In a troubled fashion company, workers discover the community. Then the ice comes

Saraí Ortiz's father Jose worked for ambience clothing for 18 years and became the floor manager for the sprawling fast warehouse in downtown Los Angeles.

His term ended Friday when federal authorities raided the company and arrested more than 40 other immigrant workers watched by Jose Ortiz and Saraí.

“You know this life is a possibility for your whole life, but when it happens, it’s different from what you think,” she said on Monday.

The atmosphere was one of four businesses attacked by ICE on Friday, igniting a weekend of civil unrest, which led to controversial deployments of the National Guard and active Marines in Los Angeles. It is also the site of the arrest of Labor leader David Huerta, who was released on Monday on a margin of $50,000.

On Monday, other families of detainees Ortiz participated in the protests Monday, calling on the public for help and due process. Many wives and children taken from the ice (all) have little or no contact with loved ones. They say even lawyers are denied access.

Many are also from indigenous communities in the central Mexico region of Zacatecas. When they started a new life in Los Angeles, they built a strong bond, including helping others find jobs at Ambiance, a company with a running history with federal law enforcement but also provided a steady job for immigrants, including Ortiz.

“The atmosphere is in line with the law when hiring employees, it always only hires people who people think have legal right to work in the United States,” said Benjamin Gluck, an attorney representing the atmosphere. “We have contacted the government to try to learn more about the raid, but have not learned more about this raid. The atmosphere will continue to comply with the law and support its employees, many of whom have been with us for decades.”

While it is unclear why it targeted ambience clothing in recent operations, the company landed on federal authorities’ radar more than a decade ago.

In 2014, law enforcement authorities executed dozens of search warrants as part of an investigation into money laundering and other fashion district corporate crimes. Federal authorities won nearly $36 million in cash from Ampiance and Sang Bum “Ed” Noh, the company’s owner, according to a 2020 press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

The company was founded in 1999 and was described by prosecutors as an importer and exporter of textiles and garments from China, Vietnam, Cambodia and elsewhere. These include retail clothing chains and people who own small businesses, mainly in Mexico. Its products are also available on Amazon and Walmart.

Federal prosecutors filed charges against Ambiance Apparel and NOH in 2020, accusing them of underestimating imported clothing and avoiding paying millions of dollars in tariffs to the United States

Among the people in the investigation climate and NOH, the Homeland Security Investigation, as well as U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and local law enforcement agencies, including the Los Angeles and Long Beach Police Departments.

The company has also been accused of not reporting cash payments to employees.

The government argues that the atmosphere employees “received over $10,000 in payments over a two-year period”, totaling more than $11 million. But the company failed to submit required reports on the cash transactions to the federal government, prosecutors said.

That same year, NOH pleaded guilty to one conspiracy offense and one subscription to a false tax return. Ambiance Apparel – The operating name of the two companies, Ambiance USA Inc. and Apparel Line Inc. – pleaded guilty to eight charges, including conspiracy, money laundering and customs crimes.

In 2021, NOH was sentenced to one year in prison, “for planning underestimating imported clothing and avoiding paying millions of dollars to the U.S., failing to report millions of dollars in revenue on tax returns, and failing to report large cash transactions to the federal government.”

“Make the U.S. deceiving the U.S. a massive revenue stream for the atmosphere, allocating about $35,227,855.45 from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the IRS in less than four years,” prosecutors said in a verdict memorandum. “Although, though, [Noh] “He enjoyed a house in Bell Air, bought a luxury car, and then enjoyed a bunch of cash, $35 million shoe boxes and garbage bags,” the prosecutor wrote.

The company was sentenced to five years of probation and was ordered to implement an effective anti-money laundering compliance and ethics program through an external compliance monitor. The guardianship system is scheduled to end in October this year.

Despite these troubles, the company and its employees seem to continue to thrive.

Montserrat Arrazola's father Jorge is another worker detained on Friday. She said that her father was the “breeding family” of the family and without his salary, she and her three brothers would have “hard times.”

But this is the greatest pain of separation. Her family once spoke to Jorge and he told them to stay calm. So Montserrat, a college student who wants to become a social worker, is trying. She talked about their recent family outings when they were all trying to bowl and how her dad was charismatic and caring.

“He's a family and he's going to do his best,” she said.

But it is stressful to be unable to contact the detainees, Carlos Gonzalez said. His older brother Jose was also taken away by Ice, and like the protests, Gonzalez called for proper procedural rights.

Gonzalez and his brother camped at Sandy Flat in Sequoia National Forest on the weekend before the raid, which was a chance they had very little time to be together. Carlos said he received a call from his cousin on Friday and went to the atmosphere but was unable to reach his brother in the chaos.

So Gonzalez went to the Metropolitan Detention Center in the downtown area but was told that there were too many people dealing with it to get more information.

He said the next morning he went back to bring a sweater to his brother because “you don’t know it’s cold inside,” he said. But he was told that his brother had been moved to Santa Ana.

That was the last time he heard it.

His family is taking care of Jose's dog coffee, a £100-plus pound chocolate lab and bulldog mixture that they cried when Jose wasn't nearby and worked with a lawyer. But they had no choice but to wait and then speak out loud.

“I want people to know that it's inhumane,” Gonzalez said. “They're just working.”