Long Beach — Federal immigration agents detained seven employees at a Bixby Knoll car wash on Saturday morning, and cellphone video captured a female worker collapsing seconds after agents stopped her while she tried to flee, witnesses and local reports said.
The raid began at about 10 a.m., according to witness accounts and local coverage by KTLA. Masked federal officers moved through the parking lot of the car wash, detaining multiple employees while customers watched. Seconds-long footage taken by a bystander shows a woman dressed in black running from an agent and being grabbed by a Border Patrol officer. She appeared sluggish during the encounter, rubbed her neck and began breathing heavily before fainting; the agent who stopped her caught her and helped lower her to the pavement.
The man filming the footage can be heard yelling at agents to get medical assistance for the woman, who was later placed into a federal vehicle. KTLA reported that seven employees were detained in the operation. Other video captured a woman in a green shirt being handcuffed and several people shouting at officers as they led detainees to nearby vehicles.
One witness recorded an emotional exchange as an officer drove a handcuffed man away; a woman filming the scene told the man in the backseat, "I'm so sorry, Papa, I should've been here," and shouted at agents who approached her. Another bystander challenged officers as they escorted a man toward a vehicle, telling agents the man was a resident. An officer replied, "We're gonna check. If he's good, we'll bring him back," according to the recorder.
Observers also noted the license plate on a Border Patrol vehicle involved in the operation bore a Georgia tag. Multiple witnesses expressed anger at the enforcement action, while one customer, apparently unfazed, asked aloud who would finish his car.
The raid comes days after the U.S. Supreme Court allowed federal immigration authorities to resume enforcement in Los Angeles and seven other Southern California counties by lifting a lower-court order that had limited arrests in the region. The conservative majority at the high court overruled the restriction; justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson dissented.
In her dissent, Justice Sotomayor warned against broad federal authority to detain people based on appearance or language, writing that people should not "have to live in a country where the Government can seize anyone who looks Latino, speaks Spanish, and appears to work a low wage job." The high court action cleared the way for federal agents to undertake enforcement operations in the affected counties.
Estimates from the Public Policy Institute of California suggest about one in 10 workers in the state are undocumented, and the Migration Policy Institute counts roughly 950,000 unauthorized residents in Los Angeles County. NBC News reported that more than 58,000 undocumented immigrants have been taken into custody since President Donald Trump took office; the outlet reported that roughly 30 percent of those arrested had criminal convictions, 25 percent had pending charges and the remaining 45 percent were categorized as other immigration violators.
Local authorities and federal officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment about the Long Beach raid or the health condition of the woman who fainted. The detention of workers at local businesses has drawn criticism from immigrant advocates and local leaders in recent years, who argue such actions disrupt families and local economies. Advocates say enforcement operations in workplaces can produce scenes of fear and chaos among employees and customers.
The Long Beach incident illustrates the immediate effects of the court decision on immigration enforcement in Southern California, where community leaders and civil rights groups have raised concerns about targeted sweeps. Federal authorities have continued to say their operations focus on individuals who pose public-safety risks or who have violated immigration laws, while civil libertarians emphasize the need for safeguards to protect constitutional rights during enforcement actions.