A couple of friends and I were at the Little Tokyo Starbucks in early December when we heard a loud engine rumbling. We turn around and it was none other than the ICE (Immigrations and Customs Enforcement) team parking their gigantic greyhound bus in the red zone for a coffee stop. We couldn’t see through the windows if there were any “illegals” inside. This was just days after the big ICE sweep of 280 illegal immigrants (some with criminal records!) on December 11.
Does my tax money really go to this kind of bullshit?
big ICE bus
the smaller, faster van, just in case
Uhhh yeah !!! I’ve seen ICE vehicles going through drive throughs, getting groceries and all sorts of everyday places. Agents need to go shopping too you know. If they can do it on company time and gas that’s even more reason to do it. Tax payers flip the bill right !? When they do this stuff they’re off the clock because they could careless who is around. Speacially when they’re in east los. Since the detention center is a few blocks up the street on Alameda, it seems logical to me to take that huge bus just a few blocks down the street for some ICE’d lattes. Hahahah but seriously. Fuck la migra.
You should have beat the shit out of them and freed the immigrants.
Finally spokker has a good idea.
Theyre at that Starbucks everyday. Theyre just workers getting a nice govt gig. Like large a segement of the Border Patrol and cops in the area, many are raza like us.
I’ve come across them. The ironic thing is that some of. the agents are raza too. I wonder if they at all feel guilty or sympathetic considering their parents or grandparents were probably illegal immigrants too.
Once we’ve exported all our jobs, this is all there is left to do in the poor parts of town: be a cop or be a criminal. In the case of people here without papers, they get drafted into this system to help keep ‘Mericans employed capturing them, detaining them, and making their life a miserable wreck.
It’s the same with prisons – the greatest jobs program our state has devised since losing the government aircraft and boat building contracts so many years ago.
How many off-season farmers take the time to raise their island umbrella drinks and toast the field help who made their lifestyles possible? Not many I’m guessing.
Daniel Ortega, how dare you as the president of Nicaragua badmouth govt employees like the ones who serve you to the…
Oh wait, nevermind.
Can you legally cuss them out and flip them off, Id do that just to cheer up the folks in the bus if there are any.
After all the food and drink I am wondering where all the regular bashers are on this thread? Is the holidays making people nicer till Jan 1st 2010 or is this not a PC topic to attack. Maybe if the INS “Ossifers” were hipsters who were gentrifying on the “Eastside” west of the El Lay River? Ay Güey. Maybe people are just to hung over. Whatever the reason, a few more days of peace is a good thing. Feliz Año.
I love Little Tokyo and now with a gold line stop nearby i frequent the area more often.
This type of thing is not uncommon- ive seen LAPD cruisers and MTA vehicles parked right in front of the Yogurtland which is a few doors down from the Starbucks.
I always think are they “on duty” or “off duty”
But an ICE-Homeland security vehicle is a new one for me.
Its like how cops dont hang out at donut shops anymore and they now hang out at 7 Elevens
Bad Cop = No Donut 🙂
hey Gamin..
as a Mexican-American i could never work for INS/border patrol, it just doesn’t feel right to me.
I hate it when ignorant people talk down about illegal immigrants especially from Mexico.
I mean it was the U.S. theft of Mexican Territory (the southwest) by conquering and annexation.
The wetbacks are the the Chinese,Canadians,Europeans etc 🙂
And Spain/Mexico claimed the land by screwing the native Indians of the American Southwest.
funny note (or maybe not) i see them pretty frequently at Olvera St or at least their vehicle, probably just buying churros.
In 2006 I was getting off of a flight from JFK to LAX. I got upgraded to first class so was one of the first people off the plane. I REALLY needed a cig so I tore off the plane and was almost immediately blocked by a very tall older white man with a moustache kind of dressed like a baseball coach who grabbed my upper arm and asked me, “Are you Carlos Gonzales?” I immediately thought something was wrong and that he was a pervert because no one is allowed to wait for passengers to arrive at the gate. I figured he was just thinking of an excuse to talk to me but was nonetheless pissed that he asked if my name was CARLOS.
“Does the Carlos Gonzales that you’re looking for wear a skirt and have tits?” I spat at him as I roughly pushed his hand off me and quickly headed for the escalators to baggage claim. I practically ran outside and then sat on a bench and lit a cig. Almost immediately some other guy game up to me and asked me if my name was Carmen Gonzales. I said no. He asked me if I just got off the JFK to LAX flight number blah blah blah. I said yes. He said something blah blah blah and flashed an ID that said CIA and another one that said American Airlines and asked me for my ID. I said, “Wait a minute… WHO are you? Let me see your IDs again.” After reasonably discerning that they weren’t fake, I turned around to get my bag and show my ID and noticed that there were about 8 homeland security guys behind me with guns drawn (FUCK!!!) while I slowly reached for my wallet with one hand. I handed the whole thing to the CIA guy and he checked it and stared at me for the longest 2 minutes of my life before he said “Thank you for your cooperation.” and they put their guns away and left.
I have no idea what the hell Carmen Gonzales did in NY, but DAMN… that was annoying and scary.
Vidalia –
that is a crazy story, and so American.
your story reminds me of LAPD shining their super-brights from above the driver’s side mirror on pretty much anyone driving through Boyle Heights and East LA and on Latino kids, especially boys dressed like cholos.*
*spoken from experience.
– bhhapa
or even nerdy girls coming home from uni, parking in front of their house
There was a huge gang bust in Highland Park a couple of months ago and according to the LA Times article I read, there wasn’t one single undocumented immigrant in the round up. All of the gang members were American citizens, and I think the number was at least in the hundreds. Aren’t these right wingers always saying that LA’s current gang problem is due to illegal immigration, and that like more than half of “hispanic gang members” today are here illegally? They took a credibility hit there.