Seven people detained during immigration operation at Corona Home Depot
Seven people were detained during an immigration enforcement operation at a Home Depot in Corona on Monday, activists say.
It happened at around 9 a.m. at the hardware store located in the 400 block of McKinley Street. Video from the scene shows federal agents chasing men around cars in the parking lot before placing them in handcuffs.
The Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice said that their members rushed to the scene after learning of the operation and witnessed five people being taken from the parking lot. Federal officials later clarified that seven people were actually arrested during the incident.
"We're gonna try and connect with them and make sure they have the legal resources they need," said Alan Vargas, with IC4IJ.
Milton Sanchez was one of the day laborers outside of the Home Depot when the agents arrived. He said that they asked for paperwork showing legal status before the situation escalated into the foot chase caught on camera.
"The only thing we try to do is get jobs and feed our families, that's it," he said. "They don't let us do that."
Activists said that there were also two different operations in Chino on Monday morning. At least three people were also detained during those incidents.
"We believe that they were street kidnappings, which we would call them flash kidnappings, where they're gone in less than five minutes," Vargas said. "The only reason we tend to know there was a kidnapping was there's just a vehicle abandoned on the side of the road."
He said that they will continue working to identify the detainees and connect them with their families to try to provide them with the necessary legal resources.
CBS News Los Angeles requested additional information from the Department of Homeland Security on the Corona operation. In response, they said that USBP agents conducted an operation that resulted in seven arrests, including Freddy Perez-Marroquin, a Mexican national who was previously charged with hit-and-run, property damage and driving without a license, and Roberto Hugo Mendoza-Hernandez, a man from El Salvador who was previously arrested for DUI, reckless driving, burglary and vandalism.
"Under President Trump and Secretary Noem, if you come to the U.S. and break the law, you will face the consequences, and you could end up in CECOT or in any number of third countries," a statement from DHS said.
