One daughter’s search for a father detained by ICE
PICO RIVERA, CALIF. — The videos circulating on social media show a yellow delivery truck, back door open with crates of tortillas and produce neatly stacked on the ground.
A green-striped U.S. Border Patrol pickup truck and an unmarked white van box in Francisco Urizar’s delivery truck. Then agents in camouflage and ballistic vests swarm out of the van, bundle the 64-year-old inside and drive away.
Since her father was taken on Tuesday, 30-year-old Nancy Urizar has watched this scene play out over and over, through videos sent to her by bystanders and strangers on social media.
Now, she’s back at the Food 4 Less where it happened. One of her dad’s friends from the grocery store has unedited video of the entire interaction with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and her father, and has offered to show it to her.
She’s hopeful this new video will give her more clues about why he was arrested, and whether he could have been targeted because he “just looked like an immigrant,” as she puts it.
“I was hoping to see it up close, I was hoping to see him unload,” Urizar says through tears. “Because I’ve worked with him before and I know that his job is hard labor. So if I would have seen him unload, it just reminds me that he’s doing that for me.”
She leaves disappointed. The camera was too far away, and a tree blocked most of the view, but the video did give her a better sense of the timeline: agents spend three and a half minutes talking to her father before taking him away. Previously, she had been under the impression that he was pulled into the van immediately.
“Now I have more questions than I did before,” Urizar says. “Was this targeted? Was this random? What pinpointed him to them, specifically?”
The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to NPR’s request for information about Francisco Urizar’s detention, or whether there was a warrant for his arrest because he is in the U.S. without legal status or some other reason.
On the same day Urizar encountered ICE, several other enforcement operations were happening across Eastern Los Angeles County, sparking protests from bystanders. Since mid-June, the Department of Homeland Security has stepped up immigration enforcement in L.A.
“I don’t think that we’ve been too aggressive at all,” Vice President Vance told reporters during a visit to Los Angeles on Friday.
“The unfortunate reality is that Joe Biden let in 15 to 20 million illegal aliens into this country,” Vance said, citing without evidence a contested statistic.
“There is no way for us to actually get those illegal immigrants out of the United States of America without some serious law enforcement.”
Urizar says her father came to the U.S. long before President Joe Biden took office. He fled forced conscription by guerilla fighters during Guatemala’s civil war, leaving family behind. She says when he got to the U.S. 35 years ago, he initially applied for asylum but gave up on the process to save money on lawyers after his work permit ran out.
Some of these details Urizar says she didn’t know before this week. Her dad hadn’t shared much about his asylum claim with her or her younger sister when they were growing up.
After he was taken away, Urizar jokes that she “destroyed his whole house” looking for paperwork that might have his A-number on it, a unique identifier the U.S. government uses to track immigrants who have had past encounters with immigration officers. Having the number should have helped Urizar track her dad in the ICE Online Detainee Locator System, but more than 48 hours after his arrest, the system generated zero results. Urizar had no idea where her father was being held or how to reach him.
“That’s what’s stressing me, all this time is passing, but what’s happening to him within this time?” she asks.
“I feel guilty sleeping. I know my dad is scared, I know my dad is worried. It haunts me.”
As Urizar looks out at the parking lot where her dad’s truck would usually be this time of day, his friends from the supermarket keep coming up to her, offering hugs and asking for updates.
“I wish I had an answer,” she says sadly. “You never think it’s going to happen to you, and when it does, oh my gosh,” she sighs. “It’s a pain that only people who have gone through can understand.”
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