Allston Residents and Officials Condemn Election Day Immigration Raid at Car Wash

Allston residents and elected officials rallied in support of nine Guatemalan and Salvadoran people who were detained by immigration enforcement officers on Tuesday morning — election day in Boston.

The arrests were made at Allston Car Wash on Cambridge Street, where all of the arrested people were employed. The car wash manager told the Boston Globe that many of them had green cards or visas, but were not permitted to retrieve their documentation from the facility’s lockers. He declined to comment further to The Crimson.

In a video circulating online of the arrests, a group of roughly 10 masked officers — some wearing vests that read “POLICE” — are seen handcuffing a group of five employees cleaning a car. The agents can be heard instructing Joel D. Estrada, the car’s owner, to take out towels left in the car and drive away from the scene.

Estrada, who took the video, said he went back to the car wash later to ask what had happened to the workers and was told by a different employee that they had been taken into custody.

“One minute I’m watching them finish up my car, then next, four to six cars pull up, and agents with ‘POLICE’ vests, guns, and masks come out and detain everyone who was working on my car immediately,” Estrada wrote in a statement to The Crimson.

A spokesperson for ICE did not respond to a request for comment on whether the agency was responsible for the raid. The identities and current locations of the nine detained residents are not publicly known, though volunteers with the LUCE Immigrant Justice Network of Massachusetts told the Boston Globe that at least some were being held at an ICE facility in Burlington.

While law enforcement officers have detained individuals in Allston before, Tuesday’s incident marked the largest reported raid in the neighborhood this year.

Heloisa Galvão, the director of Allston-Brighton’s Brazilian Women’s Group, said the arrests caused an influx of calls seeking support from her organization, which runs help hotlines and support groups for immigrants in the neighborhood.

“This raid on Election Day has caused so much revolt and so much complaint,” Galvão said. “It has upset so many people. I have got 10 calls from the media and organizations and people, lawyers for civil rights have called me, you name it.”

“It’s just unbelievable that these people do this,” she added.

The arrests also sparked outrage among residents, prompting dozens to share eyewitness accounts, post comments in support of their detained neighbors, and criticize U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in a neighborhood Facebook group.

State senator William N. Brownsberger ’78 said he visited the car wash on Wednesday morning and noticed that residents were already beginning to extend support to the people impacted by the raid.

“My sense is that there is an outpouring of assistance for the people and their families affected by the raid,” Brownsberger said. “I think we have a community that cares deeply about all the neighbors.”

Allston-Brighton’s City Councilor Elizabeth A. “Liz” Breadon also issued a public statement calling the arrests a “kidnapping — plain and simple.”

“It is a horrifying chapter in the illegal and vindictive targeting of Boston by ICE and the Trump Administration,” she wrote.

Breadon added that she was working with Senators Elizabeth A. Warren and Ed J. Markey (D-Mass.), and Rep. Ayanna S. Pressley (D-Mass.) to connect impacted family members with legal aid groups.

Markey, too, criticized the Trump administration for “terrorizing hard-working individuals.”

“The cruelty is the point. We will demand answers and support our neighbors,” he wrote in a statement.

Local leaders saw the arrests as another attempt by immigration enforcement to instill fear in immigrants, who have avoided accessing essential services like health clinics and adult education classes after ICE activity in Allston increased in the last six months.

Rosie C. Hanlon, who runs the Jackson-Mann Community Center, said that the arrests “put the fear of God” in residents who hoped to vote on Tuesday. She said that recent ICE activity has caused families to stay home from the Jackson-Mann’s youth programming.

“We’re trying to reach out to these families, but they’re petrified to let their kids out of their sight because of the actions of ICE,” she said. “And I certainly don’t blame them.”

Bianca Bowman, an Allston resident who frequently volunteers for organizations that support immigrants, expects the raid to “continue fueling fear and feelings of lack of safety.”

But she said a glimpse of hope remains in the neighborhood’s coordinated response.

“I’ve seen a lot of solidarity and communication and coordination between Breadon’s office and the other community organizations in Allston and Brighton,” she said. “I think a lot of people are looking to help out as much as possible.”

Nicolasa Lopez, an immigrant and activist who contacted families of the arrested people, said that many of them had visas or green cards.

“These people were taken from the place of work they know. They’re being portrayed as criminals and treated as criminals. And they are now,” Lopez said. “We need to do something to protect our families.”

LUCE has launched a GoFundMe to support the families of those arrested.

—Staff writer Angelina J. Parker can be reached at angelina.parker@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @angelinajparker.

—Staff writer Emily T. Schwartz can be reached at emily.schwartz@thecrimson.com. Follow her on X @EmilySchwartz37.

— Staff writer Kevin Zhong can be reached at kevin.zhong@thecrimson.com.