Hundreds gathered at Carlos Roberto Montoya’s vigil on Friday night, when he was hit and killed by an SUV while fleeing U.S. immigration and customs law enforcement officers this week.
The vigil was held at the raid on Thursday, organized by Monrovia High School students against fascism and with the assistance of the Los Angeles chapter of the Socialist and Liberation Party.
PSL community organizer Eduardo Vargas said the two groups began planning a vigil, as well as a rally held Thursday, once they heard that Montoya had passed away.
“The community responded first,” he said. “The community has their horns. They have sound equipment. They have posters, so they really just talk to each other and get the job done.”
On Friday, hundreds of people gathered outside Home Depot in Monrovia to hold a vigil for Carlos Roberto Montoya.
(Annie Goodykoontz/Los Angeles Times)
Speakers for Friday’s vigil include religious leaders, teachers, high school students and politicians.
Rep. D-Monterey Park said Guatemalan national Montoya lived in the United States for three years and worked as a day worker. He has four daughters and grandson, she said.
“There is no doubt that his death is a direct result of the Trump administration sowing fear and intimidation tactics throughout the community,” she said. “It aims to instill fear so that people will take risks, even risk their lives, to escape it.”
“No one is pursued by any DHS law enforcement” and the agency did not realize his death on the highway until hours after the area’s operations ended.
The vigil begins with a quiet walk to the memorial near the Home Depot exit, just across from the entrance to Highway 210 where Montoya died. The participants prayed silently, loudly, and laid many flowers in the memorial hall.
On the stage of the vigil, the crowd chanted “Ice of Monrovia!” and their horns supported as the car drove by.
However, some people don’t support it. On the walk to the memorial, an angry driver appeared to have a dispute with the attendees and drove through the crowd’s road, causing screams from the crowd. No one was injured, and an organizer yelled at the crowd and brushed it off.
When state Senator Sasha Renne Perez (D-Pasadena) spoke, one of the people seemed to be speaking critically. The crowd shouted, “You must leave!” and then the people who left left left.
“I want to remind everyone that, like we do when we fight for our neighbors, we will meet opponents,” Perez said. “But let’s stick together.” [a] The community will make a difference. Because we have more people than them. ”
Montoya’s relatives and friends described him as a happy man who came to the United States to seek work to support his family.
“He came here to work hard. My uncle is not a criminal,” his niece Mariela said through an interpreter. “He wants a lot of what we want: a better life.”
Politicians, religious leaders and community organizers spoke at Friday’s event, and Monrovia High School students opposed fascism with the assistance of the Los Angeles chapter of the Socialist and Liberation Party.
(Annie Goodykoontz/Los Angeles Times)
Elsewhere in Southern California, immigration enforcement continues.
Adelina de Perez, 67, spoke in sobs Friday morning when a group of masked agents landed on a small street near Van Nuys’s home Depot and took her daughter away.
She said her daughter, Yenni Perez Quinilla, 38, sold Tamarus in Balboa Place.
Immigration advocates wander around De Perez, trying to comfort her as she arranged the care of her grandchildren with her cell phone – daughter’s children. She wiped her tears with the sleeves of her black sweater.
“I’m angry, I’m frustrated,” said De Perez, of Guatemala. “My daughter is a single mother, and that’s her only income.”
According to her mother, Quinilla, who lives in North Hollywood, worked in the neighborhood for several years and has three children (ages 15, 17 and 18).
de Perez said agents proposed paperwork when they picked up her daughter from the Tamale stage on Friday.
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Witnesses said federal agents attacked the area around the Van Nuisi’s warehouse twice last week before returning to this morning.
Witnesses said agents were pulled to Balboa Plaza by car on Friday morning. The bystander whistled, shouting and honking at the agents.
A video taken by a witness watched by Times shows the word policeman wearing brown camouflage and masked.
