HUNTINGTON PARK, Calif. (KTLA) — A pregnant mother of four in California was shocked to see around a half-dozen vehicles carrying heavily armed, masked U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents outside her home Thursday morning and even more concerned when she spotted Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem along for the raid.
Sabrina Medina said she was in the shower at around 6 a.m. when her brother-in-law first saw the menacing presence in front of the family’s home.
“I was just terrified, I’m not going to lie to you,” Medina told Nexstar’s KTLA. “I was shaking. I was scared. I’ve never gone through anything like this.”
Medina, a U.S. citizen, said she looked out the window and saw 10 men dressed in tactical military gear, all of them carrying rifles.
“I was like, ‘Am I dreaming or is this real?’” she said.
According to Medina, the agents told her to exit her home with her children. Standing in the driveway, they showed her a warrant for her husband, with his name listed as David Garcia.
As she explained that her husband’s name is Jorge and that he was not at the house, one of the agents is captured on an outdoor home surveillance camera turning the device away from what was transpiring.
Cameras inside the home captured the heavily armed ICE agents going through the residence room by room, all while Noem, donning a bulletproof vest and ballcap, watched from the street.
The Homeland Security chief would later mention the Huntington Park raid at the press conference where Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) was roughly shoved out of the room, pushed to the ground, cuffed and briefly detained.
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After hearing about the raid, Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn went to the Huntington Park neighborhood and spoke with some of Medina’s neighbors.
“I’m very disappointed in this government right now and what they’re doing,” she told KTLA.
Four months pregnant with her fifth child, the Huntington Park mother said if her husband is deported, the family’s future is bleak.
“I’m not going to be able to pay my rent when I have to pay it,” she explained. “My husband is not here. I don’t know if they’re going to pick him up tomorrow, the day after tomorrow. It’s sad.”
ICE agents, along with Noem, eventually left the home empty-handed, and the children were allowed back inside.
For now, the family is unsure what the coming days will bring, but Medina said if her husband is deported, she and her children will likely follow him back to Mexico.
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