A crying schoolgirl’s videotape of her undocumented father being arrested by federal agents in the Los Angeles area this week while taking his children to school has sparked emotion and outrage.
Romulo Avelica-Gonzalez, a 48-year-old Mexican who has lived in the United States for 27 years, was arrested on Tuesday by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) near his children’s school located in the Highland Park neighborhood of Los Angeles.
His 13-year-old daughter Fatima Avelica recorded the arrest from the backseat of the car as she wept.
Authorities said Avelica-Gonzalez was arrested because of a 2009 conviction for driving under the influence and had an outstanding deportation order against him dating back to 2014.
An attorney for a rights group defending him also told AFP he was sought because of an incident 20 years ago in which he purchased a car and used an incorrect registration sticker since he was unable to get a driver’s license at the time given his undocumented status.
ICE officials said Avelica-Gonzalez was being detained pending a hearing on his case.
The arrest came as federal agents are launching sweeps across the United States following President Donald Trump’s executive order aimed at cracking down on illegal immigration.
The video of Avelica-Gonzalez’s arrest shows him being led away from his car by two agents with the word “police” emblazoned on their shirts and being placed in an unmarked car.
His daughter can be heard sobbing in the background.
Fatima told AFP that federal agents followed her father’s car after he left the house to take her and her sister to school. He dropped off his 12-year-old daughter and was about to drop Fatima at another nearby campus when two vehicles surrounded his car.
“Before heading to school I had gone out to buy snacks and I saw a suspicious car with dark windows near the house,” Fatima recalled. “When they arrested my dad he asked what he had done wrong and they told him to be quiet and handcuffed him.
“My mother (who was also in the car) told me we have to be strong.”
Her older 19-year-old sister Jocelyn said the family had spoken by telephone with Avelica-Gonzalez.
“We’re hopeful we will have our dad back soon,” said Fatima. “We want to have our family back together.”
Jennifer Cuevas, a spokeswoman at Fatima’s school — Academia Avance — said the arrest had sown panic among pupils and their families, some of whom are undocumented.
“We consider ourself a sanctuary school but there’s a sense of terror now,” she said. “The Trump administration is causing a scare and that’s just wrong.”
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