After a man was struck and killed by a SUV Thursday while moving from a national migration enforcement cognition astatine a Home Depot successful Monrovia, California, migrant communities are erstwhile again condemning nan national government’s strategies while mourning nan clang victim.
The man who died connected nan 210 Freeway was identified arsenic Roberto Carlos Montoya Valdez from Jutiapa, Guatemala, according to nan National Day Laborer Organizing Network, which said nan Guatemalan consulate had confirmed nan identity.
Cellphone video from nan deadly clang appears to show a passerby connected nan 210 Freeway, showing nan assemblage of a man who has been deed by a car conscionable yards from wherever national officers were arresting time laborers below.
The man ran from nan scene, crossed Evergreen Avenue and entered nan eastbound 210 Freeway, said Monrovia City Manager Dylan Feik. CHP officers said they received a study conscionable earlier 10 a.m. that personification had been deed by a SUV connected nan freeway adjacent Myrtle Avenue.
What precisely led up to nan man moving onto nan freeway is unclear.
“Was it intentional? I don’t deliberation that is nan case, but it ended up pinch a father, a relative being killed,” said Pablo Alvarado, co-executive head of nan National Day Laborers Organizing Network.
The Department of Homeland Security told NBC Los Angeles successful a connection that Montoya Valdez was not being pursued by national officials. But Alvarado blamed nan national officials’ strategies that, he said, created fear.
“Whether they were chasing him aliases not, nan truth is that erstwhile you person operations of this kind, nan first guidance of immoderate quality being is to run.”
Many others successful nan aforesaid Home Depot parking batch besides ran, according to group who witnessed aliases knowledgeable nan raid.
“My leader told maine to tally because migration was there,” Mattias, a worker who escaped nan raid, said successful Spanish. “Some group ran sloppy of their migration position because nowadays, they don’t cognize if undocumented aliases documented group will beryllium detained.”
Mattias said he wounded himself while jumping a fence.
DHS said 8 time laborers were arrested during Thursday’s raid, including nationals from Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras. The section called nan ambush by U.S. Border Patrol a “targeted migration enforcement operation,” but did not mention nan decease of Valdez.
Karma Dickerson, NBC Los Angeles
Karma Dickerson is simply a newsman for nan NBC4 News.
Helen Jeong, NBC Los Angeles
Helen Jeong is simply a newsman for NBC Los Angeles.