SAN DIEGO — Video of a woman being pulled away from her weeping daughters on a California street and shoved into a U.S. Customs and Border Protection vehicle is drawing criticism of the manner in which federal agents are enforcing immigration laws. The incident occurred March 3 in National City, a community south of San Diego.
The video of the woman being apprehended by Customs and Border Protection agents in National City near San Diego was posted to Facebook Thursday morning, CBS Los Angeles reported.
Judith Castro-Gonzalez, a teaching aide, posted the video with a message in English and Spanish that read, “!Please share! It breaks my heart to know that this is the mother of one of my students[…] The brutalized, injustice that is happening in this country is sad my people, this battle continues and we should not give up. I will be aware of the development of this case.”
The Border Patrol says Perla Morales-Luna was identified as an organizer for a transnational criminal smuggling organization and was arrested for being in the country illegally.
It is not clear in what type of smuggling — drug, human or otherwise — authorities believe Morales-Luna was involved, CBS Los Angeles reported.
The arrest was described as “grotesque” by Benjamin Prado, coordinator for the American Friends Service Committee’s San Diego U.S.-Mexico Border Program. Prado tells the Los Angeles Times that he’s concerned about the “terror” the woman’s daughters suffered.
An attorney for Morales-Luna did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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