Tuesday was a routine day for Romulo Avelica-Gonzalez. He began his day by dropping off his 12-year-old daughter at her school in the Lincoln Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles, Calif.
He had just pulled away from the school and turned onto the main road when, within minutes, his vehicle was boxed in by 2 unmarked black cars.
Agents for the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) piled out of the 2 cars. The agents, wearing jackets that said “POLICE” on the back, dragged the 48-year-old father-of-4 out of his car and placed him under arrest.
Avelica-Gonzalez’s wife and 13-year-old daughter were with him when the agents pulled him over. Sobbing uncontrollably, his daughter captured her father’s arrest on her cell phone.
Avelica-Gonzalez’s arrest was routine, according to ICE. He had a 2014 deportation order that had never been enforced.
The arrest sent shockwaves through Academia Avance, a public charter school where many of the students have parents who are illegal immigrants. Some of the parents have deportation orders.
School administrators held an assembly on Tuesday afternoon to ease the fears of students and faculty.
The LA Times reports that the school’s executive director, Ricardo Mireles, instructed teachers to talk to their students about contingency plans in case their parents are arrested and deported.
“It’s unfortunate that we have to have minors now deal with reality,” he said. “You need to be ready. ‘Have you talked to your parents? Do you have power of attorney?'”
There are also reports that migrant parents are choosing guardians for their children in case they are deported.
ICE has a long-standing policy against arresting illegal immigrants at “sensitive locations” such as churches, hospitals and schools.
Avelica-Gonzalez’s family claims he was arrested within 2 blocks of his daughter’s school. But the LA Times matched the daughter’s video with Google Maps images, which appear to show that the arrest happened about six blocks from Academia Avance.
Rumors are circulating that multiple arrests have taken place at elementary schools and high schools around the Los Angeles area.
The Times checked into those reports, which all turned out to be false.
ICE agents deported 3 million illegals during Obama’s 2 terms. But the leftwing media focuses on each new deportation case in an ongoing effort to undermine the Trump administration.
