Two weeks earlier than the 47-year-old housekeeper with a power well being situation fainted whereas being handcuffed by ICE brokers in entrance of her brother-in-law’s East Palo Alto dwelling, two similar-looking males had pulled as much as the identical tackle.
“Do you have ID?” the person requested Ernesto Jasso, who was standing subsequent to his truck that carried instruments for his landscaping enterprise.
The person by no means recognized himself, however Jasso mentioned he would seize his ID from his home. Afraid of being deported, he by no means got here again outdoors and ultimately the automobile pulled away.
However he believes that very same man — together with a bunch of different federal brokers — returned at 7:15 a.m. Monday and arrested Jasso’s 29-year-old son, Dario, as he climbed into his truck to go to his building job. Minutes later, Yenycey Rodriquez the housekeeper, and her husband Oscar Flores who labored as a gardener with Jasso, arrived at Jasso’s home. Flores was becoming a member of his brother-in-law to carpool for a day of landscaping work when his spouse was arrested.
“I’m just completely stressed and drained about it,” Flores mentioned.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement — ICE — didn’t reply to requests for remark.
Flores and his spouse got here to California with 10-year vacationer visas that expired two years in the past, he mentioned. They introduced their three daughters right here to provide them an opportunity at a greater schooling and be part of Bay Space kinfolk who’re residents.
“We haven’t committed any crimes besides overextending the visa, not even a speeding ticket,” he mentioned of his complete household caught up in Monday’s ordeal.
Their expertise raises questions on why this household of housekeepers and gardeners have been focused and why the boys confirmed no warrant or deportation order to arrest them. President Trump had campaigned on a platform of “the largest deportation program in American history to get the criminals out” to deport immigrants residing within the U.S. with out permission with an implied concentrate on these with legal data. He would deport tens of millions of them — however there aren’t tens of millions with legal data.
East Palo Alto Police Chief Jeff Liu mentioned his dispatch heart obtained a telephone name from Immigration and Customs Enforcement brokers early Monday morning letting the company know that they’d be working within the space. They provided no particulars of their plans, he mentioned, and his officers didn’t take part.
After Monday’s arrests, each Flores and Jasso fled their very own houses and are staying in what they think about “safe houses.”
Certainly one of their kinfolk, Issy Tovar, mentioned she’s upset that the Trump administration goes after immigrants with out legal data. Overstaying a visa is usually not a legal offense, however is a severe immigration violation topic to deportation and prohibitions in opposition to re-entry into the U.S.
“They are now after productive members of our community, people that are hardworking, that are appreciated and loved by their neighbors, by their employers and they’re causing trauma in whole families,” Tovar mentioned.
In a Tuesday afternoon interview, Flores defined that on Monday morning, he and his spouse had already dropped their 11-year-old daughter, their youngest, off at college. They’d simply parked in entrance of Jasso’s home the place Flores was assembly as much as begin his work day.
After he received out of the automobile and his spouse took the motive force’s seat to prepare to move to her housekeeping job, he felt a hand seize his arm.
“Do you have an ID?” an agent in black requested.
“I didn’t even look at him,” Oscar mentioned. “I just reacted and ran.”
He fled right into a neighbor’s yard, however the agent pursuing him stopped on the sidewalk — not venturing onto personal property.
None of them had ICE insignias on their black clothes, though one had a jacket that mentioned “Police.”
Because the brokers targeted on his spouse, Flores slipped over to his brother-in-law’s yard and started to movie what occurred subsequent. From his video, you may hear his spouse screaming as she’s on her knees whereas brokers are handcuffing her. As they elevate her up and transfer her in the direction of a parked black van, her physique goes limp. Flores yells that she’s fainted.
“She’s sick!” he yells in Spanish. “If she dies it’s your fault.”
His spouse, who goes by “Yeny,” has a power blood situation referred to as referred to as Thrombocytopenia that causes her to go out in high-stress conditions, Flores mentioned. She has been handled beforehand at Stanford for it.
Earlier than the van pulled away, Flores mentioned, the identical agent that had stopped his brother-in-law in his yard two weeks earlier pointed at Jasso and mentioned “you’re next.”
One other relative adopted the van to Kaiser Redwood Metropolis the place he confronted the ICE brokers and noticed Yeny nonetheless unconscious within the again seat, Flores mentioned. It’s unclear what occurred at Kaiser, though the brokers as a substitute took her to Stanford, the place she was admitted.
The federal brokers guarding her door allowed the household to go to her for a number of hours Monday morning, however banned them for the remainder of the day and Tuesday.
Tuesday afternoon, Stanford Hospital spokesperson Lisa Kim confirmed that “federal agents brought an individual who was in their custody” to the emergency room Monday and “in accordance with our current policies and in compliance with federal agencies, is providing the needed care for this patient.” She didn’t provide particulars concerning the affected person’s situation.
Patti Regehr, a member of Santa Clara County’s Fast Response Community that helps undocumented immigrants, spent a lot of Monday within the Stanford Hospital ready room with the household.
“People are running scared, and we need to stand up,” she mentioned.
Initially Printed: August 26, 2025 at 6:49 PM PDT
