A manager at an auto mechanic shop was taken in an apparent federal immigration operation Thursday morning in Boyle Heights, according to rapid response teams.
Employees at Fast Auto Repair, on the corner of Boyle and Cesar Chavez avenues, were preparing to open up around 7:40 a.m. when they realized one of their workers, identified as Angel Gomez, was missing.
“I was chatting with him in the car and came inside to clean up before opening and then I notice he’s not coming in,” said Modesto Cordero, a worker at the neighboring Pancho’s Tires, which shares the same lot. Workers said they tried to call Gomez, but he didn’t answer. That’s when someone from a rapid response team arrived to tell them what happened.
“It happened so fast,” Cordero said.
Raquel Roman with the Boyle Heights Immigrant Rights Network told Boyle Heights Beat that the group was alerted after students walking to school reported the operation. She said the group was trying to contact the man’s family.
Videos on social media showed at least one agent in a black vest marked “POLICE Federal Agent” leaving the location in an unmarked SUV.
Sammy Carrera with the social justice group Centro CSO said immigration agents were already gone by the time members of rapid response networks got on scene.
“The co-workers are very devastated and are having a very hard time coping with what happened,” Carrera said.
Workers at the shop were scrolling through surveillance video to see if the cameras captured anything. They kept the gate locked and debated closing for the day, but said demand wouldn’t let them.
“We can’t lose customers. We live off our work,” Cordero said in Spanish.
In response to the incident, members of Centro CSO and of the Boyle Heights Immigrant Rights Network will be patrolling the area around Prospect Park.
Boyle Heights Beat reached out to the Department of Homeland Security but has not yet received a response.