ICE raids Orange County car wash, 7 employees taken into custody

The mood among a few employees gathered inside the lobby of Magnolia Car Wash was a somber one on Wednesday morning, a meeting taking place just a couple days after seven members of the team were taken away in an immigration raid.

The raid occurred at approximately 9:30 a.m. on Monday at the hand car wash, which is located at the southeast corner of Magnolia Street and Talbert Avenue in Fountain Valley.

Gabriel Romero, a manager at the business, recalled the scene as uniformed personnel showed up and began to escort workers off the property.

“We have customers. It’s not fair,” Romero said. “People come, never say, ‘This is my ID. I come for ICE,’ or something. They come in regular vehicles. It’s not like ICE patrols or anything else. … When a guy comes through the door, I say, ‘What can I do for you, sir?’ He didn’t respond to me anything.”

Romero described the crew arrived as dressed “like soldiers.” During a heated exchange, one of the employees was grabbed around the neck, he said.

“[The employee] was pissed,” Romero said. “When [he] tried to say, ‘Hey, leave them alone,’ the guy grabbed [his] neck, like a big guy.”

Those who were executing the raid did not respond to questions from the management, nor did they produce a list containing the names of individuals they were looking for, he added.

Amid a small group of downtrodden employees in the lobby on Wednesday, Romero said the business shut down for the day following the raid and had not opened back up since.

A full team for the car wash consists of about nine or 10 workers during a shift, he said. There were plans for the business to resume operations, but the workforce was given time off in the aftermath of the jarring events.

“We have more guys, but the guys now, they say we got to wait two or three days because the guys not in panic, but you know, it’s like a little disappointment, that why the rest of the people gone?” Romero said.

A video of the incident was posted to the social media platform TikTok, showing at least one individual led off the premises by the patrol squad. In the clip, the uniformed personnel keep their faces covered, and a customer also pulls his phone out to record the events.

As for whether the car wash has received updates about the whereabouts of its employees, Romero said the families have been in contact with them. As of Wednesday morning, he had heard that one of the seven workers had been released from custody.

“They don’t ask any questions,” Romero said. “They only grab, grab, grab the guys, take them to the van. They don’t give you a chance to speak. They don’t have a chance to say, ‘Oh, let me see [if] I got my papers.’ … They only grab the guys and take them. No questions. It’s not fair.

“Supposed to be saying, ‘Can I see your papers?’ No papers, OK, you’re not supposed to stay in this country, … but why he come and take them? … They don’t give you a chance. They want legal guy.”

As ICE conducts immigration sweeps in Southern California, the fallout has drawn national attention.

The bishops of the Diocese of Orange issued a statement on Tuesday calling on those involved and affected to “remain calm, respectful and nonviolent.”

“Immigration laws have their place in society, as does enforcement of them, particularly to apprehend known criminals,” the statement read. “But there is also a place for enforcement that does not invoke our worst instincts, that does not spread crippling fear and anxieties upon the hard-working, everyday faithful among us.”