Dear, let you know USA listener.

Before we start, you should know that if you want to listen to this episode, add free.

Just join plus and you can join for as little as seven dollars a month.

Joining also gets you behind the scenes access and yes, some cheese may so click the link in the episode description and after you do that, then click play.

Let's go to the show.

Oh well god.

It was a cloudy Monday morning in June when masked ICE agents pulled up to a car wash in southern California.

Sur him bad, Jaminet and Ice.

This is Candido.

He's a car was shadow in his sixties with short silver hair.

He has a sort of gentle look on his face, like someone who would smile and nod as he passes you by.

Ganilo doesn't have legal status.

We are not using his full name or any identifying information at his request because he fears retaliation in his case.

Moving forward, Ganilo was taken by Ice about a month ago at his job detailing cars.

It all happened so fast.

He says Bennett, In a.

Matter of minutes.

He and seven of his coworkers were detained, handcuffed, and shoved into white vans with out of state plates.

He was worried scared.

Porque gave.

A video from that incident was posted on TikTok.

In it, you can see ICE agents dressed in what looks like green army like uniforms.

Most are wearing sunglasses and masks.

DA The car wash has three ways to get.

In and out, and Gandido says I had blocked all three openings.

Some markers wanted to run, but there was no.

Way out Momente Calamos and Cinema.

Ice agents took everyone's cell phones right away.

Telephone better, but the ICE officers didn't notice Gandido's Apple Watch graa.

Wow.

That's the only way he was able to contact his family.

He only had a few numbers memorized, so he called his niece mussetto whom he lives with.

He was able to call me, so he's like, oh, I'm being detained.

They're here.

It's like nine or ten of us.

They took everything from us.

And I told him, how are you calling me?

Like how is this possible?

He's like, my Apple Watch don't speak loud.

I'm like, oh, that's fine.

And I did tell him it doesn't matter how bad they treat you.

What they tell you do not sign anything.

Don't sign anything.

Since the increase in ICE raids, immigrant rights groups have been saying this across the country.

People have been sharing this and WhatsApp groups.

Don't sign anything, don't open the door unless you see a warrant.

For the last few months, Lusetto, her husband and their children have all been watching out for their Pio Candido.

So I would always tell him if something ever happens, like you have rights.

That cloudy morning in June, Lusetto's phone rang.

It was her uncle.

He was calling from his Apple Watch.

He had been taken.

I couldn't believe it.

We just talked about it, like in your detained, Like what am I going to do?

Like how am I going to help you?

I can't.

I don't know how I'm going to.

But I don't know how.

From Fudre Media, it's Latino USA.

I'm Maria Josa today Gandhido's story.

What happens after an ICE rate?

Later, I speak to cal Matters reporter said, here almost will update us on a one of a kind crowdsourcing project revealing how ICE is specifically targeting Latino and Latina communities.

But first, here's.

Latino USA producer Monica Moreles Garcia again to continue with Gandido's story.

Hours had passed since Gandido was taken by Ice.

It was nighttime and he still hadn't had anything to eat or drink.

Guando mourto at eleven pm, Ice agents gave him a burrito and that's it.

At least he thinks it was around eleven PM, because officers eventually took.

His watch.

Central Ortlanto.

Yeah.

The next day, Gannilo was transferred to the notoriously brutal detention center in the small desert town of Atlanto, California, about a two hour drive from Los Angeles.

The perma.

At the beginning of twenty twenty five, there were only three detainees at the Adelanto Ice Processing Center.

Yeah.

Three.

That's because advocates and congressional members had been working for years to close down the privately run facility.

Since the LA raids in June, twelve hundred people have been detained there.

When Gandilo got to the jail like facility, it was placed in a room with around one hundred other men.

Louise Tolia, Elia Conditional and them.

The air conditioner was on full blast and the bright lights never turned off, they only dimmed slightly at night.

Flora ye.

Gano says it was so cold people got sick.

He felt like he'd been kidnapped.

He was at the mercy of agents who would retaliate against anyone who spoke up.

Yeah, I said, he calls the agents there racist.

With ganiito and detention, Lusetto wasn't wasting one second.

She needed her uncle to be released, so she began researching who did she need to talk to, and she came across an organization called Clean car Wash.

They said that they specialized on helping car washers and that they were going to try to do everything in their power to help us out.

