Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents detained two gardeners working outside a home in Southern California this week leaving equipment running and their work truck open.
Christopher Ames, the homeowner, told local outlet KTLA, that his gardeners were mowing the lawn outside his house in Ontario, Calif on Thursday when they were taken by ICE agents.
“They left the lawnmower running right here on the front lawn,” Ames said. “They threw my gardeners’ phones in their [work truck], along with the car keys, left everything open and just took off.”
“I just think that’s wrong,” Ames added. “This is not the way we treat people, and this is not the way this country should be acting.”
Neighbors who witnessed the ordeal and notified Ames also criticized the treatment of the men by federal immigration agents.
“I understand people are just doing their jobs and people are here illegally. I get the entire picture. But to be scooped up in such a way, I just hope that they had the opportunity to reach out to their families,” one neighbor said, adding that it was cruel for the agents to leave the men’s phones behind without allowing them to contact their family.
“As a mom and a wife, if I’m expecting someone to come home and they don’t come home and I have no way of reaching them or finding them, that’s the scary part,” she said.
According to KTLA, a family member of one of the gardeners arrived outside Ames’ home late Thursday night to drive the work truck back home.
The family member said they haven’t been able to contact the men and have no idea where they are being held.
“They were my family, and we’re living in fear,” he said.
The incident comes as ICE agents carry out mass deportation operations in California that led to protests in Los Angeles earlier this month.
