Justice for Isaias Pena

On June 20th, 2025, in the city of Bell, CA, masked ICE agents (or men posing as them) surrounded a family's car with their unmarked vehicles in the middle of Atlantic Blvd between Gage Ave and Florence Ave in front of the local Northgate Gonzalez Market. The community responded with a protest. There is a young man wearing a white polo shirt and hat that is seen banging once on the car to the right-hand side of this video that was presumably one of theirs. He did so because the car was slowly rolling despite having a pedestrian right in front. ICE (or the men posing as them) confronted him, grabbed him, and took him away. Local police departments have confirmed that they did not detain nor arrest him. This young man is 25-year-old Isaias Pena, a US-born citizen and our family member. His civil rights have been violated and he has been kidnapped. We are raising funds for legal fees because this shouldn't happen to anyone anywhere. As of 6:45 PM PDT on 6/20/2025, we still do not know his whereabouts.

Update: 10 PM. His Uncle Junior has located him. He is being held at the Los Angeles Metropolitan Detention Center. He hasn't been processed nor charged with anything. We are waiting to be contacted by phone.

Update: Sunday, June 22nd, 2025 Family has been calling LA Metropolitan Detention Center Friday and Saturday and got a booking number although he is considered not processed. We tried to deposit funds to be able to make phone calls and were unable to. We were told that we are likely not going to be able to do anything until Monday. By then, we hope to know when he gets released or if he will be charged with anything. We have since spoken to LA Public Press and we have reached out to ACLU SoCal. Legal offices were called but due to the time and day of the week, we won't be able to make contact until Monday as well. We have also become aware of a different GoFundMe organized by someone named Fernando Islas that claims to be raising funds for Isaias, but it is not being organized by anyone that Isaias nor his immediate family know. We urge people to report that GFM.

Update: On Monday, June 23rd, 2025 between 9 and 9:30 AM we called MDC to ask if Isaías was still in custody and we were told yes, but when we asked if he had been processed yet, we were told that that information cannot be shared. When we asked if we can now add funds to his account, we were given short/rude answers "no" "I don't know" and after asking which number to call to find out, "Google it."

At around 10:30 AM we received a call from Isaias's friend Jerry to let us know that Isaias was out, had been actually released at around 7AM, and that he had walked to a family member's house in Boyle Heights but that no one was home. He doesn't appear to have been charged with anything. We will update if he does.

His brother Josh picked him up and Isaias now walks with a limp, has multiple rubber bullet gunshot wounds and still smelled like tear gas.

He was fed and spoke to Amanda from LA Public Press about the incident and his experience in the detention center. Article link here. ( https://lapublicpress.org/2025/06/70-hours-hell-detained-in-bell-immigration-raid/ )

On Tuesday, June 24th, 2025, Isaias spoke to Noticiero Univision about the incident and conditions in Spanish. Video link. ( https://youtu.be/SiTXSGzieWo )

He also got medically examined at MLK Community Hospital to have his injuries documented.

We are still seeking legal assistance.