ICE raided his family’s North Philly car wash. Here is Jeffrey Lee’s account of what happened.

Jeffrey Lee, 35, was en route to his family’s business, Complete Autowash Philly, when a call came through his car’s speaker. The caller ID read “Dad” but there was an ICE agent on the other end of the phone.

On Tuesday, ICE swarmed the North Philadelphia car wash owned by Lee’s father, David, taking seven undocumented workers into custody and sparking a protest outside the agency’s office in Center City. The seven men — at least one in the process of getting a green card — are being held at a private prison called Moshannon Valley Processing Center in Clearfield County, Pa., New Sanctuary Movement of Philadelphia told The Inquirer.

The car wash has been owned since 2007 by the Lee family. David Lee opened the business then and his son later joined him. Under U.S. law, employers who knowingly hire undocumented immigrants can face civil fines and criminal penalties, including jail time, if they are shown to have engaged in a “pattern or practice” of violations, according to the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986.

» READ MORE: Why would ICE target a North Philly car wash for arrests? Immigration experts think they know.

Here is Jeffrey Lee’s account of what transpired that day at Complete Autowash Philly. It has been lightly edited for clarity.

Well, I wasn’t on site when it happened. I was on my way there when I received a phone call. It was my dad [on the caller ID], but it was an ICE agent.

They weren’t rude or anything, but they basically just told me, “We are here to take some illegals. If you don’t hear from us, then don’t worry about it.” I thought: What do you mean, “Don’t worry about it”? These are my people.”

I looked at my cameras, I just saw a bunch of ICE agents swarming.

Nothing was presented, no paperwork, nothing, my dad said. They immediately started apprehending people. They even made customers stand by their cars, and they were checking their papers as well.

It just felt very targeted, very random. We’re a car wash; we clean cars and that’s it. We’ve been serving our community for nearly 20 years.

My parents are immigrants. He’s an immigrant himself, I’m a first-generation Korean American. He understands English well enough, but he doesn’t speak it well.

He came here with nothing. This business, that’s the American dream that everybody was told about. A dream that seems to have lost its meaning recently.

We have been in this community for almost 20 years, [ICE] showed up fully geared with rifles as if these people were criminals and had guns or something like that. What was he supposed to do? What were [the workers] supposed to do?

Customers were shaken up. I dealt with a bunch of crying that day. I don’t have any experience with this. It was already hard enough because it felt like they took my family, and I still had to keep dealing with the normal everyday [business].

All these families are grieving the loss of people who haven’t even passed. They’re still here. We just can’t see them anymore. That’s the saddest part about it.

No one ever thought that this would happen. I thought that the administration was going after violent criminals, but these people are innocent, honest, hardworking people. These are human beings, you know. No one was expecting this.

The way that they’re performing the operations, there’s no like structure to them, you know, there’s … no due process like it should be, you know. It’s not professional at all.

These people were part of my family. They have worked here for 13 to 15 years. They were very dedicated people. They were just very good people.

Everyone has their flaws, but they were honest and good. They weren’t criminals. They provided a service. They helped build my business. They were there for me when I needed them.

All those people that for so many years depended on me as I depended on them are now gone.

One of the people that were taken, they were a father-son duo that works for me. The son is an American citizen, he still works for me, and said the dad is fine. (The son was questioned at the business and not arrested.) He said he has maybe a good chance of getting out because, people don’t know this, but several of them were in the process of getting their papers.

They were in the process of getting that and they were robbed of that opportunity. They were indiscriminately taken away.

They weren’t bothering anybody. They were just cleaning cars, that’s all they did. They weren’t [taking] anyone’s livelihood or job.

Look, I’ve worked in this industry for many years. I’m well respected in my industry. So I have a lot of experience because I work personally with my employees. I show up every day and I work with them all.

The reason why I would take them over anyone else is because they actually put in the work. They actually want to work.

If I’m being honest with you, working at that business is difficult. No one wants to. It’s a lot, especially with our volume, it’s hard.

These people put a high level of care and expertise into every service, and customers appreciated that. They are the only people that could follow through with that, and we didn’t even speak the same language.

I haven’t heard from them since that phone call, no. The only thing they said about that is that we will probably get audited to check our payroll, which seems pretty standard.

I still carry the weight for not being there [when the raid took place].

I’m doing the best I can to see if I can help any of them, but there hasn’t been much I can do to help so far. But I have been reaching out to my friends who know people, to an immigration lawyer, and some organizations.

I want them to know that they’re always loved and supported, even if I’m not there. I want them to know that I love them, you know, and that I’m always here for them. I hope they already know that, though.