It was during the early morning rush hour, when customers at La Placita Mexicana typically fuel up ahead of a long work day, that Magi Velasquez got word immigration agents were coming.
Velasquez, who manages the restaurant, walked outside and saw nothing.
Then, she checked Facebook and saw posts about agents coming down Highway 17.
When she went out a second time, she saw multiple officers in police vests with masks over their faces, and heard them identify themselves as immigration as they asked for papers.
Velasquez ran back into La Placita and started waving people in before she locked the doors.
Then, she yelled out her window, telling people to flee.
"No come in to here because immigration is here!" Velasquez recounted.
She said agents ended up chasing a man who fled the parking lot.
ALSO READ: Florida pushes police to step up immigration enforcement
Velasquez, who frequently posts reels of her cooking on Facebook, began posting about immigration agents, warning her followers not to come outside.
"I feel bad for the customers," Velasquez said, "we have here good people, they work hard, they're honest people."
Jose Alberto Castro Cendejas, co-owner of La Placitas, said he later learned the man who was arrested is a friend's relative.
Castro Cendejas's father opened La Placitas 30 years ago, after saving up money from his job as an orange picker. The restaurant is a staple in the neighborhood, he said.
"They attacked our community essentially right here on the property, and it just makes you feel really helpless," he said.
About 30 minutes later, around 7 a.m., another resident spotted masked agents arresting people outside of the CVS a block and a half north of the restaurant.
A woman, who asked WUSF to use her initials J.F. out of fear of retaliation from her employer, said she was on her way to work when she witnessed the incident.
She drove up to the agents before one of them told her to back off, and that she could be arrested for obstruction.
"They were taking an elderly gentleman, close to 80, another gentleman in work clothes. Like they were just both going to work," J.F. said. "The guy was trying to talk to me, but they were just shoving them in the van."
J.F. described the same feeling of helplessness as Castro Cendejas.
"...not able to help, not able to provide assistance. Like there's absolutely nothing I was able to do, unfortunately," she said.
ALSO READ: Man fleeing immigration officers in Florida is struck and killed by tractor trailer, police say
Multiple sightings of federal immigration agents have been reported across Florida in recent days.
On Tuesday, a man in St. Augustine, was struck and killed by a tractor trailer while running from an encounter with immigration and other federal agents, the Associated Press reported.
It marks the third death in a week involving encounters with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents following shootings in Texas and Maine.
Those deaths prompted ICE to pause "non-urgent vehicle stops."
On Monday, a video of masked agents in Immokalee, FL was posted to Facebook by the immigrant rights group Unidos Immokalee.
WUSF reached out to the Department of Homeland Security to confirm ICE activity in Arcadia, but have not received a response yet.
A spokesperson for the Arcadia Police Department said the agency was "not involved."
And the DeSoto County Sheriff's Office also denied involvement with ICE on Tuesday, and deferred us to DHS.
Florida has the highest number of local law enforcement agencies working with ICE through 287(g) agreements.
The agreement enables local officers to be trained in certain immigration tasks such as inquiring about immigration status and serving immigration warrants.
The Arcadia Police Department has 11 of their 19 officers trained to carry out immigration enforcement, according to data from the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
The DeSoto County Sheriff's Office has 7 out of 57 officers trained in immigration enforcement.
Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.
