DAILY MEMO: Federal Agents Have Now Killed 18 People

Memo Torres breaks down ICE-related news in Southern California today. Below, you'll find links and references to everything discussed in the video, allowing you to take a closer look at each topic.

It’s day 104. 

ICE RAIDS

• [Sept 16th] Anaheim, Daisy Apartments on 122 S. Ohio: Border Patrol conducted a raid at 2:30 in the morning at these apartments in Anaheim, taking two adults and 3-4 children.
  • A witness says they had noticed a white pick-up stalking the apartments for days. Agents blocked off all the streets, and 15-20 vehicles surrounded the complex, including a green military SWAT-style vehicle and a white box truck. 
  • Thirty to forty agents were seen in khaki pants and shorts, wearing police vests. They identified themselves as Border Patrol and not ICE. 
  • Agents were looking for one man specifically, but ended up taking his wife/gf and 3-4 children as well. 
  • Neighbors don’t know their names, but say they have been there for at least 10 years, and have kept to themselves. 
• Oceano, Paso Robles St & 15th St: A woman was taken by federal immigration agents. 
• Santa Barbara, Milpas & Carpinteria, near Sprouts: Three vehicles with what appeared to be masked federal immigration agents inside.
• San Fernando, 12960 Foothill Blvd, Home Depot: Vehicle has been abandoned in the parking lot for an unspecified amount of time, community media organization Valley Views SFV Media is asking for help in contacting vehicle owners.  
• Highland Park: Fed undercover vehicles were spotted scouting Highland and Cypress Park again today as rapid responders kept tabs on their whereabouts. No reports of anyone taken. 
• Long Beach, Bixby Knolls Car Wash: The community is Chavita’s courage and selflessness, who while working at the Bixby Knolls Car Wash that was raided recently, was posed a question by an agent who asked, “Should I take you or her?” Chavita gave himself up, choosing to protect his female colleague. 

OTHER NEWS

• L.A. County pauses food vendor enforcement over immigration operations concerns
  • The department provided a statement which reads, in part, “At this time, Public Health’s enforcement activities for unpermitted vendors have been temporarily paused in the areas within its jurisdiction due to safety concerns for our staff arising out of federal immigration enforcement actions.” Representatives were not immediately able to clarify whether the safety concerns were about or from the department’s staff, or a combination of both.
  • Rather than responding to complaints, DPH said it will instead focus on “providing unpermitted food vendors with outreach and educational materials in English and Spanish on the steps needed to obtain a public health permit and the risks associated with not adhering to food safety standards.” The department said it will also educate the public about the associated health risks.
• SB 627, The No Vigilantes Act, A Bill to Ban Extreme Masking By Local & Federal Law Enforcement is on Governor Newsom’s desk waiting for final approval. 

