One Year On, Los Angeles Is Still Living with the Fallout of the Raids

Giovanni, who was picked up in October by federal agents from the car wash where he worked, has returned to his San Fernando Valley home after spending six months in detention. Photo: Karla Gachet for Capital & Main.

When immigration agents arrived at the Los Angeles car wash where he worked, Giovanni didn’t see them until one was standing beside him. Giovanni’s thoughts turned to his family: How would they get by without him? Would he have to uproot his school-age children from the only home they had ever known?

Giovanni had worked at the car wash in the San Fernando Valley for years, vacuuming interiors and scrubbing cars. Then, on that day in October, he was taken away by federal immigration agents along with three other workers.