Clean car Wash is a worker center based in Los Angeles, which until recently focused on providing shadows with trade edge and support and fighting for lost wages.

With everything you know that has been happening and everything that started the first weekend of June, we had to pivot and shift to providing support to car wash workers and the families of those that have been impacted by federal agencies going into car washes and kidnapping people from work.

This is Andrea Gonzalez, Deputy director of Clean car Wash.

When the raid happened at Gandilo's car wash, you know, we reached out to the manager and thankfully the manager provided us information about the workers that had been abducted that day, and then that's how we got to meet Lusetto.

The organization took it from there.

They got legal representation for Gandido and as for a bond hearing in front of an immigration judge.

Our role was to essentially let them know that they were not alone because our organization, along with other worker centers in Los Angeles, mobilized to create a legal fund.

Why are car washers specifically being targeted?

So we know that over fifty eight car washes were rated in the last month.

We recognize that car wash workers are vulnerable because they're out in the open air, and we have also learned that workers themselves can recognize that they were being surveillance.

You know.

Also, they're being targeted because it's a predominantly Latino immigrant workforce, and we think that they are assuming that all of those workers don't have legal status because of the color of their skip.

Yeah, Andrea tells me, in most cases, once workers get taken by ice, they don't make it out.

Unfortunately, a lot of the workers were deported by the time we got to them.

It was too late.

They didn't make the phone call or they couldn't make a uncle.

Some of Gandhilo's co workers have already been deported to Watemala and Mexico, he says, and others are still detained waiting.

Out of all the cases, Clean car Wash is supporting Gandilo is the only one who's been released.

He was let go on bond under strict conditions.

I visited Gando at his home last weekend.

He showed me his left inkle.

He had on an inkle monitor.

In monitors.

I was kind of shocked.

The inkle monitor was bulkier than I expected and heavier than he thought it would be.

Wow.

Ganido is home with Lucetto.

His location is monitored twenty four seven and he can't go back to work at the car wash.

But at least he's home.

We're still fighting, we're fighting for legal status.

He still continues having the same support of the lawyer, so she's working on his case.

We're hoping for a good outcome.

Misolina, my niece did everything possible.

That's why I'm here, he says.

You could say Gandilo is one of the lucky ones he had timing on his side.

See days after Gannido's bond went through, the Trump administration declared that immigrants who arrive in the United States without proper documentation are no longer eligible for a bond hearing as they fight deportation proceedings.

So that means millions of people are unlikely to be.

Entitled to bond hearings.

And then of course that raised his questions the prison system and the capacity.

This is millions of people we're talking about.

Over the last eight weeks, almost three thousand people have been arrested for not being US citizens.

According to legal experts, these raids violate the Constitution because, as they explain, human rights are afforded to people based on their personhood, not their citizenship.

That was Latin New USA producer Monica Morales garcim.

We're going to take a quick break, and when we come back, I'll speak with cal Matter's investigative reporter said here almost he's going to talk about a new map that exposes just how racist and targeted these raids are.

Stay with us, don't yes, Hey, we're back.

And before the break, you heard the story of Gandido, a man who was taken by ICE while he was at his car washing job.

Now we're going to speak with friend of the show and cal Matters reporter said Hiro Ormos, who with the help of Evident Media and Belling Cat, has mapped out the Department of Homeland Securities actions since the ICE raids began in California in the spring.

In total, over one hundred videos have been geolocated and verified, displaying patterns of where DHS has focused their efforts, including raids at over fifteen separate home depots.

This is important because it's the most comprehensive map to date of the raids.

In a video, said he exposes patterns that show where ICE has focused its actions, how the agency has been using excessive force, and how agents have been detaining people on private property without warrants.

The video which we're playing in this conversation also includes an interview with Greg Bovino.

He's an official with the Border Patrol who's been leading the raids in the area.

I think the general public does see a difference between the palato or the silitrus worker and the fentanyl dealer that they are not both on the same field.

If they cross the border illegally, then they're coming with us.

They are under arrest and they're coming with us.

And they need to lave and they need to leave right now.

Sed Heo, welcome back to Latin you USA.

Thank you so much for having me, and thank you for this reporting, because in a moment like this, what you're basically doing is deconstructing ICE and DHS and their strategies and letting viewers, readers, listeners see for themselves.

