When a black Jeep rolled into the Home Depot car park just after 8.30am on Friday morning, Abraham sprung into action.

As Immigration Customs and Enforcement (ICE) agents dressed in vests and helmets climbed out of their blacked-out vehicle, he did his best to warn his fellow illegal migrants camped outside the hardware store in search of work.

“La migra! La migra!” he screamed, before sprinting away from the scene. Dozens of people tried to follow him.

“I felt very scared when I saw them coming but I ran like a flash and they didn’t get me,” he says.

Like the 100 or so men who gather daily outside the DIY shop in Westlake, Los Angeles, that morning Abraham had been hoping to pick up a day’s work from customers in need of help for their home improvements.

Most of those he was standing with are undocumented.

Nicaragua-born Abraham managed to escape but not everyone was so lucky.