A man was hit and killed on a Southern California freeway Thursday while he was running from an immigration raid at a Home Depot, authorities said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Dylan Feik, the city manager of Monrovia, in Los Angeles County about 10 miles northeast of Pasadena, said a police officer saw the raid after the police department received a call about U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity in the area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During the activity, someone ran onto the 210 Freeway, he said. Shortly afterward, the fire department and emergency workers responded to a call of a vehicle hitting a pedestrian.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The person was taken to a hospital and died from injuries sustained in the incident, Feik said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The California Highway Patrol said that the victim was a man and that the circumstances around his death are under investigation. His identity has not been publicly released.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Video recorded moments after the accident shows a man in a black T-shirt lying near the inside lane of the freeway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Vincent Enriquez, who recorded the video, said he thought at first it was a motorcycle accident.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI was kind of confused on how he was on the freeway laying down,\u201d he said. \u201cI assumed either he was hit by a car trying to cross or he must\u2019ve gotten out of the vehicle from a car accident.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Department of Homeland Security denied its agents chased the person and said they do not know the person\u2019s legal status.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“This individual was not being pursued by any DHS law enforcement,” a spokesperson said in a statement. “We were not aware of this incident or notified by California Highway Patrol until hours after operations in the area had concluded.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Feik said that the city did not have any additional information about the operation, including about any possible detentions, and that Monrovia has not received any communication from ICE.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Palmira Figueroa, spokesperson for the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, said 13 workers were detained during the raid. \u201cIt was a violent, aggressive bust,\u201d she said. \u201cSome of them were chasing workers in cars while they were running away.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Network organizers are trying to reach family members, as well as the other men who were detained, Figueroa said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Videos posted on social media appear to show agents detaining a person in the parking lot of the Home Depot, which did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the immigration activity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
State Assemblymember John Harabedian, whose district includes Monrovia, said in a statement on his Instagram story that 10 people were detained in the raid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“Raids like this do not make our streets safer \u2014 they terrorize families, instill fear, and put lives at risk,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Immigration officials have concentrated many of their raids on Home Depots and other home improvement retailers that day laborers are known to frequent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Tuesday, Enforcement Removal Operations agents conducted a \u201ctargeted enforcement operation\u201d at a Home Depot in Washington, D.C., as a part of the Trump administration\u2019s wider crackdown on immigrants and homeless people in the city.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
An appeals court this month maintained a Los Angeles federal judge’s temporary restraining order<\/a> that bars immigration agents from using people\u2019s spoken languages or jobs, like day laborer, or their presence at particular locations as the sole pretext to detain them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n