives. \u201cThey wanted to create chaos,\u201d Salas said. \u201cThe collateral damage are our people.\u201d<\/p>\n
In a video posted to X, Gov. Gavin Newsom accused Trump of trying to suppress the vote in any way he could and referenced Border Patrol showing up at a kickoff rally for Prop. 50 \u201cto intimidate.\u201d
\n\u201cHe has folks dressed up in tactical gear, ICE and Border Patrol, hundred plus officers in LA as I speak, to intimidate and chill free expression, free speech, to intimidate voters,\u201d he said. \u201cHe does not believe in fair and free elections. What more evidence do we need of the importance of proposition 50.\u201d<\/p>\n
The incident in Cypress Park and the broader immigration enforcement operations across Los Angeles County have sparked widespread concern and outrage. The use of heavily armed agents and the detention of a U.S. citizen and his toddler have been particularly criticized. As the situation continues to unfold, it remains to be seen how the community and authorities will respond to these events.<\/p>\n
What happened in Cypress Park?<\/strong><\/p>\n Why were the immigration agents in the area?<\/strong><\/p>\n What has been the reaction from the community and activists?<\/strong><\/p>\n What is Proposition 50?<\/strong><\/p>\n Introduction to the Incident Federal immigration agents detained a man in Cypress Park on Tuesday whose toddler was strapped into the back seat of his vehicle, according to video shared with The Times. After two agents climbed into his car \u2014 along with their weapons \u2014 they drove off with the child as onlookers protested. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":23880,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-23878","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-education"},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/ca-times.brightspotcdn.com\/dims4\/default\/a378f28\/2147483647\/strip\/true\/crop\/916x481+0+129\/resize\/1200x630!\/quality\/75\/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fb0%2F32%2F0dee5b964013b6c6ff7304b462ee%2Fme-ice-drives-off-with-baby.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23878"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23878"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23878\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23881,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23878\/revisions\/23881"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23880"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23878"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23878"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/citystuff.com\/los-angeles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23878"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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