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Border Patrol raids Culver City car wash, arrest 8
Border Patrol agents raided Handy J Car Wash in Culver City on Tuesday, arresting eight people they said were undocumented immigrants.
CULVER CITY, Calif. - Border Patrol agents raided a car wash in Culver City on Tuesday, arresting eight people. At least one of the men arrested may have had some sort of documentation, a man told agents on camera.
What we know:
The raid happened around 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, at Handy J Car Wash on Washington Boulevard.
Security footage from the car wash showed five vehicles pulling into the parking lot, and at least a dozen Border Patrol agents piling out. Several employees could be seen running, with agents chasing them down.
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A witness at the car wash took cell phone video of one of the arrests. In the video, two agents had the man face down on the asphalt while they handcuffed him. Shari Gerstenberger, the woman who took the video, asks agents "Why are you arresting him," to which an agent says, "He's here illegally."
What they're saying:
"I was shocked. I was outraged. I was afraid," said Gerstenberger. "It's terrifying to watch. It's such an incomprehensibly inhumane thing to have people, I mean, almost, I think a dozen men were coming out of cars and were running up to like, to surround this poor man who's just trying to do his job, wash a car."
Dig deeper:
The Department of Homeland Security told FOX 11 that agents arrested eight undocumented immigrants at the car wash on Tuesday. Esteban Leal-Ramirez, DHS said, has been arrested for theft under a different name; Julian Riz-Rizo was convicted this year of carrying a gun in public, and Osman Rosmel Burgos-Martinez has been convicted of DUI, according to officials.
DHS did not identify the other five people arrested on Tuesday.
In Gerstenberger's video, one man can be heard shouting at Border Patrol agents arresting another man, who he said was his brother. The man went on to say that his brother "got the papers. He's got the application waiting," but it was not clear what he meant.
"Under President Trump and Secretary Noem, if you break the law, you will face the consequences," DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement to FOX 11.
The Source: Information in this story is from security footage from Handy J Car Wash in Culver City, and an interview with and cell phone video shot by Shari Gerstenberger and a statement from U.S. Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin.