It started as a “targeted immigration enforcement operation” by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) outside a Home Depot in Los Angeles, and turned out to be the most unsettling federal enforcement scene of the year. By the end, a U.S. citizen Carlos Jimenez, 32, had been arrested, injured, and accused of assaulting agents. Armed officers drove away his toddler daughter. DHS insists Jimenez attacked agents with a hammer and rocks while armed with a stolen pistol. His family and lawyers say that version is fake.
It all went down around 9 am at the Home Depot in Cypress Park, according to L.A. TACO. Between 20 and 50 agents, some masked and heavily armed, were in the parking lot near a bus stop and the Cypress Community Job Center, which was a safe hub for day laborers. Videos from bystanders show agents enveloping vehicles, shouting, and pulling people out of cars. In one clip, Jimenez’s daughter sits in a car seat while agents swarm the vehicle. One officer tosses a ball into the car, which hits the child in the face!
According to DHS, Jimenez “exited his vehicle, wielding a hammer and threw rocks” at the agents before that. They also claim a gun was found in his car and that he had an active warrant for property damage.
His family’s attorney calls it an attempt to criminalize an innocent man, and that he was warning that children were nearby. Eyewitnesses tell L.A. TACO the DHS agents’ approach was brutal. One said four officers pinned a man to the ground and pepper-sprayed him. Other agents allegedly stormed the grounds of the job center, broke a chain gate, and detained workers.
ICE detain father in unmarked white van—then drive off in his car—with his toddler still in back car seat.
One agent threw volleyball into back seat—it bounced hitting the toddler in head.
“There’s a baby in there!” people cry. “They covered up his face! That’s child abuse!”… pic.twitter.com/KtCZqq0Ykg
— LongTime🤓FirstTime👨💻 (@LongTimeHistory) November 5, 2025
On X (formerly Twitter), footage of the toddler in the backseat went viral as Angelenos demanded accountability for what many saw as a violent overreach by the DHS.
Jimenez’s mother, Maria Avalos, was in downtown L.A. the next day. “I am devastated,” she recounted. DHS agents called and advised her to pick up the one-year-old toddler hours after the raid. Avalos said she had no idea where her son was or what had happened to him. When she reunited with the toddler, the child was disoriented.
Avalos said:
“She’s too small. She didn’t know what was happening to her father.”
Jimenez remains in DHS custody, according to The Guardian, while his family scrambles to find legal help. Community members say that it traumatized the entire neighborhood. According to immigration advocates, ICE and Border Patrol operations in Los Angeles have surged in recent months. They are targeting neighborhoods with substantial immigrant populations.
LA: “They took a US citizen father out and left a toddler in the backseat. Two heavily armed border patrol agents got in that car and drove the child and the vehicle away.”
What are we doing? pic.twitter.com/RbxrbNdZ0I
— The Tennessee Holler (@TheTNHoller) November 5, 2025
Reports from Human Rights Watch and the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA) document patterns of aggressive and family separation, even involving U.S. citizens.
Renee Garcia of the legal aid nonprofit ImmDef said to The Guardian,
“I think that it’s absolutely traumatizing for a child to be placed in that situation.”
Grassroots groups like the Los Angeles Rapid Response Network and NELA Community Defense Hub have mobilized against the DHS. Their volunteers are monitoring raids, recording encounters, and connecting families with lawyers quickly.
