An ice agent told a shepherd that the “whole country is his property” to make immigration raids
Federal agents backed immigration related to two churches in the Downey neighborhood Los Angeles Wednesday in the middle of the city Protests against ice incursions which have captured global attention.
Ice agents arrested the Man Depot, the fitness, near the Church of Our Lady of Perpetual Help and the Christian Memorial Church, according to counselor Mario Trujillo. Downey City and Leaders of Fe denounced the raidsThey were made by various agents carrying face -to -face coatings, showing police badges and refused to give their names.
An older man who left his granddaughter to the Virgin of the School Help Perpetual was detained on the sidewalk in front of the church’s property. Another man outside Downey Memorial Church Christian was surrounded and arrested by immigration agentsSaid shepherd Alfredo López.
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The shepherd joined the senior shepherd Tanya Lopez and other members of the community in dealing with agents and repeatedly requested his information, he said during a press conference. Agents refused to give their names and denied the orders to leave the church car park.
“When we said we do not want this to our property, this knight has just shouted:” The whole country is his property “,” Alfredo Lopez said. “When someone tells you with a weapon in your hands and your body, it was a very clear message. And as a man of faith, this is not allowed and this is not correct and this is against everything our country means.”
Churches have usually been designated as secure areas based on immigration raids and other law application operations. However, designation is more courtesy than a legal obligation. “Legally speaking ice agents can enter the public spaces of churches, mosques, places of worship”, the Law professor at the University of Loyola, Jessica Levinson, told ktla.
“The important distinction is whether or not you are in a public place or in a private place. In a public place, it is perhaps a parking lot, it is perhaps where you first enter a worship house, Ice Agents can go to arrest people and do not need guarantees whenever they have a probable cause.”
Community member and testimony Paulina told Ktla that agents were aggressive and that they had license plates in their vehicles of New Mexico and Texas. “The gentleman they took was dark skin and only spoke Spanish,” he said. “They don’t care if you have papers, as long as you think what they want you to think will take you.” Tanya López said that an agent told him the rifle and told him to “return.”
It is not clear how many were abducted during ice operations on Wednesday. Downey Mayor Hector Sosa California Mayors asking for the end of immigration operations. The forays are part of Trump’s promise of immigration repression and “Tsar border” instructions by Stephen Miller reported ice instructions to increase their daily arrests to 3,000.
“Our job as elected officials is public security,” said Trujillo. “We will send you that these raids on home deposits, restaurants, places of worship or schools do not keep our community safe. They create ravages and fear.”
Downey is located in the southeastern part -East Los Angeles County.