Crowds lined Combs Avenue on Sunday afternoon in Culver City as community members waited in the hot weather to buy popsicles, Drum Sticks and other frozen treats from their neighborhood paleta cart.

But the community members also gathered for a more important reason. They showed up to support the family of their neighborhood paletero, Ambrocio Lozano, about a week after federal immigration agents detained him while he worked from the cart that he’s operated in Culver City for more than 15 years.

“It just sucks that he was minding his own business trying to make a living,” Lozano’s niece Kimberly Noriega said, “and he was taken off the street.”

More than 100 people gathered at Veteran’s Memorial Park and bought Lozano’s inventory to help his family afford legal fees and other bills. Community members held signs that read “More ice cream less ICE” and “Paletas can’t hurt anyone.”

As agents arrested Lozano — who is known to community members and loved ones as Enrique — he called his wife and told her through tears that authorities were detaining him, Noriega said. Lozano told his wife that he loved her and let her know where his paleta cart was left before the line went silent, Noriega said.

Witnesses of the detainment told Noriega that masked agents pulled up in unmarked vans when they took him into custody. His family found his paleta cart abandoned in the spot where agents detained him.

“These masked, unmarked raids are not just cruel,” said Culver City Vice Mayor Freddy Puza, “they’re destabilizing to our communities. They create fear among families, distrust in public institutions and lasting harm to individuals who are simply trying to live their lives and support their loved ones.”

Puza, along with U.S. Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove, L.A. County Supervisor Holly J. Mitchell and other local leaders, said they are demanding transparency from federal agencies and encouraged community members to know their rights and stay involved as immigration raids continue. Some also voiced support for the No Secret Police Act, also known as the No Vigilantes Act, a bill that would prohibit face coverings and require identifiable uniforms for most law enforcement officers at the local, state and federal levels.

“Because of who he is”

Lozano has lived in the United States for more than 25 years, Noriega said, and has been working toward getting proper documentation for about two years.

The family didn’t learn until the following day that Lozano was being held at a federal building in Downtown L.A., Noriega said. They learned later in the week that authorities were moving him to Texas with little notice.

Since Lozano’s detainment, Noriega said the community who bought ice cream from him over the years have sent their support and stories of him. Parents told Noriega that they trusted Lozano to watch their children outside the schools where he sold ice cream, and he wouldn’t leave the area until the kids got picked up. Others have said their kids and now grandkids have bought paletas from Lozano, and he’d regularly give out free ice cream to community members that didn’t have cash.

As the stories and support poured in, Noriega said she and her aunt were shocked to see how many community members cared for and knew Lozano.

“He made that big of an impact on a community because of who he is,” Noriega said, “and he’s his true authentic self.”