Masked ICE Raids at California Churches Involved Threatening a Pastor
Masked alleged ICE agents raided near two Downey, California churches and threatened a pastor after refusing to leave church property.
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Pastor Alfredo Lopez of Downey Memorial Christian Church confronted ICE agents asking for their information after seeing a man outside his church’s parking lot being surrounded by immigration officers.
Not only did the agents refuse to give their identity and refuse to leave the church parking lot, but they threatened the pastor while “pointing weapons at the clergy.”
"When we said that we don’t want this in our property, this gentleman just shouted again, 'whole country is their property,'" Lopez is quoted as saying by NBC4 Los Angeles. "When someone tells that to you with a weapon in their hands and in their body, that was a very clear message. And as a man of faith, that is not allowed and that is not correct and that stands against everything that our country stands for."
A post on Instagram by UdB, an organization that defends Mexican and Latin American communities, that claimed to be of this incident is disturbing, as the agents have their faces covered and are wearing military gear with patches that could have come from Amazon.
If people dressed like this were grabbing a friend or family member, there isn’t a person in this country who would not be exceptionally upset. This act in and of itself is meant to create fear and anxiety.
Here is what these folks look like — they could be Proud Boys, for all we know:
In fact, on Tuesday it was reported that a man impersonating an ICE agent tied a woman up in zip ties after yelling, “Immigration!”
He yelled 'immigration.' Some of the employees promptly left the business. He zip-tied the female who was present behind the counter," Ryan said.
Ryan said the whole thing lasted no more than 30 seconds, with the suspect making away with approximately $1,000 in cash before driving away in a white Ford E-250 van.
If ICE won’t identify themselves, how are people supposed to know they should comply with their demands instead of defending themselves from a stranger impersonating an ICE agent?
Additionally, at a separate church an elderly man dropping off his granddaughter was detained in front of the Our Lady of Perpetual Help’s school, on a public sidewalk.
The raids near the two churches were a part of a sweep that also included LA Fitness and Home Depot. They took place in front of schoolchildren.
“(F)ederal agents targeted parishioners in full view of pastors, schoolchildren, and shocked community members,” Los Cerritos News reported.
Because the social media post showed a vehicle with a Texas plate conducting an “ICE” raid, a Redditor from Southern California compared these raids to if President Obama was sending masked people in unmarked cars with California plates into Texas to kidnap people who would then vanish into undisclosed locations, and they raise a good point.
This would never have been tolerated in reverse. All of the demonizing in the world can’t justify what Trump is doing in these ICE raids.
These raids are so shockingly immoral that they could only be helmed by a convicted felon who was also found liable of sexual assault. This is a grotesque, cruel and dangerous way to conduct immigration raids, which are traumatic enough on their own.
A criminal president who pardoned hundreds of violent criminals, many of whom assaulted police officers, is very likely to “hire” these same type of convicted criminals (now pardoned thanks to Trump) to act as “ICE” agents. So they’ve either been pardoned or they know Trump will pardon them no matter what they do, which makes them exceptionally dangerous.
Who are these masked people? Are they agents or are they impersonators committing crimes? How would any of us ever know, when even our lawmakers are being barred from conducting oversight at the detention centers where they are housing the people they abduct and now a sitting U.S. Senator has been arrested for objecting to this conduct.
We are being kept in the dark about every aspect of this operation, because it is not legal or moral in any way.
What do you think about what ICE is doing? Share your thoughts in the comments below.
Look closely at their clothing and how one guy is wearing his hat backwards. These men are not ICE agents.
God help us, if the courts and our elected officials don’t do something we have no hope.