Coworkers: ICE Wasn’t Looking For Esdrás

Four ICE agents showed up to the car wash at around 9 a.m.

A mix of men and women, they showed their badges — and their faces. They identified themselves as federal immigration officers. They pulled aside each of the four car wash employees there at the time. 

They asked these workers — migrants from Ecuador and Honduras and Guatemala — for their identification papers. They asked if they were authorized to hold a job in this country. 

One of the employees they questioned was Esdrás R., an 18-year-old Wilbur Cross student who had just started working at the car wash the previous week.

The ICE agents did not appear to be looking for Esdrás in particular. They did wind up arresting him — leading to his being shipped off to a prison in Louisiana, as he and his local attorney continue to fight his potential deportation.

Two of Esdrás’ coworkers at the Two Brothers Hand Car Wash in Southington described that scene during separate interviews midday Monday in between shifts wiping down windshields, cleaning tires, and blowing away dust with air compressors inside customers’ cars.

The two coworkers, both of whom asked to remain anonymous for this article, said they were present at the time of Esdrás’ July 21 arrest by federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers.

According to Esdrás’ local attorney, Tina Colón Williams, as well as ICE’s online detainee locator, Esdrás remains in custody at the Alexandria Staging Facility in Louisiana. ICE had previously scheduled a flight to deport him to Guatemala just 10 days after his arrest, until Colón Williams intervened and won a reported commitment from ICE to return him to a detention facility in New England as he keeps fighting for his freedom.

Both car wash employees with whom the Independent spoke on Monday — one a woman from Ecuador, another a 19-year-old from Guatemala — said that Esdrás had been on the job at the Lazy Lane car wash in Southington for only a week when ICE seized him and another employee during a worksite raid that did not appear to be targeting any one person in particular. They said that Esdrás had been working at another car wash before moving over to Two Brothers.

He is ​“a very good person,” the 19-year-old employee said about Esdrás. She said she has known Esdrás for some time, as the two went to Wilbur Cross High School together. The 19-year-old said she wound up dropping out of high school because she needed to find a job. She subsequently landed at the Southington car wash, and has been working there for more than a year.

Esdrás’ two coworkers said that ICE agents pulled up to the car wash at around 9 a.m. on Monday, July 21.

“They showed their badges” and said they were ICE agents, the 19-year-old employee said, her comments interpreted from Spanish to English by Unidad Latina en Acción lead organizer John Lugo, who also distributed know-your-rights cards and urged workers to call if they needed help.

The coworkers said ICE agents interviewed all four car wash employees who were there at the time of the July 21 raid. 

The 19-year-old said the ICE agent who interviewed her was a woman who spoke only in English. ​“She asked where I was from, my name,” she said. ​“I was translating with my phone,” due to the Spanish-English language barrier.

The 19-year-old recalled telling the ICE agent, ​“I don’t have to answer your questions,” as they didn’t have a warrant for her arrest. She said she advised Esdrás not to answer either, but he did.

The second employee interviewed by the Independent Monday said that the ICE agents asked all four employees on July 21 — including Esdrás — ​“if they have documents.” She said they wound up arresting one other woman in addition to Esdrás.

Did they appear to be looking for Esdrás and the other woman who was arrested? 

No, that employee replied about why ICE appeared to be at the car wash on July 21. ​“They were just looking.” ICE agents have ramped up random workplace raids in response to a White House dictate to meet arrest quotas of undocumented immigrants.

The employee said that ICE didn’t arrest her that day because she explained she’s in the process of getting work authorization.

“Everyone was very scared,” that employee said about the ICE raid. Reflecting on it Monday, she wore a more passive expression. This is part of our lives now, she said. 

The Two Brothers Hand Car Wash sits on a side road off of Southington’s main commercial drag, right across the street from the town’s police department. Signs advertise a $5 car wash; a vending machine carries ​“Super Truck Towels” and ​“ArmorAll” sponges for $1.25 apiece. A garage next to the car wash drive-through station had vacuums, cleaning liquids, and a hammock and some foldout chairs.

At around 12:30 p.m., there was only one customer’s car present. Within the half hour, another three customers’ cars had arrived to be cleaned. Two more employees had also arrived by that time, bringing the total count of workers to four.

The car wash is also located a five-minute drive away from another car wash in Southington where ICE conducted a worksite raid and arrested four Guatemalan immigrants in mid-June.

The only comment that ICE has provided the Independent with so far about the July 21 raid came from Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin, who said that Esdrás was arrested as part of a ​“worksite site enforcement operation” on that day. 

“This illegal alien entered the country as an unaccompanied minor under the Biden Administration and was released into the country,” McLaughlin said. ​“He has been placed in immigration proceedings.” 

McLaughlin’s comment also described Esdrás as an ​“illegal alien from Guatemala.” In written testimony that Esdrás submitted to the state legislature earlier this year in support of expanding state Medicaid eligibility for all Connecticut residents regardless of their immigration status up to the age of 26, he said that he is from Guatemala and that he has lived in New Haven for a little over a year. 

ICE Boston spokesperson James Covington has declined to comment further on the workplace raid and Esdrás’ arrest, due to the ​“enforcement operation” being part of an ​“ongoing operation.”

On Monday, McLaughlin provided the Independent with a subsequent comment, confirming that Esdrás had been placed in ​“expedited removal” proceedings following his arrest.

“All of his claims will be heard,” McLaughlin is quoted as stating.​“Most aliens who illegally entered the United States within the past two years are subject to expedited removals. Biden ignored this legal fact and chose to release millions of illegal aliens, including violent criminals, into the country with a notice to appear before an immigration judge. ICE is now following the law and placing these illegal aliens in expedited removal, as they always should have been. If they have a valid credible fear claim, they will continue in immigration proceedings, but if no valid claim is found, aliens will be subject to a swift deportation.”

In a Tuesday afternoon press release, U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro heralded ICE’s cancellation of Esdrás’ deportation flight — even as she criticized the Trump administration for continuing to hold the Cross student.

“I am relieved that Esdras’ deportation flight has been canceled – but that is not enough,” DeLauro is quoted as saying on Tuesday. ​“He is not a threat. He works a job, goes to school, and is beloved by his classmates and community. He should be released from detention immediately and allowed to return his life in New Haven.

“The Trump administration should focus on deporting violent criminals, as they claimed they would – not children, mothers, and upstanding members of our community who help make it stronger. I am angry with their reckless disregard for children, our community, and the due process rights guaranteed to everyone under our Constitution. We need an immigration system that works for America – not one driven by chaos and cruelty.”