In Los Angeles, California, a woman’s quick thinking and compassion helped the family of a man detained by ICE agents get notified of his situation after she captured the moment on camera and shared it online. The video, filmed at the intersection of Imperial and Vermont, showed three ICE agents escorting the visibly shaken man toward their vehicle as the passerby called out to him in Spanish, urging him to share his name and contact information.
The man, who identified himself as Isaiah Chavez, struggled to speak clearly, his hands cuffed behind his back as he tried to shout out his phone number. The woman filming repeated parts of what she heard, hoping to catch his full name and number before he was taken away. But possibly because she was recording from her car some distance away, she missed one digit.
She later uploaded the video to TikTok, where it quickly gained over a million views. In her caption, she explained that Chavez had been detained around 11:55 a.m. and asked viewers to help identify his family. Many, including the woman herself, tried calling variations of the incomplete number to locate them, but none were successful.
Thankfully, in a follow-up post, she announced that the man’s family had finally been found after his son came across the viral clip. She shared that the family had been notified of his detention and was now in contact with the services involved to seek a way forward.
Netizens React to the Viral Los Angeles ICE Detention Video
On TikTok, thousands of viewers responded emotionally to the footage, expressing fear, outrage, and sadness at what they had witnessed. “He looks so nervous and shaken up. Lord, please keep him safe!” one person commented. Another wrote, “He’s so nervous he forgot the number. I can’t imagine what he’s feeling.” A third said, “But they are only targeting ‘criminals,’ meanwhile these hardworking people are being dragged from their homes and small businesses.”
Others said the video left them in tears. “I feel bad, I’m literally crying,” one viewer wrote, while someone else added, “If this is mentally affecting me, I can’t even imagine how they’re feeling being ripped away from their families.” A different comment read, “Praying for him and everyone being effected [sic] by this.”
