A vigil was set for tonight at a Monrovia Home Depot store, a day after a federal immigration raid prompted a man to flee onto the nearby 210 freeway, where he was struck and killed, prompting outrage in the community and a denial Friday from federal officials that agents had targeted the man.
The man’s name had not yet been officially released, but Department of Homeland Security officials on Friday said he was not being pursued by federal law enforcement.
Also see: Man fleeing from ICE raid in Monrovia fatally struck on 210 Freeway
“This individual was not being pursued by any DHS law enforcement,” a DHS spokesperson told the Southern California News Group.
“We do not know their legal status. We were not aware of this incident or notified by California Highway Patrol until hours after operations in the area had concluded.”
According to a statement by Monrovia City Manager Dylan Feik, Monrovia police responded shortly before 10 a.m. to a call about an ICE action at The Home Depot at 1625 Mountain Ave. During that action, a man fled on foot across Evergreen Avenue and onto the 210 Freeway and was struck by a vehicle near Myrtle Avenue, according to Feik and the California Highway Patrol.
CHP officials said the man was struck by a Ford Expedition SUV being driven by a 51-year-old man at 50 to 60 mph.
CHP officials said the person was taken to a hospital, where he died.
The incident sparked protests on Thursday at the scene of the ICE raid. Demonstrators voiced outrage over the death and called for an end to the continued immigration enforcement operations taking place in and around Los Angeles.
Duarte Mayor Cesar Garcia also issued to statement Thursday, adding that City of Hope staff turned immigration enforcement officers away at the Duarte campus the same day.
“The thought that someone looking for work and to provide for their family lost their life in this manner is heartbreaking,” Garcia said.
Federal operations began in early June throughout the county, fueled by President Donald Trump’s pledge to mass deport undocumented immigrants. But since then, armed, masked federal agents have descended on communities large and small in a dragnet that has frightened many residents in the region, and hit immigrant-dependent industries particularly hard.
The Trump administration has hailed the crackdown as a success, pointing to an array of arrests throughout the country of immigrations with serious criminal records.
The raids had been halted in July by a federal judge’s order, upheld by an appeals court, that limited the kind of stops federal agents can make — the kind based solely on apparent race or ethnicity; speaking Spanish or English with an accent; presence in a particular location like a bus stop, car wash, or agricultural site; or the type of work a person does.
The National Day Laborer Organizing Network, based in Pasadena, will hold a rally at The Home Depot store at 6 p.m. Friday in memory of the man who died.
“The worker was fleeing an unannounced raid by immigration agents, the latest in an ongoing wave of violent, chaotic kidnappings and assaults that ICE and other agencies are waging at Home Depots and other locations across Southern California,” according to a statement from the group.
On Thursday, state Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez, D-Pasadena, issued a statement decrying the raids and referenced the death, which was in her district.
“President Trump’s terror campaign has taken another life,” she said, while also offering her condolences to the man’s family.
“There is such incredible fear in our immigrant communities, so much so that people will run into freeway traffic out of fear when all they want is a chance to support their family and seek the American Dream,”
Pérez called for an end to what she described as violent and sweeping.
“The Trump Administration is violating a federal court order by continuing to conduct deadly roving immigration raids within the area of the U.S. District Court’s Central District of California that includes Los Angeles County,” she stated. “These raids have been ruled to be illegal racial profiling by a federal judge and the Trump Administration has been ordered to comply with a temporary restraining order.”
Pérez has been an advocate for comprehensive immigration law reform.
“How many more brown-skinned people have to die before the president will obey the law?” she asked. “There is a better way. Comprehensive immigration reform that both parties work on is the only solution. I renew my call to pursue this path and stop the terror.”
Homeland Security officials have repeatedly defended the work of ICE agents, denying allegations that operations are carried out randomly.
“Every single one of our ICE and Border Patrol operations is built on information, on investigative work,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Thursday during an appearance on Fox News when asked about a downtown Los Angeles raid conducted outside a building where Gov. Gavin Newsom was holding a news conference.
She said ICE agents conduct operations at specific locations “because of who they think could be in that area and what they have for information that shows there are illegal criminals there. Remember we’re focusing on the worst of the worst.”
The CHP was continuing its investigation into the circumstances surrounding how and why the pedestrian ran onto the freeway, according to a CHP statement. Anyone with information about this incident is encouraged to contact Officer J. Rosas, during business hours, at 626-517-8500.
City News Service contributed to this report.