On Election Day, as millions of Californians went to the polls, federal agents stormed through at least ten neighborhoods across Southern California in one of the most aggressive immigration enforcement sweeps in recent memory. According to L.A. Taco’s Memo Torres and Izzy Ramirez, Border Patrol and ICE agents detained at least 25 people, including the elderly, parents on their way to work, and even a U.S. citizen who was taken with his toddler still strapped into the back seat.

Witnesses described chaotic and violent scenes. At a Home Depot parking lot in Cypress Park, agents reportedly broke into the IDESPECA day labor center, tackled the center’s coordinator who is a U.S. citizen, and broke his wrist before releasing him blocks away. He was later hospitalized with injuries. The toddler who had been taken from the same lot was eventually reunited with her mother by late afternoon, with the help of the Immigrant Defenders Law Center.

Throughout the morning and afternoon, Border Patrol units were spotted in Elysian Park, Glendale, Burbank, Koreatown, Downtown Los Angeles, and as far north as Oxnard and San Bernardino. Video footage and witness reports documented agents dragging away workers from job sites, storming residential streets, and confronting bystanders who tried to intervene. In Glendale, two roofers were taken while their son watched from a car. In Koreatown, a coconut vendor was snatched from his cart. In downtown’s Piñata District, community responders reported multiple detentions near factories and produce markets.

One of the most disturbing reports came from downtown Los Angeles, where agents called in LAPD officers to disperse a crowd that had gathered to block their exit. According to witnesses, the collaboration between local police and federal agents allowed ICE vehicles to drive off with their detainees.

In Oxnard, agents conducted early-morning raids in the Lemonwood neighborhood, taking three men from their homes before dawn. One of the victims’ sons told L.A. Taco that both his father and uncle were detained on their way to work, just months after his mother had been arrested in a previous raid.

Community organizations monitoring the raids, including Union del Barrio, VcDefensa, and the Immigrant Defenders Law Center, rushed to document incidents, provide legal aid, and verify detentions. A community update circulated Wednesday morning in Spanish warned that ICE activity was intensifying across several Los Angeles neighborhoods, including Pico-Union, Koreatown, Downtown, Mid-City, and South Central. The scale and timing of the raids, coinciding with Election Day, sent shockwaves through immigrant communities already reeling from months of intensified enforcement. Many described it as a deliberate act of intimidation designed to sow fear and chaos on a day meant to represent democratic participation.