The owner of a Long Beach car wash raided by immigration agents last week says four people were arrested during the operation, including his nephew, who had worked at the business for 15 years.
Andres, who has owned Andres Car Wash in Cal Heights for 30 years, spoke to the Long Beach Post about a week after masked agents stormed through his business on Aug. 17. He asked to be identified only by his first name because he’s afraid of being targeted.
Andres said the agents appeared suddenly and chased down anyone who ran. They also grabbed his nephew, who didn’t run but was drying off a car nearby.
The detained men were from Mexico, Guatemala and Honduras. All had children and were their families’ main providers, according to Andres.
“We’re family people,” Andres said. “We work for a living and support the family.”
Two have already been deported, as far as Andres knows, and the others remain in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody.
Andres has lately been sharing a fundraising page to help the men’s families, but he’s also in a tight spot himself.
Due to a lack of workers, his car wash on Long Beach Boulevard and 37th Street sat closed for more than a week. His second location, about two blocks away on Wardlow Road, closed for three days out of fear of another raid. His employees at that location all have legal status, Andres said, but they were still worried about being taken into custody in another potential raid.
Accusations of unconstitutional raids — which sometimes even swept up citizens — at car washes, Home Depots and bus stops have become a central issue in a legal case accusing federal officials of essentially profiling to meet quotas for deportations.
A federal judge last month ordered the Trump Administration to stop detaining people based solely on the factors of race, ethnicity, language or place of employment — such as a car wash. Federal officials have appealed the judge’s temporary restraining order, saying they are conducting targeted raids, not roving patrols as the plaintiffs allege, and the sudden sweeps have continued periodically.
CLEAN Carwash Worker Center, a local labor advocacy nonprofit, estimates that more than 100 people — mostly workers but also some customers — have been detained in sweeps at car washes in Los Angeles and Orange counties since June.
It’s not clear why agents chose to descend on Andres Car Wash. (ICE did not immediately respond to questions.) They also detained approximately five more workers that morning at Coast Hand Car Wash & Detail Center near the Long Beach VA Medical Center.
Mayor Rex Richardson said in a statement that he believes the operations violated the temporary restraining order.
Long Beach has asked to be added as a plaintiff to the lawsuit that secured the order, but City Attorney Dawn McIntosh said it is still awaiting a judge’s approval. Once added, Long Beach will join LA, Pasadena and several other cities in asking a judge to issue a preliminary injunction, a more durable ruling against the roving raids. They argue this is necessary because the federal government is ignoring the temporary restraining order.
Once Long Beach is added to the lawsuit, the city could ask a judge to impose penalties for violations of the court order, but whether that succeeds or has any effect on the raids is an open question.
“We could get a contempt order from the court and they could actually throw [U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security] Kristi Noem in jail, but is the court actually going to do that?” McIntosh said. “It’s kind of uncharted territory when you have an order and they’re just ignoring it.”
Meanwhile, Andres wonders if he could’ve done more to protect his workers, who he said were willing to do backbreaking labor just to eek out a living.
“They don’t care about sweating outside in the summertime. They don’t care if they get dirty. If they get tired,” Andres said. “They do the job and all of the customers are happy with us.”
Finding employees willing to wash countless cars for eight hours in the sun is not an easy task, he said. A few months ago, Andres tried out two new employees who had inquired about a job. One lasted a day before quitting — the other only made it two hours.
Most of his employees get minimum wage, $16.50 per hour, plus tips, according to Andres. He said he would like to pay more, but his margins are thin. Customers often tell him his $20 price per hand wash is still too steep, but it’s hardly enough to meet his rising water, electricity and insurance costs.
Now, he has another expense, a new gate he plans to install to defend his workers, one that will only open to allow customers in and out.