On October 17th, an El Segundo resident (whom we are referring to as “AJ”) was detained by ICE as he sat in his truck in the parking lot of a Home Depot in Inglewood. AJ is married to Carmen, an American citizen who has lived in El Segundo for over 20 years and whom many in the community know from her 35 years at the Post Office and from her years working at the former Rite Aid in town.

AJ had a Green Card application in process at the time he was detained. He is currently being held in Calexico, 220 miles away. AJ is diabetic and requires a special diet and prescribed medication, which he has not been given. There are grave concerns for his health.

We are seeking help for his immediate needs: funds for mounting legal fees and for the travel costs Carmen faces as she attends hearings and advocates for him.

El Segundo is at its best when we show up for neighbors in need, and right now this family really needs our help. Please donate what you can, and please share far and wide.

***If you're able to help outside of donating by providing meals and other support to Carmen please reach out to us via the Contact button further down this page***

Full details below:

The ICE raids have now affected a beloved resident of El Segundo, Carmen, and her husband, AJ:

Carmen immigrated from Peru many decades ago and is a U.S. citizen. She has worked hard over the years; currently, she works 12-hour shifts six days a week for the U.S Postal Service, a job she’s held for 35 years. She moved to El Segundo when her son was a small child so that he could receive a good education. She scrimped and saved and sacrificed and was able to purchase a condo here in town. Her son attended El Segundo schools, where he played on the football team, and went on to serve in the Marines for ten years. Now he is a federal contractor in Nevada. Many of us know Carmen because she worked at Rite-Aid for many years, as well as at the Post Office.

Carmen’s husband AJ has lived in the US for over twenty years. Carmen met AJ when she was out dancing with friends: “When my friends went out to dance, we would call him to dance with us.” AJ became Carmen’s dance partner. “And little by little… I didn’t realize I was falling in love with him.”

The couple married in 2017. They immediately applied for AJ to get a Green Card, but the attorney they hired filled in the wrong birth date on the forms. The process became stalled in the nightmarish bureaucratic immigration maze.

In 2023, with the help of a new lawyer, they were able to correct the birthdate on the application, which seemed to resolve the issue. They expected the application to move forward. A backlog of 7.6 million Green Card applications existed in 2023, and the processing of Green Card applications remained stalled.

When Trump was elected, his administration asserted that only undocumented immigrants who were violent criminals would be deported. Carmen’s husband had NO criminal record, a Green Card application in process, AND AJ is married to Carmen, an American citizen.

On October 17th, 2025, at 9:00 AM, as AJ sat in his truck in the parking lot of the Home Depot in Inglewood, he was surrounded by ICE agents, who forced him from his truck and detained him. They confiscated his phone and would not allow him to call an attorney or his wife. He was taken to the Downtown Los Angeles Metropolitan Detention Center. Fourteen other day laborers were taken along with AJ.

Carmen learned what happened when the wife of one of the other workers got a message to her. She left work and called her lawyer and the Mexican consulate (neither of whom returned her calls for several days). She was able to retrieve AJ’s truck from the Home Depot parking lot, then rushed to the Metropolitan Detention Center.

Her husband AJ is diabetic and requires medication and a special diet to keep his blood sugar under control. At the Metropolitan Detention Center, an officer confirmed her husband was in custody there, but would not allow her to deliver the medication or food.

When Carmen tried to put money in her husband’s commissary fund, she could not. He was not officially “in the system” for several days. He was given no soap, no water to wash, little food, and was not able to call anyone. AJ was only able to send messages to Carmen through the family of one of the other detainees, who called her.

Over the next few days, AJ was abruptly moved to Santa Ana, then back to Downtown LA, and then to a detention center in Calexico, a 220-mile and four-hour drive from El Segundo. The lawyer who had been representing AJ told Carmen he could not continue to represent AJ after that move.

A few weeks after AJ was detained, Carmen received an email with a notice for AJ to appear at an immigration hearing regarding his Green Card application. Since he was already detained, of course, he could not appear. Because he did not appear, his application was denied, leaving him vulnerable to deportation.

AJ had a hearing on November 17th, and Carmen made the trip to Calexico to be in the hearing and see him, but after arriving, she was told by the court clerk that the hearing was virtual. She sat inside the tiny courtroom of the Imperial Immigration Court with the court clerk and watched the proceedings on a large screen. The judge and an interpreter were virtual from another location. AJ was virtual from the Imperial Detention Center. AJ’s lawyer was virtual as well.

During the hearing, AJ’s lawyer asked for a continuance to prepare the case. The court translator mistranslated some crucial information about the date of the next hearing to AJ (who does not speak English). No one corrected it. Carmen herself raised her hand and asked the court clerk if she could speak.

The judge listened to her explain that the translator had given AJ incorrect information. The judge asked the translator to correct this for AJ. This incident is an example of how crucial it is for Carmen and advocates of AJ to be present and on top of all proceedings.

Carmen was not allowed to visit AJ at the detention center after the hearing because there are no family visit days on Mondays or Tuesdays.

Carmen retained a new lawyer based in San Diego, who said they would appeal the denial. On November 23rd, she drove four hours to Calexico to see AJ. She was initially refused because AJ was “not in the system” (in spite of being told on the phone by detention center staff that she would be able to visit that day). Her insistence prevailed, and she was able to see him. He had finally been given clean clothes, and conditions had improved slightly, but AJ was not being given the medication his doctor had prescribed for his diabetes, in spite of lawyers filing letters from AJ’s doctors with information about his required medication and diet.

Earlier, in September, a man in the same facility where AJ is being held died from an untreated health condition. As of November, 25 detainees have died in ICE detention centers this year.

AJ struggles to keep his spirits up in detention. There has been pressure put on him by authorities to sign the papers that would force his deportation to Mexico. Thirteen of the men who were detained along with him have been deported. Another man has disappeared and can’t be located by his family. Carmen has requested local clergy to visit AJ in detention, but the Imperial Detention Center is not allowing clergy or other advocacy groups to visit detainees.

The next hearing is set for December 15th.

IMMEDIATE NEEDS:

Legal costs are mounting, funds are needed for legal fees and transportation, so that Carmen can be present at hearings.