The grandmother of a 1-year-old who was separated from her father during an immigration enforcement operation at the Cypress Park Home Depot was in tears as she pleaded for her son’s return at a press conference on Wednesday.
“Even though [my granddaughter] is safe now, she needs her father and I need my son back,” she said.
The woman, who only identified herself as Maria, said her son is a “kind and quiet person.” He is “the best dad,” she said.
The virtual press conference was held by the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (CHIRLA) and the LA Rapid Response Network, a day after a “targeted immigration enforcement operation” by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
DHS said the operation resulted in the arrests of five undocumented immigrants from Mexico and Guatemala. The agency said their criminal histories included driving under the influence, driving without a license, and previous removal from the country.
“During the operation, a U.S. citizen exited his vehicle wielding a hammer and threw rocks at law enforcement while he had a child in his car,” DHS said in the statement.
“He 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. The individual has an active warrant for property damage,” the statement continued.
Though Maria declined to comment on the allegations made against her son during the press conference, she refuted DHS’s claims to the Los Angeles Times, saying she didn’t think he would throw rocks at anyone and believed the warrant was for graffiti.
Footage shared by the LA Tenants Union, which operates a community defense center outside the Cypress Park Home Depot, shows several agents surrounding and interrogating the man outside a black car, while the child was strapped to a car seat inside the vehicle.
Agents then escort the man in handcuffs, while another agent gets in the driver’s seat of the car, with the child still inside.
Maria was in tears, describing what she saw in video footage of her son’s arrest. She said her son and granddaughter are U.S. citizens.
“There was no reason for ICE to abduct them. My son didn’t do anything from what we’ve seen in the videos. He was complying,” Maria said.
“He was fighting to not leave her, so they wouldn’t take her, to wait for someone to pick her up. They didn’t let him.”
Maria said her son, who works in the restaurant business, was with her granddaughter at the Home Depot on his day off.
“Our family received a call from an unknown number. It was the Border Patrol asking to me to pick up my granddaughter,” she said. “We didn’t know what happened to her while she was in their care, and they wouldn’t give us information about when my son would be released, or where he was.”
Maria said she rushed to pick up her granddaughter around 10 a.m. on Tuesday, but was not able to take her home until 1 p.m. after she provided a birth certificate. The Los Angeles Times reported that the family was told to pick up the child at the federal building in downtown LA.
At the press conference, Maria said her family has not received any update on her son’s whereabouts. The family is still trying to find an attorney to represent him, she said.
Maria did not specify where she picked up the girl.
Jorge-Mario Cabrera, CHIRLA’s director of communications, denounced the operation.
“This is insane what we are witnessing in this country. This should not be happening,” he said. “We have a grandmother here and a mother grieving and traumatized for what they saw and what they have experienced.”
Video of the arrest garnered tens of thousands of views on social media.
Viewers widely expressed shock and worry about the agents driving away with the child alone. In the comments of a video posted to TikTok, various people claiming to be the man’s family asked for more footage of the arrest.
On X, the Department of Homeland Security reposted a video of the arrest and wrote, “We refuse to apologize for enforcing the law.”