AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. I’m Amy Goodman.

We end today’s show in California, where community organizers are demanding justice for 52-year-old Carlos Roberto Montoya, a father and grandfather from Guatemala who was struck and killed on the freeway as he tried to escape federal ICE agents during a raid at a Home Depot in Monrovia last week. Montoya had lived in the U.S. for about three years. He was a day laborer who worked to support his wife, four daughters and grandchildren in Guatemala.

On Thursday, Democracy Now! producer María Inés Taracena reached Montoya’s oldest daughter, Ana Victoria, and his wife of 35 years, Ana María Vásquez, who spoke to Democracy Now! from their home in Guatemala sitting in front of an altar with flowers, candles and two photos of Carlos Roberto Montoya.

ANA VICTORIA MONTOYA: [translated] The last call I had with my dad was Wednesday at 11:00 at night, the day before he died. And he told me, “Things are rough here. It is getting harder here. I just need to make a little bit more money so that I can go back to Guatemala.” He was planning on coming back, but he was struggling with making enough money to make his dream come true of having his own business, his own business so that he could support us here.

We want people to remember my dad in the same way we will remember him: as a loving, respectful, brave man. He died because he was afraid. He died because of these injustices, this persecution. I want him to be remembered as a brave and hard-working man.

Sadly, he didn’t have enough time to fulfill his dreams, and we are left with a double sorrow. We are left with the void of not having him anymore, of not having his love, his advice, and we are left here with the anguish of not knowing how we will get by. He was the main provider for us, for his grandchildren.

This photo is from when he was waiting for work. He would chat with his friends, and they would take photos of each other to pass the time. And the other photo up there is of him at work. He was afraid of heights, but he had to do it. He needed the money.

ANA MARÍA VÁSQUEZ: [translated] The people who know him, they know he was a light. Everywhere he went, he would bring his grandchildren. From the oldest to the youngest, he loved them all the same.

AMY GOODMAN: Carlos Roberto Montoya’s wife, Ana María Vásquez, and his eldest daughter, Ana Victoria, speaking to Democracy Now!’s María Taracena from their home in Guatemala.

Carlos Roberto Montoya’s death comes as federal immigration raids have increasingly targeted immigrant workers and day laborers, with activists condemning companies like Home Depot over their complicity. Montoya is at least the second immigrant, that we know of, who’s been killed during a raid in recent months. Fifty-seven-year-old Jaime Alanís died after he fell from a roof of a greenhouse during an ICE raid at a California farm last month. In a statement to the Los Angeles Times, Homeland Security officials said Montoya had not been chased by any federal agent during the raid. Activists dispute those claims.

For more, we’re joined by Pablo Alvarado, co-executive director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, joining us from Pasadena, California.

Pablo, welcome back to Democracy Now! Explain what you understand exactly happened.

PABLO ALVARADO: Good morning. Amy. Thank you for having me in your program again.

First of all, I want to let the family of Carlos Roberto Montoya Valdez. The day laborers, the migrant community is mourning the death of Roberto Carlos, and we send our love, our solidarity and our deepest condolences to them.

When I arrived there, I saw officers of the California Highway Patrol interviewing people, doing an investigation of what had happened this morning — that particular morning. There were different narratives by the day laborers, saying that he was indeed chased by these individuals into the freeway, and there were others who were saying that he was not being chased. So we don’t really know the truth about what happened that day.

We have asked — in fact, our legal director — and I’m not going to mention names on national TV, but our legal director has been in direct contact with the office of Governor Newsom and the Office of the Attorney General, Bonta. The office of Mr. Bonta told us that they weren’t aware of an investigation and that they couldn’t even give us a name within the California Highway Patrol so that we can talk to them about the how that investigation is going.

In the case of the office of Governor Newsom, they told us that the fact that he ran into the freeway made things a little more difficult. We asked, “Why?” And the answer was, “Well, because he was fleeing from — he was running away from ICE.” But when we pushed back and we said, “Well, who was it that did the raid? Was it the DEA? Was it the FBI? The U.S. Marshals? Who was it? Was it bounty hunters or simple — or simply racist vigilantes?” they didn’t know who had actually carried out the raid that day.

So, at this point, Amy, we don’t really know what happened. And that’s why we are demanding that both the Office of the Governor and the Office of the Attorney General carries out a full investigation, and potentially a criminal investigation, if it was indeed a fact that Roberto Carlos was being chased by an individual into the highway. The community, the family needs to know the truth. And we need to, most of all, bring justice.

AMY GOODMAN: Pablo, we only have a minute. What about the responsibility of Home Depot, where so many of these raids are taking place? And what’s the status of the court order by a federal judge temporarily blocking the Trump administration from conducting sweeping immigration raids and racially profiling people in Los Angeles?

PABLO ALVARADO: Well, first, I’d like to respond to the question about the TRO. They are not respecting any TRO, because these people feel that they are above the law. So, there is no TRO that’s —

AMY GOODMAN: Temporary restraining order.

PABLO ALVARADO: — protecting our communities. The temporary restraining order, yes. There’s no — there’s nothing — even though the judge has issued one, they’re not respecting it.

And Home Depot has remained silent throughout this process. And there are things that they can do. First of all, you know, they have —

AMY GOODMAN: We have 25 seconds.

PABLO ALVARADO: — 180-degree — we have 180-degree cameras at Home Depot. They could start by releasing that footage that they have, if they haven’t — if the cameras were on. And we’re demanding that they condemn these raids.

AMY GOODMAN: We’re going to do an interview in Spanish. We’ll post it also at democracynow.org. Pablo Alvarado, co-executive director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, NDLON.

And that does it for our show. A very happy birthday to Julie Crosby! I’m Amy Goodman. This is Democracy Now!, democracynow.org. Thank you.