On September 25, Fernando Salazar, a 60-year-old day laborer, arrived at the Pomona Economic Opportunity Center as he had for years — with his two dogs, El Chapo and Pancho, trotting at his side. They were a familiar sight at the work center, where for decades Salazar found jobs along with other immigrant laborers, all shaping lives within a community that understood how fragile day-to-day survival could be.
But that morning, his routine collapsed in a matter of seconds.
As Salazar stepped onto the center’s grounds with the dogs, federal agents moved in. A video provided by Ana Martinez, the Day Labor Coordinator at PEOC, shows agents encircle Salazar and force him into plastic flex cuffs. Salazar was a man who had weathered recessions, shifting immigration policies, and who had watched generations of day laborers cycle through the center was suddenly gone—and his dogs, left behind,…