Explain to our listeners why is it important to be doing this kind of data collection and then putting it all together to be able to basically say, this is what ICE and Border Patrol are doing every day.

If you're in Los Angeles on Instagram, even if you're not following it, you're seeing videos of people being taken by Immigration of agents.

You know, I think we all suspect what it looks like.

But when you actually see it on a map and you see fifteen separate home depots and you see them spread across Los Angeles, you see the scale of it, but it's been verified by a team of professionals, then there leaves no doubt it's happening all over the place and it's not rumors.

I mean, there's very good websites and they try their best to verify it.

But you know, I was even shocked, and I work on this all day every day.

Mass agents pull up quickly, they jump out of unmarked vans or trucks.

They wear blue jeans or battle fatigues.

They approach Latino men at times yelling and carry assault rifles.

When someone runs, they're taken.

When they don't answer a question, they're taken.

When they can't produce papers, they're taken.

So why is it important to be able to provide this kind of information to the people out there?

Because the federal government has been so intentional about carrying out these operations, with mass on, with not giving out information when journalists ask for it, with not being transparent, there's a lot of rumors and there's a lot of people on the street talking about things that are scary and not verified.

I think outside of Los Angeles, the news and the understanding of what these raids look like hasn't really been communicated.

Well, if you're in La you go walk down the street and there was no taco stands, whether he was there's a lot less people stores.

I just went to a kind city on Saturday and it had a picture that said, if you're an immigration agent, you have to have a sign warrant.

I mean, I'd never seen that before.

And there's all kinds of these signs everywhere.

It's like this whole city has changed.

It's important for journalists to be able to like put out information accurate and say, hey, look we kind of got the breath of this.

Here's some perspective.

And it's the largest, first open source examination of the raids in a way that is not disputable.

Right.

No one can look at that map and say, hey, this didn't happen, because every single point on that map has the video link to it, has been verified, and we've actually released that map, so anybody in the public can actually download it, look at it.

It's all kind of show your work.

And so again with how scary this is, with mass men going up to places not announcing their raids, I think it's important for people to rely on someone to say, like, this is the current pace and scale of things.

Right and based on actual fact, So said here, how did you and your colleagues get the information.

Yeah, there's a lot of divisional labor here.

You know, evidence makes these documentary journalisms.

I'm a reporter, so basically I just talked to people all day long.

Belling Cat is a investigative collective where they do open source investigations.

All that means is anything that's available in public, any video on social media, anything that they can get online they can examine.

And what they do.

They found videos online they were viral and some sources passed them to me.

I sent it to them, and they very meticulously made sure that the video was authentic, for making sure a lamppost is in the right spot, calling the person and looking at the metadata.

But again, it takes a team of journalists to do stuff like this.

And because you're an Angelino, you can kind of tell us like things have changed.

Is it too much to say that La has changed dramatically over the past several weeks.

The change is so apparent and visceral.

The streets had a different character during the raids.

The conversation all around the city was about this.

And it's quite offensive to treat the city of Los angelesic and biggest city in America, as occupied territory and to be treating it like it's a war one.

We'll be right back mont de Boy.

Yes, Hey, we're back.

And here's the rest of my conversation with Cal Matters reporter Serrie Ormos, who's going to talk about how much LA has changed since a federal judge put a stop to the ice raids as they were happening in June.

This is a significant court victory for the City of Los Angeles, seven other LA County cities.

Immigrant rights groups and the ACLU argued that Immigration and Customs enforcement has been engaging in racial profiling.

Can you talk a little bit more about this?

Injunction, they wanted the judge to issue the stop to the raids while they litigate the case, and it's kind of like emergency action, and basically what the plaint is, what the ACLU was arguing was, Hey, these guys, these orbital guys are running up to car washes, they're running up to home depots, and they're just grabbing guys that look like Latino.

Now that we've had this temporary restraining order by the Central District, LA seems like it's coming back to life.

I was just at a Latino grocery store that was just absolutely full to the brim and I was thinking like the last few weeks, I haven't really seen something like this, Like people have not really been going out, but now the temporary restraining order has a real effect.

I mean LA feels especially this week and felt like life was just injected into it again.

And you have NGOs working together with the cities to come together in these lawsuits.

I mean, this is pretty it's pretty extraordinary, Am I right?

Said he absolutely.

I don't think I've ever seen it.

