Video courtesy of Emie Lynn Fenton/Redondo Residents FB
By Garth Meyer
Hollywood Riviera Car Wash, on Pacific Coast Highway in Redondo Beach, was raided by ICE Friday, Sept. 26. Four employees were taken away.
“One driver, one mechanic, and two dryers,” Car wash manager Josue Lima said.
“(ICE) didn’t have warrants. They don’t ask for papers. They see dark skin, Latino, they take you. They don’t say anything.”
It was the second ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) raid at the car wash. On July 10, agents took away five workers.
“Two with papers. They’re still in custody, ” Lima said.
ICE also removed two employees from Redondo Car Wash on Torrance Boulevard Aug. 10.
Hollywood Riviera Car Wash is now down from 13 employees to seven.
Lima is also Latino.
“Maybe because I speak English, they didn’t try (to take me),” he said, pulling out his wallet to show a California REAL ID and green card.
He noted that one of the employees removed was a woman from Mexico who had worked at the car wash for three years, and had been in the United States for 17 years.
“I’m not against (ICE). They’re doing their job. But I think they’re doing wrong,” Lima said. “There’s different ways to do things like that. They just kidnap people, basically. They should have a scanner, we have the technology; to scan papers, scan your face.”
At Redondo Car Wash on Torrance Boulevard, just up from PCH, assistant manager Yahir Padilla said the ICE visit in August differed from a second, on September 11.
“The first time they asked questions. The second time, I don’t remember hearing them ask any questions,” he said. “We lost employees the first time, some of our best workers. People have been asking for them since. All the time. Since they’ve been taken, I haven’t really heard anything [of their whereabouts].”
He noted that the first ICE raid came soon after the location had reopened, following four months of closure for remodeling, from February to July.
“The first time, they were pretty professional, but the second time they were definitely more aggressive,” said Padilla.
No one was detained in the second incident. The owner was on the premises that day and was able to talk to the agents, Padilla said. ER
>”They see dark skin, Latino, they take you.”
>Lima is also Latino.
If that were true half the South Bay would be ‘taken’…
You have no idea what’s going on here. The point is that they are indiscriminate at all ever is the problem. The process is vague and ambiguous. There has to be clearer rules and process. The fact that you’re cavalier tells me you are part of the problem.
Exactly!
And we sit by passively. Until they come for us.