Romulo Avelica-Gonzalez was dropping off his daughters at school in Los Angeles on Tuesday when he was arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. His 13-year-old daughter, Fatima, sobbed as she recorded her father being handcuffed in front of her and her mother.
Avelica-Gonzalez, 48, who has been living in the United States for over 20 years, had just finished dropping off his 12-year-old daughter in the Highland Park neighborhood when he was detained. His 19-year-old daughter, Jocelyn, who was at work during the incident,
told the LAist that a car had been following her father since the moment he left the house.
“My dad dropped off my first sister and then when he turned around, they turned on their light,” Jocelyn said. “My dad was really scared. He didn’t want to pull over, but he did. As soon as he did, one car went in front of his truck and one in back of his truck. They took him out and they arrested him.”
In the video, Fatima
can be heard loudly weeping as her father is detained by men wearing jackets and vests marked “POLICE.” (Los Angeles officials
have asked ICE agents to stop identifying themselves as such.) Her mother asks one of the officers in Spanish how to proceed before turning to her daughter and telling her: “Don’t cry, honey. Don’t cry. We have to be strong.”
Avelica-Gonzalez, the father of four U.S. citizens,
was detained over a DUI conviction nearly 10 years ago and a two decade-old incident involving an incorrect registration sticker, according to
a local ABC affiliate.
Harrowing Video Captures Teen Sobbing As ICE Arrests Her Dad On The Way To School | The Huffington Post
-------------
Welcome to Trump's America, ripping families apart to create fear.
I can relate to both sides to this.
I once was given the orders to go fire a teacher who had stolen confidential information / property to use
to take clients from a school for a competing tutoring business.
Clearly this was a violation of school property and grounds for dismissal.
but the way I went about it, I confronted and removed the teacher
in front of very upset students. The parents and students and teacher
were crying to each other over the phone afterwards, because no advance
warning was given and it was very traumatizing. We could have called in the parents with the
teacher and let them know what was happening right after telling
the teacher in private, and reduce the shock and upset.
So there are ways to take action civilly and orderly
where it doesn't have to traumatize the children affected.
Police coming to get parents who have violated parole
or probation often run into these confrontations that
make the kids "hate the police," so it causes severe damage
unless people plan ahead and set up better procedures.
The added benefitsd: by setting up agreed processes to begin with
not only are the community members made knowledgeable of laws and policing,
but the real problem people will get screened out if they have no
intention of complying ad cooperating with authorities. So the police
will already know which people are able to be law abiding
and which ones are truly criminally abusive, so they don't confuse the two.