Usually it's an advocacy or challenging the city or the county.

You don't see them on the same side.

I've never seen them on the same side.

I mean, it was a pretty incredible and federal court to see the advocates and all these representatives from the different municipalities.

It is pretty heartwarming to see that the City of Los Angeles, the county, the neighboring cities are all on the same page with these you know, the People's Council that ACLU, this case is brought forth by way, the farm workers, They're all on the same side arguing against this.

It's so rare to see that who is going against that, you know, it's the Trump Administration's Department Hold Security.

So said here.

When we're covering these stories on the ground, oftentimes there is you know, a person, a moment, a story that you kind of hold on to that kind of again grounds us in why are we doing what we're doing.

Is there a story that you've been holding on to as you manage a situation in your city that doesn't seem to be going away anytime soon.

Yeah, you know.

I talked to one guy who was taken at work and he was deported within the week, and I asked him why, when he was in attention in Texas, why he signed the voluntary deportation PAPERORGS.

Why didn't he just kind of stay there try to get a lawyer.

And he said, very simply, well, I have a family.

I need to work.

And he's like, I'm not going to be here for seven months, Like I'm going to go back to Mexico and I'll try to make it work there, but I need to provide for my family.

It's a matter of fact about it.

And I just thought I want to adopt a little bit more of that in my life, Like, there's going to be tough times, but my job is to be a journalist.

I'm not going to be catatonic when something bad happens.

I want to keep, you know, my mind sharp and work the problem.

And there's a resiliency that I'm seeing and people who are taken deported, and that resiliency is something that even I just think immigrants have so much resiliency already, and even when they're deported, like I'm seeing them not put their heads down.

And just like right now, some of the people who interviewed are in Chiapas, Mexico City, working like they have not stopped working since even now that they're in Mexico.

You know.

It leads me to my last question for you said here, which is actually about you.

What keeps you optimistic these days?

If I ever feel down, there's so much stories just in my history of you know, both my parents grew up without running water or electricity, and so I'm optimistic every day about the resiliency by immigrants.

I would say there's a saying in Mexican Spanish Levas which means this is absolutely gonna backfire on Trump dar del temprano sooner or later.

And I think the pendulum is going to swing absolutely in another direction in terms of immigrants.

The reality is, if you look at the Gallipolo just came out nearly eighty percent of people support immigration.

It's highest it's ever recorded.

And I'm not the only one who's looking at all this and saying this is not the American way, right.

And I learned that people can go through a lot of things if they go through it together, you can bounce back very quickly from really tough times if you're not the only one going through it.

I mean, people here care.

And there was immediately outpoint of people, you know, thousands of people in the streets of Los Angeles saying that they do not approve of what's going on.

I think there's a lot of reasons to be optimistic.

People are not indifferent, and that gives me energy.

That's what makes you a great journalist.

At you almost thank you so much for joining us again and being a friend of Latin USA.

We appreciate it.

Thanks for your reporting, and we'll continue to check in with you.

I'm so happy to be a friend of Thank you so much.

This episode was produced by Monica Morales Garcia and edited by our managing editor Fernanda Echavari.

It was mixed by Stephane Laboude and J.

J.

Carubin fat checking for this episode by Roxana Aguire special thanks to Marta Martinez.

The Latino USA team.

Also includes Julia Caruso, Jessica Elis, Victoria Strada, Renaldo Leanos Junior, Andrea Lopez Gruzado, Louis Luna Rori, mad Marquez, Julieta Martinelli and Nancy Truquillo.

Our intern is Diego.

Perdomo, Benni, Lee Ramirez and I are co executive producers and I'm your host Mariano Hossak.

Latino USA is part of iHeart Spiku Dura podcast Network.

Executive producers that I heard are Leo Gomez and Arlene Santana.

Join us again, dear listener, on our next episode.

In the meantime, I'll see you on all of our social media and remember it's so easy.

Just join Fudua Plus.

You'll listen at free and get bonus episodes and special behind the scenes stuff.

By joining, you'll support the kind of reporting that makes episodes like this one possible.

So thank you io.

Latino USA is made possible in part by California Endowment, building a strong state by improving the health of all Californians.

The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation for more than fifty years, advancing ideas and supporting institutions to promote.

A better world at Hewlett dot org and funding for Latino usa is.

Coverage of a culture of Health is made possible, in part by a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation