Culver City teen steps up for his family after dad is taken into ICE custody
A Culver City family spent Father's Day apart after an undocumented man was picked up by ICE at a car wash last weekend.
CULVER CITY, Calif. (KABC) -- A Culver City family spent Father's Day apart after an undocumented man was picked up by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at a car wash last weekend.
Video from the scene shows the man being taken into custody. It was the last time 16-year-old Brian Vasquez saw his father.
"What did your dad say to you?" Eyewitness News Reporter Tim Caputo asked the teenager in an interview.
"To calm down, to keep calm, and that everything will be OK," Brian said.
The family was getting their car cleaned when ICE raided the business -- apparently targeting employees, but also grabbing Brian's father, Arturo, in front of Brian and his younger brother.
"That's when I saw the team and my little brother crying. I pulled him away. I told them to not touch him," Brian said. "I just hugged my dad. I told him that I'll see him again soon and I'll fight for him."
Arturo had been in the U.S. for 27 years and started a family here. He worked in the restaurant industry and paid taxes.
Now, on Father's Day, Arturo was 800 miles away from his wife and two sons -- taken to a federal detention center in El Paso, Texas, according to his family.
"I just cried. I couldn't hold it because every Father's Day, I will see him and hug him and tell them how much I love him, but now this year, I couldn't tell him that, like, in person, so I just cried, and I couldn't stop crying," Brian said. "I locked myself in the bathroom and I cried, I cried, and this morning he called us and told us that he's OK."
Brian and his mother are now working with an attorney to fight his immigration case before he's deported.
Arturo worked in L.A. as a pastry chef, and every day he's in custody is lost income for his family of four.
"Without him, we're like, very much struggling to maintain a good lifestyle right now," Brian said.
At just 16, Brian is now forced to be the man of the house. He's reluctantly up for the task because over the last 16 years, his father has led by example.
"He's been telling me to take care of my little brother and my mom and make sure they eat, make sure they're not crying, make sure they're calm," Brian said. "He is my role model. He's my idol, and I really want him back."
