The brutal arrest of a Mexican gardener shocks California: the American dream became the terror of migrants

The American dream of Narciso Barranco ended up in a bland shopping center in Santa Ana. The 48 -year -old gardener could the bushes on Saturday in Pacific Center, where there is a home depot, a trade that has become a common goal for the operations of federal agents who are arrested undocumented throughout the south of California. The fortuitous detention of Barranco, who was in the place and at the time wrong, has caused outrage for the violence with which it was carried out. He has also dropped a thick mantle of fear of the Latin communities of the region.

By the country of Spain

Wednesday afternoon the Guadalajara taquería of the center of Santa Ana Lucia shedgelada. «Today we have sold four fresh waters and only two tables have come,» says Miguel, 27. The waiter, who asks not to reveal his full name, says that diners have stopped visiting the Mexican food restaurant for two weeks. «People do not want to leave their homes … There are a couple of chefs who have not come since Monday,» says the employee, who was born in the United States, but has many relatives without documents.

On Santa Ana Street, one of the main avenues in a city with 77% of the Latin population, Mexican flags can be seen outside several businesses. They are a sample of resistance in the midst of the raids that have been carried out by surprise for a few days. Regardless of the trade of the trade, from a cowgirl clothing store, a gourmet restaurant or an outdated business to send remittances to Mexico, almost all are empty. Donald Trump’s immigration policy has also been felt in the local economy.

The clerk of a small jewelry in the area, who asks not to reveal its name for fear of the authorities, says that its owners decided to close the business early two days of last week before the scarce movement. «He is going worse than in the pandemic,» says the woman, who has been working in the store for seven years. Much of the entry of trade comes from the commissions they charge to send money to Mexico. With the arrival of Trump, explains this woman originally from Michoacán, the sending of remittances was shot. But the transactions fell strongly since the agents of the Immigration and Customs Control Service, the ICE, tightened with their operations. «There are days when we don’t get together or a hundred dollars of sales,» he laments.

Not only fear has emptied the streets. The caution has also done so. The authorities of Cudahy and Bell Gardens, two eminently Hispanic cities not far from Santa Ana, have decided to postpone the celebrations of independence day planned for next week «for the safety of residents.» The mayor of the first, which has a 97% Latin population, has canceled a public celebration with live music, food stalls and a fireworks show.

A group of activists from Santa Ana and Orange County has mobilized this week to pay seven street vendors and who are not forced to go outside to expose themselves to a raid while trying to make a living. For several weeks, the Trump administration has changed the objective of its operations against the undocumented. The criminals or people with a criminal record were the priority in the first days of the raids. Now any danger is in danger.

The ICE has recently reported that it arrested 1,600 people throughout the southern California, the area with the most undocumented in the United States, until June 22. Of these, 722 were captured in the Los Angeles Metropolitan Region on the first ten days of the month. 57% of this second group has no criminal record, nor was it wanted to have committed a crime. The vast majority, 82%, are men, and about half have as a country of origin Mexico. 16% comes from Guatemala and 8% of El Salvador, according to sports numbers Data Project, an information center backed by the Law Department of the University of California Berkeley.

This federal strategy turn had already been underlined by Karen Bass, the mayor of Los Angeles and who has held a tense relationship with Washington for weeks for the sending of troops to the city for protests against the raids. «They are not capturing drug traffickers, people who work hard in markets and business parking lots are hunting,» said the Democratic policy a few days ago. This Wednesday the photograph of a palette cart that was abandoned in the streets of Culver City was viral after federal agents stopped its owner, Enrique Lozano, who had been selling ice cream in the area for 20 years.

American military father
Thus, working, as the federal agents surprised Narciso Barranco. The authorities of the Department of Internal Security affirm that the gardener swelled a clearing in front of the face of one of the ICE elements. At least three videos, all recorded by witnesses to the brutal detention, denied the official version. These show the worker fleeing from the police and even trying to get on a vehicle that was underway to escape the place. The police, masked, subjected him to give several blows to the ground.

The firstborn of Narciso, Alejandro Barranco, visited his father on Tuesday afternoon. He found it in a cell shared with 70 people and where water and food are scarce. He found him with swollen eyes and the same bloody shirt he had at the time of his arrest.

Alejando told the NBC chain that his father, who left Mexico at age 17 to migrate to the United States, educated him and his two brothers to admire his new homeland. «He never wanted us to hate or have a disgust with this country,» said Barranco, who enlisted with the Marines and was sent to Afghanistan, where he even helped with Kabul’s final evacuation. His two brothers are also infantry soldiers.

The relationship of an undocumented with three children who have dedicated their lives to serving the United States has taken public opinion by surprise. The family has reported that it had already started the process of Parole in Place, a benefit reserved for family members of the members of the Armed Forces. It is a route for the couples, parents and brothers of a military can regularize their immigration situation. The procedure, however, can last several years and is usually conditioned to whether the beneficiaries had a legal entry to the country. If this was irregular, as is the case of Narcissus, the situation is complicated. Deportation machinery reached Barranco long before it could be legalized.