Federal agents drive off with 1-year-old girl after arresting her father in Los Angeles

Federal immigration officers in Los Angeles arrested a U.S. citizen outside a Home Depot store before driving away with the man’s 1-year-old daughter still strapped in her car seat, according to family members and advocacy groups who condemned the incident on Wednesday.

Video footage captured by the Los Angeles Rapid Response Network, an immigrant advocacy coalition, shows the aftermath of the arrest. In the recording, the man is seen with his hands behind his back, leaning against his vehicle before being escorted away. Two masked agents wearing helmets and bulletproof vests then enter his car and drive off with the toddler still in the back seat.

Bystanders can be heard shouting “there’s a baby in the back!” as the federal agents depart with the child.

“It was a dangerous act to have armed men get in a car with that child and remove her from the situation,” said Lindsay Toczylowski, co-founder of Immigrant Defenders Law Center. The organization was contacted by community members seeking assistance in reuniting the family but isn’t representing the man since he is an American citizen.

According to Toczylowski, the girl’s relatives later retrieved the child from federal offices in Los Angeles. “They should have followed protocols that had the best interest of that child in mind,” she added.

A Department of Homeland Security spokesperson provided a different account of the incident via email. The agency claims that a U.S. citizen exited his vehicle wielding a hammer and throwing rocks at Border Patrol agents during the raid. Officials stated he was arrested for investigation of assault, and that agents found a pistol in his car reportedly stolen from New York state. However, the agency did not address questions about the decision to drive away with the child in the vehicle.

Five immigrants were also arrested during the operation on suspicion of immigration violations, according to the spokesperson.

Ed Obayashi, a special prosecutor in California and expert on police practices, offered context on how law enforcement typically handles situations involving children. He explained that local police conducting DUI operations often encounter scenarios where parents are arrested with children in vehicles. In those cases, officers usually call tow companies and transport children in patrol vehicles to stations where family members can retrieve them.

However, Obayashi noted that federal immigration raids present different circumstances. With bystanders recording the incident, he believes the officers might have been trying to remove the vehicle and child from a potentially volatile situation.

“I think they were just trying to get the vehicle and the kid out of there and to safety,” Obayashi said.

The man’s mother, identified only as Maria to protect her granddaughter’s identity, told reporters that the family received a call from an unknown number on Tuesday instructing them to pick up the girl at U.S. Border Patrol offices in Los Angeles. She said while the child is physically unharmed, she has been asking for her father, who was born in California and works in the restaurant industry. The man’s current whereabouts remain unknown.

Maria confirmed that both she and her granddaughter are U.S. citizens. Speaking in Spanish after viewing the video footage, she expressed her alarm at the situation: “It’s something very frightening. You don’t know who those people are.”

The incident highlights ongoing tensions surrounding immigration enforcement operations in major urban centers like Los Angeles, where community advocates have established networks to monitor and document federal immigration activities. Such incidents also raise questions about protocols for handling children during enforcement actions, particularly when U.S. citizens are involved.