Hundreds of people gathered in Monrovia Friday night at a vigil for Carlos Roberto Montoya, who was struck and killed by an SUV after running onto the 210 Freeway while trying to flee U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents this week.
The vigil, held at the Home Depot that was the location of Thursday’s raid, was organized by Monrovia High School Students Against Fascism, with assistance from the Los Angeles Chapter of the Party for Socialism and Liberation.
Eduardo Vargas, a community organizer for PSL, said the two groups started planning the vigil, as well as a rally that was held Thursday, once they heard that Montoya had died.
“The community responds first,” he said. “The community comes with their bullhorns. They come with their sound equipment. They come with their posters, so it’s really just talking to each other and getting stuff accomplished.”
Hundreds gather outside a Home Depot in Monrovia Friday for a vigil for Carlos Roberto Montoya.
(Annie Goodykoontz / Los Angeles Times)
Speakers at Friday’s vigil included religious leaders, teachers, high school students and politicians.
Rep. Judy Chu (D-Monterey Park) said Montoya, a Guatemalan national, had lived in the United States for three years, and worked as a day laborer. He had four daughters and grandchildren, she said.
“Make no mistake, his death is a direct result of the Trump administration’s strategy of sowing fear and intimidation throughout our community,” she said. “It’s designed to instill fear, so that people will risk anything, even their lives, to escape it.”
In a statement previously emailed to The Times, the Department of Homeland Security said that “the individual was not being pursued by any DHS law enforcement” and that the agency was not aware of his death on the freeway until hours after operations in the area had concluded.
The vigil began with a silent walk to a memorial set up near the exit of the Home Depot, just across from the entrance of the 210 Freeway, where Montoya died. Attendees prayed both silently and aloud, and many laid flowers at the memorial.
On the walk back to a stage set up for the vigil, the crowd chanted “ICE out of Monrovia!” as cars driving by sounded their horns in support.
Some weren’t so supportive, however. On the walk to the memorial, an angry driver seemingly got into an argument with an attendee, and drove through the path of the crowd, eliciting shrieks from the crowd. No one was injured, and an organizer shouted to the crowd to brush it off.
While state Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez (D-Pasadena) spoke, a person in the crowd appeared to speak critically in response. The person left after the crowd chanted “You have got to go!”
“I want to just remind you all, as we are doing this advocacy, as we are fighting for our neighbors, that we are gonna run into naysayers,” Perez said after the person left. “But us sticking together as [a] community is what is going to make the difference. Because there is more of us, than there is them.”
Relatives and friends of Montoya who took the stage described him as a happy man who came to the United States seeking work to support his family.
“He came here to work hard. My uncle was not a criminal,” his niece, Mariela, said through a translator. “He wanted what a lot us wanted: a better life.”
Politicians, religious leaders and community organizers spoke at Friday’s event, which put on by Monrovia High School Students Against Fascism with assistance from the Los Angeles chapter of the Party for Socialism and Liberation.
(Annie Goodykoontz / Los Angeles Times)
Elsewhere in Southern California, immigration enforcement continued.
Adelina de Perez, 67, spoke through sobs Friday morning after a swarm of masked agents descended on a small street near a Van Nuys Home Depot and took her daughter.
She said her daughter, Yenni Perez Quinilla, 38, sold tamales on Balboa Place.
Immigration advocates hovered around de Perez, trying to comfort her as she used a cellphone to arrange care for her grandchildren — her daughter’s children. She used the sleeve of her black sweater to wipe away tears.
“I’m very angry, I’m very upset,” said de Perez, who is from Guatemala. “My daughter is a single mother, this is her only income.”
Quinilla, who lives in North Hollywood, has worked on the block for several years, and has three children — ages 15, 17, and 18 — according to her mother.
De Perez said that agents presented paperwork when they picked up her daughter from her tamale stand on Friday.
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
Federal agents raided the area around the Van Nuys Home Depot twice last week before returning this morning, witnesses said.
Witnesses said agents pulled up to Balboa Place Friday morning in a line of cars. Bystanders blew whistles, yelled and honked their horns at the agents.
Video shot by one witness that was viewed by The Times showed heavily armed and masked men wearing brown camouflage, with the word POLICE on their chests.
