Families Arrested in LA Raids Were Held in Basement With Little Food or Water - Lawyers

As federal agents rushed to arrest immigrants across Los Angeles, they confined detainees—including families with small children—in a stuffy office basement for days without sufficient food and water, according to immigration lawyers.

- Maanvi Singh

One family with three children was held in a Los Angeles-area administrative building for 48 hours after being arrested last week immediately after an immigration court hearing, according to lawyers from the Immigrant Defenders Law Center (ImmDef), which is providing nonprofit legal services in the region.

The children, the youngest of whom is three, were provided a bag of crisps, a box of animal crackers, and a mini carton of milk as their sole rations for a day. Agents told the family they did not have any water to provide during the family's first day in detention; on the second day, all five were given a single bottle to share. The one fan in the room was pointed directly towards a guard, rather than towards the families in confinement, they told lawyers.

“Because it was primarily men held in these facilities, they didn’t have separate quarters for families or for women,” said Yliana Johansen-Méndez, chief programme officer at ImmDef. Clients explained that “eventually they set up a makeshift tent in an outside area to house the women and children. But clearly, there were no beds, no showers.”