More than a month after several employees’ sudden detention at an Allston car wash, the seven who have been released spoke out about what happened when immigration enforcement agents detained them at their jobs.
“I was vacuuming the car — and all of a sudden I felt someone grab me from behind,” said Dairo Precaido, 67. He broke into tears repeatedly.
“First they took us to a Target. We were in a car, they had already handcuffed us and everything. Then they changed us to another car and they took us to Burlington,” he said.
An ICE facility in Burlington, Mass., has become a temporary space to hold immigrants before they’re transferred elsewhere, even though it was never intended to hold people overnight. Precaido said he slept on an air mattress that felt half inflated so he could feel “metal bars under his back.”
Last month’s sudden immigration sweep took the community by surprise, with the local city councilor calling it the single largest ICE raid in her area this year. Onlookers described seeing over a dozen black vehicles swarming the area and people being led away in cuffs and at gunpoint.
In a single workplace raid, two sisters and three members of another family were detained. The seven employees who were released are all out on bond pending their individual immigration cases, and will likely wait months or years for their next hearing. Two others are still detained.
U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley, attorneys and advocates hosted a roundtable for the immigrants to share their experiences Monday at the Josephine A. Fiorentino Community Center in Brighton. Pressley also urged people in Massachusetts to listen to immigrants’ stories and see how they can be supportive in their communities.
“They just asked us questions, if we were legal or illegal — but they already had arrested us,” said Heidy Aguilon Mauricio, describing how quick and unexpected her detention was.
“They chained us like criminals. It was very hard for us because we didn’t commit any crimes,” she said as Pressley comforted her. “Maybe the only crime that we’ve committed is just dreaming and wanting to move forward and have more opportunities than we have in our country.”
Her sister Clarisa Aguilon was also detained, and recounted that as she was detained, she was worried about her daughter. The girl sat nearby during the roundtable as she spoke, coloring in Woody from “Toy Story.”
“I would pick her up every day from school and I also drop her off in the mornings — and that day, I couldn’t go pick her up,” Aguilon said, crying.
“The worst experience for me was thinking about leaving my daughter here in this country,” she added.
Felicita Escobar de Vasquez, 46, said that as she was detained, she prayed that her brother would be spared to help their sick mother.
“I prayed to God to give me strength because I didn’t know what to do,” she said.
Her brother, Hector Valladares, was detained and remains in ICE custody in Plymouth.
Vasquez’s daughter Vanessa Vasquez Valladares, 22, was also detained.
“They were trying to have me sign my deportation. And because I didn’t sign it, they were also talking to my daughter — they gave her the papers so that my daughter would sign for her deportation and my deportation,” Vasquez recounted.
Her daughter was released on Saturday, the only detainee sent out of New England. She was picked up in Texas by a group of volunteers from LUCE Immigrant Justice Network.
Lawyers for the nine employees reasserted they don’t have criminal records. Many have temporary legal statuses and others were already in the process of getting permanent legal statuses.
“For five days, we didn’t know where these people were,” said attorney Todd Pomerleau, whose firm represents all nine individuals. “They play constitutional games day after day.”
For the released, gathering was emotional. Their voices caught and boxes of tissue made their way around the room.
“They’re gonna need support in the immediate, and also their families. This is a terror campaign,” Pressley said. The Boston congresswoman vowed her office will help them find pro bono behavioral health services.
She asked advocates to recount how they worked together to identify and support the detained and their families. Pressley encouraged others to do the same.
“If your neighbor is abducted, go find them,” she said. “That is really the charge of all of us in this moment.”
“I must confess it troubles my spirit that people have to relive their trauma in order for people to understand the severity of the moment we find ourselves in. That people have to relive their trauma in order to compel action from their government,” the congresswoman added. “But it is important that we hear from the car wash workers and their families directly so that people understand this trauma in ways that are personal because it is personal. It can’t be abstract.”
A local college student, who is president of the Boston University College Republicans, claimed credit for the sweep after apparently repeatedly reporting the employees to ICE.
“This week they finally responded to my request to detain these criminals,” the student, Zac Segal, posted on X last month.
A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security told GBH News the raid “relied on law enforcement intelligence—not your silly rumor” in response to questions about Segal’s claim.
The nine individuals didn’t know Segal, and he didn’t know them, according to attorneys.
“We come here to this country to work, to struggle, to have a better future, just you know — not to be criminals like they’re trying to portray it,” said Precaido.
He had been working at the car wash for over 25 years when he was detained. He still hasn’t gotten back his passport and identification.
