Reinforcing a point, from the Associated Press (AP),
Federal agents hid in back of rental truck at start of raid outside LA Home Depot.
This occurred back on Wednesday,
U.S. Border Patrol agents jumped out of the back of a rented box truck and made arrests Wednesday at a Los Angeles Home Depot store during an immigration raid that an agency official called “Operation Trojan Horse.”
The early morning raid near downtown LA came just days after a federal appeals court upheld a federal judge’s order blocking the Trump administration from conducting indiscriminate immigration stops and arrests in Southern California.
It would take a heart of stone not to laugh. I don’t have a heart of stone. The AP story has photos of the Border Patrol agents leaping from the back of the truck.
For their part, Penske was not amused.
A spokesperson for Penske Truck Rental said the company was looking into the use of its vehicles by federal officials, saying its regulations prohibit transporting people in truck cargo areas.
ABC News reported on the raid,
A DHS spokesperson said Border Patrol agents conducted a “targeted raid” at the Home Depot. The operation, dubbed Trojan Horse, “resulted in the arrest of 16 illegal aliens from Guatemala, Mexico, Honduras and Nicaragua,” the spokesperson said.
DHS later shared some details with Bill Melugin of Fox News. Among those arrested,
- Nicaraguan charged w/ felony theft in LA County in April
- Guatemalan w/ prior LAPD arrest for DUI w/ great bodily injury.
- Guatemalan ICE fugitive with deportation order since 2014.
- Three previously deported Guatemalans, all of whom re-entered the U.S. illegally. (Felony re-entry)
And they weren’t done. KTLA reports,
Federal agents take 7 people in Van Nuys Home Depot immigration raid.
Some details on yesterday’s action,
Border Patrol agents took at least seven people during multiple immigration raids at Home Depots in Van Nuys on Friday, federal authorities confirmed Saturday…
…The Department of Homeland Security later told KTLA that the seven detainees were from Guatemala, Mexico and Honduras. The first raid was reported around 7:15 a.m. by local leaders, and the second around 11:30 a.m.
Prematurely, as it turned out, the Los Angeles Times had reported on Thursday,
ICE arrests in L.A. plummeted in July, new data show.
The Times declared victory,
While 1,371 arrests across the L.A. region since July 8 is still a much higher figure than any recent month before June, it represents a notable drop from the 2,792 arrests during the previous month.
The new figures confirm what many immigration experts suspected: The Trump administration’s immigration agenda in L.A. has faltered since federal courts blocked federal agents from arresting people without probable cause to believe they are in the U.S. illegally.
I guess that theory’s out the window.
