INS Rounds Up Dozens of Alien Freeway Squatters

Nearly 120 suspected illegal aliens were arrested before dawn Wednesday by U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service agents who moved in on two West Los Angeles freeway overpasses where homeless men and women were living in squalid camps.

The squatters had furnished their makeshift quarters on dirt embankments under the San Diego Freeway at two spots near Pico and National boulevards with filthy old mattresses, discarded sofas and battered cardboard boxes. At one of the encampments, graffiti and magazine cutouts adorned the cement walls.

INS Regional Commissioner Harold Ezell called living conditions under the bridges “the worst . . . I’ve ever seen.” He said portable television sets had been wired to power lines that feed the freeway lights, but the only electric appliance apparent to visitors a short time after the raid was a battery-powered fan.

About 40 suspected illegal aliens were seized under the overpasses and nearly 80 others were picked up along nearby Sawtelle Boulevard, where workers await day-labor jobs, and at a neighborhood apartment complex.

“It’s barbaric,” Ezell said. “These people are human beings. They shouldn’t be treated like animals. That’s why we’re bringing them in as illegal aliens.”

Antonio Rodriguez, director of the Los Angeles Center for Law and Justice, said later that Ezell’s comment was “the kind of fascist talk that essentially says we cut off the patient’s foot in order to cure his ingrown toenail.”

Rodriguez said it is “alarming . . . that this kind of inhumane and fascistic thinking is actually being allowed without challenge. It is the bigot’s way of creating more xenophobia and racism against the Latino community.”

State Property

Homeless people have been sleeping under the freeway bridges for at least three years, according to nearby residents. West Los Angeles police said earlier that they could not evict the squatters because the land is state property.

The arrests took place at about 5 a.m., and reporters were led to the site about three hours later.

Later in the morning, according to neighbors, half a dozen state Department of Transportation trucks arrived to clean up the deserted camps. “It smelled really bad,” complained an 85-year-old woman resident of the area.

Charles Aguilar, a 14-year-old boy who was visiting an uncle in the apartment complex, said he saw people scurrying away as more than a dozen INS agents swept into the area. He said he did not know if his uncle was among those arrested.

6 Women Arrested

Among the 119 taken into custody, an INS spokesman said, were six women. Most of those arrested were identified as Mexicans. At least two were from El Salvador and one was from Guatemala.

Those arrested were bused to downtown Los Angeles to be given a choice of voluntary deportation or appeals hearings.

Ezell said one man arrested was carrying a loaded pistol and a combat knife.

He said the raid was conducted in response to complaints by residents about job-seekers loitering on the streets, urinating in public and calling out to women waiting at bus stops.

A teacher’s assistant at a preschool across the street from the raid sites said there had been trouble with men hanging around in front of the school. Some appeared to be drunk and in one instance a man was seen urinating in full view of the school, she said.

‘Had to Call Police’

The woman, who declined to give her name, said, “We’ve had problems with drunk people coming into the school. We have had to call the police several times to get them out.”

However, Lilian Spaulding, an employee of a fire sprinkler firm adjacent to the site, said that while the loiterers have been “annoying,” they have not caused any trouble.

City fire officials called the problem a persistent one, noting that they had cited the state Department of Transportation, which maintains the property, for fire hazards. Although the state cleaned up the area and erected fences last year, the squatters returned.

Ezell said Wednesday morning’s sweep came after three illegal aliens were arrested by Culver City police as burglary suspects. One of them showed officers where he had been living under one of the freeway overpasses. The police then called the INS.

‘There’s Desperation’

“Mexico can’t be as bad as this,” Ezell said. “There’s no question there’s desperation, but that doesn’t change what the law says about coming into the country legally.”

Adolfo Reyes, 33, a migrant worker who has been in and out of the United States since the 1970s and has lived under one of the bridges, recently told a reporter that he sleeps there to save money because he dreams of bringing his family here from Mexico. Reyes was among those arrested Wednesday.

Staff writer Jack Jones contributed to this report.