LOS ANGELES: An elderly man who was body slammed to the ground as immigration agents raided his Los Angeles car wash, said on Thursday he is lodging a $50 million damages claim against the US government.

Surveillance video shows Rafie Shouhed being violently manhandled by several masked and heavily armed agents, who then took him into custody where he says he was held for nearly 12 hours without medical attention.

“The way they treated me, the way they attacked me. I was begging (them), ‘I have a heart condition’,” Shouhed told reporters.

Shouhed said he had gone out to speak to the men to find out what was happening.

“They told me nothing. The only word they say: ‘You do not F with ICE’,” said Shouhed, who moved to the United States from Iran in the 1980s. The acronym ICE refers to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency.

The raid on Shouhed’s car wash this month was part of President Donald Trump’s ramped-up programme against undocumented migrants as he looks to fulfil an election pledge to deport millions of people.

The raids have been controversial, particularly in multi-ethnic Los Angeles, in part because they appear to target people simply because they speak Spanish or are working at locations like car washes.

Published in Dawn, September 27th, 2025