One day after ICE agents took five day laborers from the Home Depot in Monrovia, a group of clergy and lay people set up an altar at the store sign off Mountain Avenue.
It was at least the fifth time community members had brought candles, flowers and signs to the site, where on Aug. 14, a day laborer named Carlos Montoya was struck and killed by an SUV while fleeing agents from the U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement.
“They have no choice,” said Marlom Portillo, who said he and others arrived minutes after the men were detained. “They don’t have the luxury to stop working.”
Portillo, popular education curriculum coordinator for the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON) in Pasadena, said the raid happened at 9:25 a.m. Wednesday, Oct. 1, with masked and armed men arriving from the Mountain Avenue entrance to Home Depot, passing the orange sign where more hundreds held a vigil calling for justice for immigrants about 50 days ago.
Since then, community members, led by local clergy and the Immigrant Resource Center in Monrovia, have replaced the candles, signs and flowers that are taken down, they said, usually overnight. A white cross stands undisturbed at the location on Evergreen Avenue, where Montoya was struck.
“Carlos wasn’t a criminal. He was a son, a husband, a father, a friend,” said Jean Grant, director of development and strategic partnerships at the Immigration Resource Center of San Gabriel Valleyin Monrovia. “There’s no reason for him to be gone. He has a name and it’s important we keep his name in people’s ears. Nothing will stop us from coming back.”
The Rev. Francisco Garcia of Sacred Resistance, the social justice arm of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles, speaks to people assembled for a vigil at the Home Depot in Monrovia on Oct. 2, a day after five day laborers were taken at a second immigration raid of the store. (Photo by Anissa V. Rivera)
The group said they plan to set up a memorial at 10 a.m. Saturdays, as long as needed. It would be for Montoya and immigrants who have died in detention or as a result of ICE raids.
A store manager at the Monrovia branch referred queries to Home Depot public relations, which acknowledged receipt of an email but did not respond further.
At Thursday’s vigil, attended by about 19 people, the Rev. Francisco Garcia of Sacred Resistance, said it was heartening to find people of different faiths standing for Montoya, and day laborers whose names they don’t know.
“Carlos Montoya’s name must not be forgotten, as with the others taken yesterday,” Garcia said.
Sacred Resistance is the social justice arm of the Episcopal Diocese of Los Angeles.Portillo, of NDLON, said his advocacy group is demanding Gov. Gavin Newsom and Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta launch an independent investigation on Montoya’s death.
The U.S. Customs and Border Protection report on the incident, which identified him “an unknown pedestrian,” was released on Aug. 25. It acknowledged one Border Patrol agent reported he ran after a man out of the Home Depot parking lot but abandoned the pursuit and did not see the man struck by a vehicle.
An email requesting confirmation of the raid on Oct. 1 was sent Friday, Oct. 3 to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. It was acknowledged by the agency within its requested timeframe for a response, but none had been received.
The raids are part of an ongoing federal immigration crackdown, which commenced in June. Fueled by President Donald Trump’s pledge to deport the “worst of the worst,” raids have blanketed the L.A. area and areas across the nation.
But while the raids have led to the arrests of hardened criminal immigrants, agents have also apprehended people who — while undocumented and sometimes who are American citizens — are not the murderers and rapists that the administration has said it is targeting.
An Alabama construction worker and U.S. citizen who says he was detained twice by immigration agents within just a few weeks has filed a lawsuit in federal court demanding an end to Trump administration workplace raids targeting industries with large immigrant workforces.
But in response to an Associated Press query on the matter, the Department of Homeland Security dismissed the suit as “race-baiting opportunism.”
“DHS law enforcement uses ‘reasonable suspicion’ to make arrests,” Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. “What makes someone a target for immigration enforcement is if they are illegally in the U.S. — NOT their skin color, race, or ethnicity.”
Bryan Merrill of the Duarte Ward of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints said he felt compelled to action the day Montoya was killed. He now attends monthly interfaith meetings “to see how we as people of faith can work together.”
The coalition of local leaders and church groups have trained as part of rapid response teams that deploy to any site of a confirmed ICE raid. Grant, of the immigrant resource center, said the mission is to bear witness, and accomplish what she calls the 4 “A’s” of activism, advocacy, accompaniment and acts of kindness.
Whether it be attending vigils, visiting detainees or tending to the families they leave behind, there is something everyone can do according to their risk level, Grant said.
Rúhíyyih Yuille of Monrovia, and a follower of the Baháʼí faith, said African American tradition demands people say the name of a victim as a ritual of remembrance and protest.
“Justice and love are verbs, not just feelings,” Yuille said. “Do not be content.”
Sheila Dart of Monrovia is a member of St. Luke’s Episcopal Church, also in Monrovia. She said the living under the second Trump administration is “not a time to lie down.”
“It makes a difference to us,” she said of showing up at vigils and protests. “It keeps us strong. It keeps us remembering.”
Dart said Montoya’s life continues to make a difference to anyone who decides to
“I pray one day his grieving family will know that too, that his death has spurred us to action, spurred us to justice, to come in love and action for him.”