On Tuesday morning, two day laborer advocates were arrested by federal police at a Home Depot parking lot in Van Nuys, according to attorneys for the arrestees.
Jude Jasmine Jeannine Allard, 28, and Jenaro-Ernesto Ayala, 43, were arrested on suspicion of interfering with immigration enforcement operations, United States Border Patrol Sector Chief Gregory Bovino said in a statement on X.
Ayala and Allard are facing additional felony charges for allegedly “placing homemade tire spikes to disable law enforcement vehicles,” Bovino confirmed.
Ayala is an American citizen and an outreach coordinator who helps connect workers with resources and jobs at the Van Nuys Day Labor Center, according to Meagean Ortiz, executive director of Instituto de Educacion Popular del Sur De California (IDEPSCA), in speaking to the Los Angeles Times.
Sadot Jarnica, 54, and Daniel Montenegro, 30, were also arrested on felony charges.
Video footage shot at the Van Nuys Home Depot parking lot during the raid, reviewed by L.A. TACO, shows federal agents refusing to identify themselves by name when confronted by the person recording the video.
“What is your name?,” the person asks.
“My name is border patrol,” a masked agent responds.
Later in the video, a border patrol agent wearing camouflage and tactical gear takes a man, who appears to be 54-year-old Sadot Jamica, down to the ground aggressively.
Afterwards, multiple federal agents surround Jarnica as additional officers pile on top of him, while activists try to rush to his defense. Carrying “less-lethal” launchers and batons, as well as what appear to be assault rifles, the agents surrounding Jarnica keep people at a distance.
Later, a federal agent is seen on video plowing into a woman with his shoulder, leveling her to the pavement.
Standing in front of the the Federal Detention Center on Alameda Street in Downtown Los Angeles, attorney Cal Soto of the National Day Labor Organizing Network told the media, “Earlier today, after these arrests were made, we were contacted and I attempted to go into the facility here … to see Ernesto and Jude and talk to them as their attorney about their rights.”
“By 3pm today, we were denied access with them,” Soto said.
Federal authorities told Soto his clients were still “in processing,” and that they were unable to locate “exactly” where they’re being held, Soto said at the emergency press conference organized by immigration rights group, Union del Barrio.
“We are here in front of the detention center, the Federal Detention Center where Ernesto and Jude are being held,” Soto continued. “They were arrested, in our eyes unconstitutionally, in the course of an unconstitutional raid meant to attack our communities and pick up people based on the color of their skin and where they're standing.”
"It's not a crime to be brown, Latino, and looking for work in the city,” Soto added.
“It's very important for the public to know that, not only are these goons coming from out of town to attack and arrest members of our community, but then they are putting them into these federal facilities where people's rights are being denied,” said Colleen Flynn, an attorney with the National Lawyers Guild Mass Defense Committee.
“They are not letting them see their attorneys, not letting us check on them, to check on their injuries, not letting us inform them of their rights and their due process,” Flynn continued. “So we immediately request and demand the release of the people arrested today, and the ability to see them, to have them come back to their communities and their families.”
“What we are experiencing here today is just a fraction of what families across Los Angeles have been experiencing, and so that's why we're here today, not just in Ernesto’s, not just in Jude's name, but in the name of all of those detained that disappeared from our streets,” Meagean Ortiz, IDEPSCA’s executive director, said at Tuesday’s press conference.
