Juan Fonseca Tapia, a manager with The Trust Act Coalition, was in Hartford Monday to protest in solidarity with the Los Angeles demonstrators over immigration raids. He was on his way home to Danbury when he got a message about a raid in Connecticut, in which apparent federal immigration agents detained four men in Southington.
Fonseca Tapia is part of a statewide group chat where community members share information about ICE sightings throughout Connecticut.
“It was a Facebook post, and they were asking if somebody could confirm, saying that four men had been taken from a car wash in Southington,” Fonseca Tapia said. “It didn’t say what car wash, only the street.”
Fonseca Tapia made a detour to Southington to find the business.
“I stopped by four car washes,” until he found the right one, he said.
When he found the car wash, Fonseca Tapia said he spoke to the owner to learn what happened.
Apparent plain clothes law enforcement captured on video
At around 9 a.m. Monday, the owner said he received a call from one of his employees informing him that four police officers were looking for him.
Speaking in Spanish with Connecticut Public, the owner of the car wash has requested to not share his name or the name of his business. He said he does not want to jeopardize the safety of his other immigrant employees, who are fearful to return to work or to provoke any potential retaliation from federal immigration agents.
He thought it was Southington police because many of them go to get their cars washed at his business, but when his employee said it wasn’t town police, he said he immediately thought it must be ICE.
“When I arrived, the man was very polite,” the owner said in Spanish. “He presented a set of documents and said that they were there to check the status of me and all my workers.”
The owner said he didn’t feel like he could resist because the men were armed.
Security footage reviewed by Connecticut Public appears to show at least two individuals, one in all black and another in jeans and a t-shirt, each with firearms on their hip. In the security footage, one of the individuals in jeans and a t-shirt apprehended one of the employees, taking him to a black vehicle to handcuff him before putting him inside the car.
“They asked for the papers of four of my employees,” the owner said. After making some calls and checking what looked to be a tablet, the owner said, “[the officer] said, ‘Okay all four are coming with us,’... They didn’t ask for the papers of any of my other employees. There were still around six employees [that they hadn’t talked to].”
According to the owner, the four men had been working for him for eight years. He said he’s worried for the families of those four men, who have wives with children and mothers that they take care of. He said he’s also worried for his business.
“The other [employees] are now afraid to come back to work with me,” he said, “but they need to work, and they have to work, I tell them. We have to keep going because life goes on. We need to pay rent. We need to eat. Our families need support.”
The owner said he never thought something like this would ever happen to him. He said he’d heard of how bad these kinds of incidents were getting in New York and Boston, but with how quiet and calm Connecticut is, he never imagined this could happen at his own business.
Southington police said they were unaware of the detainments at the time that they happened and that ICE did not notify them that they would be there. Federal immigration officials did not respond to requests for comment.
Southington Town Councilmember Jack Perry heard of the incident from a constituent who reached out during a council meeting Monday night. Perry said Town Manager Alex Ricciardone was also unaware of what had happened.
“For them to come to place a business and take the workers from doing their jobs—they weren't committing any crimes—is just very alarming,” Perry said.
Now is the time to get vocal, Perry said.
“We have to talk about this and tell ICE that we don't want them in our communities,” Perry said. “They need to get the hell out.”
An ‘emergency rally’ against immigration raids
After speaking with the owner on Monday, activist Juan Fonseca Tapia mobilized, working with fellow advocates, to call for an emergency rally. Within a couple hours, and after a day of anti-raid protests in the city, nearly 100 people gathered in front of the immigration court house in Hartford.
Even when it started to rain, more people were pouring in to demand the release of the four men and to show their support.
With a hoarse voice, after screaming and chanting at the state capitol, Fonseca Tapia spoke through a mega phone.
“Let me tell you what. I’m really f---king angry. I have a lot of rage because this morning we got together,” Fonseca Tapia said. “As we were standing at the capitol, four men were taken from their workplace.”
Fonseca Tapia said it was “infuriating and painful” to learn that the incident happened during those protests. His mind went straight to the families of those men.
“What it means for a child who might be waiting for their dad to play or have dinner, and now they don't know where he is,” Fonseca Tapia said. “We have been trying to get people in power to see our humanity, and it's sad. It's really, really sad and painful to see that they still don't see that we're talking about people's lives.”
What’s happening in the nation is now happening in Connecticut, Fonseca Tapia told protesters. He encouraged attendees to connect with one another, because he said the community needs to stay together and to show up for immigrant neighbors.
The response to the emergency rally Monday evening renewed his own hope in a better future for immigrant families in the country.
“By having close to 100 people show up in two hours,” Fonseca Tapia said, “and that there are still many of us that are holding on to our humanity, and that are choosing to show up for one another, that's what's driving me and I do believe that another world is possible.”