• DHS arrest Brad Lander & 10 Democrat officials after denying access to the 26 Federal Plaza Detention Center in New York.  “Their 'crime?’ Demanding oversight of ICE’s secretive cages at 26 Federal Plaza.”
• A total of 15 people have died in ICE custody this year. The latest death happened in Arizona
  • In less than two weeks, two people have died while in the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the state of Arizona.
  • On Sept. 8, Oscar Rascon Duarte, a 56-year-old Mexican national, died in Mesa, Arizona, where he had been receiving treatment while in ICE custody and awaiting deportation.
  • According to a press release from ICE, Rascon Duarte had been receiving treatment at the facility since January of this year. The cause of death remains under investigation, ICE said.
• More than 10,000 people held in solitary immigration confinement by Ice in a year
  • The United Nations has found that solitary confinement, which is defined within the report as keeping people in small cells without “meaningful human contact” for at least 22 hours a day, amounts to psychological torture when such placements last longer than 15 days.
  • The research reveals that in the first four months of Trump’s second term, the use solitary confinement grew by an average of 6.5% each month; more than six times the average monthly increase seen during the final months of Joe Biden’s administration.
  • Meanwhile, the number of vulnerable people placed in solitary confinement, such as those with health problems or mental health conditions, rose by 56% in fiscal year 2025 when compared with 2022. Of people with vulnerabilities, placements “lasted more than twice as long as they did in the first fiscal quarter of 2022”.
• ICE agents didn’t have body cams during deadly shooting of Silverio Villegas González outside Chicago
  • U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents weren’t wearing body cameras during the deadly shooting of a Mexican immigrant last week in the suburbs because a program requiring them was scrapped by the Trump administration.
  • Two ICE agents weren’t wearing body-worn cameras when one of them fatally shot Silverio Villegas González in a traffic stop Friday in Franklin Park, according to a federal official who asked not to be identified.
  • Although ICE’s budget has skyrocketed during Trump’s second term, the official confirmed body cameras haven’t been distributed to officials across the agency carrying out the president’s immigration enforcement agenda.
• ICE unit signs new $3M contract for phone-hacking tech
  • U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) law enforcement arm Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) has signed a contract worth $3 million with Magnet Forensics, a company that makes a phone-hacking and unlocking device called Graykey.  
  • The contract, which appeared on Tuesday in a federal government procurement database, said it is for software licenses for the phone-hacking tech for HSI “to recover digital evidence, process multiple devices, & generate forensic reports essential to mission of protecting national security & public.”
• California granted temporary win in legal battle against Trump
  • A court order has temporarily paused a federal policy that would prohibit undocumented immigrants from accessing certain public programs, including health care and education services. 
  • The Trump administration’s policy change would require these programs to verify recipients’ immigration status, a move that would reverse a policy implemented by the Clinton administration in 1997 that extended “public benefit” programs to everyone, including undocumented immigrants. Programs affected by the policy change would include Head Start, childcare services, adult education, food banks and more.
• Oxnard City Council has directed the city attorney to seek intervention in the federal lawsuit Pedro Vasquez Perdomo v. Kristi Noem
• 73-year-old Bay Area woman is detained by ICE after more than a decade of check-ins
  • Harjit Kaur, a 73-year-old San Francisco Bay Area grandmother who has lived in the United States for three decades, was unexpectedly detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement last week during a routine check-in, according to her attorney.
  • Kaur was detained Sept. 8 at an ICE facility in San Francisco, transferred to an office in Fresno hours later and then taken in handcuffs to a detention center in Bakersfield, where she arrived at 3 a.m. the next day, her attorney said.
  • “When she was brought to Fresno ... she was again held in a cell and no bed, no seat, nothing. There was a toilet in there, no toilet paper. She asked for water to have a drink of water, and she was explicitly told ‘no more water,’” Ahluwalia said.
• [Chicago] Southwest Side Workers Taken By ICE As At Least 12 Arrested In City By Masked Agents 
  • About 2 p.m. Wednesday, immigration agents detained at least five people at a Home Depot on West 47th Street and South Western Avenue, said Karina Martinez, communications coordinator for the Brighton Park Neighborhood Council. At least two agents wearing green and black vests were spotted, organizers said in a social media alert.
• Secretary Noem posts cringe DHS propaganda video set to Nirvana mash up
• USCIS Unveils First Changes to Naturalization Test in Multi-Step Overhaul of American Citizenship Standards
  • “American citizenship is the most sacred citizenship in the world and should only be reserved for aliens who will fully embrace our values and principles as a nation. By ensuring only those aliens who meet all eligibility requirements, including the ability to read, write, and speak English and understand U.S. government and civics, are able to naturalize, the American people can be assured that those joining us as fellow citizens are fully assimilated and will contribute to America’s greatness. These critical changes are the first of many,” said USCIS Spokesperson Matthew Tragesser.
    • Notice of Implementation of 2025 Naturalization Civics Test
      • On January 20, 2025, President Trump issued Executive Order (E.O.) 14161, Protecting the United States From Foreign Terrorists and Other National Security and Public Safety Threats.^[30] The E.O. directs the Secretary to “[e]valuate the adequacy of programs designed to ensure the proper assimilation of lawful immigrants into the United States, and recommend any additional measures to be taken that promote a unified American identity and attachment to the Constitution, laws, and founding principles of the United States[.]”
      • The 2020 Naturalization Civics Test increased the general bank of civics test questions from 100 to 128, the number of test questions for the exam to 20 (from 10), and the number of correct answers needed to pass the civics test to 12 (from 6). Officers asked all 20 questions, and the alien had to answer 12 questions correctly. The test was administered by an officer who asked the alien questions from a computer-generated list of 20 questions selected randomly at prescribed levels of difficulty from the bank of 128 questions. With the 2020 Naturalization Civics Test, USCIS aimed to standardize the administration of the Naturalization Civics Test and ensure that the test provided a meaningful assessment of an alien's knowledge and understanding of U.S. history and government, and that it was uniform and fair for all aliens applying for naturalization.[23]