At a troubled fashion company, workers found community. Then ICE came

Saraí Ortiz’s father, Jose, worked 18 years for Ambiance Apparel, rising to become a floor manager at the sprawling fast-fashion warehouse in downtown Los Angeles.

His tenure ended Friday, when federal authorities raided the company, arresting Jose Ortiz and more than 40 other immigrant workers as Saraí watched.

“You know this is a possibility all your life, but then when it happens, it plays out differently than what you think,” she said Monday, standing in front of the wrought-iron fencing of Ambiance’s parking lot.

Ambiance was one of four businesses raided by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement on Friday, igniting a weekend of civil unrest that has led to the controversial deployment of the National Guard and Marines in Los Angeles. It was also the site of the arrest of labor leader David Huerta, who was released Monday on a $50,000 bond.

Ortiz was joined at a protest Monday by other families of those detained, making a public plea for help and due process. Many of the wives and children of those taken by ICE — all men — have had little or no contact with their loved ones. Even lawyers have been denied access, they said.

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Many are also from Zapotec Indigenous communities. They have formed tight bonds as they started new lives in Los Angeles, including helping others to find jobs at Ambiance, a company that has a history of run-ins with federal law enforcement, but also one that provided steady work for immigrants, including Ortiz.

“Ambiance complies with the law when it hires employees and it has always only hired people it believes have the legal right to work in the United States,” said Benjamin Gluck, a lawyer representing Ambiance. “We have reached out to the government to try to learn more about this raid but have not yet learned anything more about it. Ambiance will continue to both follow the law and support its employees, many of whom have been with us for decades.”

Although it’s unclear why Ambiance Apparel was targeted in the recent operation, the company landed on the radar of federal authorities 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 crimes at Fashion District businesses. Federal authorities seized nearly $36 million in cash from Ambiance and the company’s owner, Sang Bum “Ed” Noh, according to a 2020 news release from the U.S. attorney’s office in L.A.

Supporters and family members of detained factory workers hold signs as people gather for a press conference in front of Ambiance. (Luke Johnson / Los Angeles Times)

The company, which was incorporated in 1999, was described by prosecutors as an importer and exporter of textiles and garments from China, Vietnam, Cambodia and elsewhere. Among its customers were retail apparel chains and people who owned small businesses, mostly in Mexico. Its goods can also be found on Amazon, and in Walmart.

Federal prosecutors filed charges against Ambiance Apparel and Noh in 2020, accusing them of undervaluing imported garments and avoiding paying millions of dollars in tariffs to the U.S.

Among those investigating Ambiance and Noh were Homeland Security Investigations and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, as well as local law enforcement agencies, including the Los Angeles and Long Beach police departments.

The company was also accused of failing to report cash payments to employees from customers.

The government contended that Ambiance employees received “approximately 364 payments of more than $10,000 over a two-year period,” totaling more than $11 million. But the company failed to file the required reports on those cash transactions to the federal government, prosecutors said.

That same year, Noh pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy and one count of subscribing to a false tax return. Ambiance Apparel — the operating name for two corporations, Ambiance U.S.A. Inc. and Apparel Line U.S.A., Inc. — pleaded guilty to eight counts, including conspiracy, money laundering and customs offenses.

In 2021, Noh was sentenced to a year in prison “for scheming to undervalue imported garments and avoid paying millions of dollars in duties to the United States, failing to report millions of dollars in income on tax returns, and failing to report large cash transactions to the federal government,” prosecutors said in a news release.

Noh “made defrauding the United States a significant revenue stream for Ambiance, appropriating approximately $35,227,855.45 from U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Internal Revenue Service in less than four years,” prosecutors said in a sentencing memo. “While [Noh] was cheating the United States and facilitating money laundering, he ... bought luxury cars and squirreled away bundles of cash worth $35 million in shoeboxes and garbage bags.”

Many family members of detained factory workers are also from Indigenous communities in the central Mexican state of Zacatecas.

(Luke Johnson / Los Angeles Times)

In his sentencing memo, Gluck said that Noh and Ambiance “have treated their employees, their customers, and their vendors with unusual loyalty, dignity, and generosity.” He pointed out that even with hundreds of employees, each and every one “is paid regular bonuses, and each receives a handwritten card for his or her birthday, as well as personalized gifts for Thanksgiving and Christmas.”

“For Mr. Noh, Ambiance was not just a means for his own financial success, but also the vehicle through which he satisfied his overriding drive to support those who rely on him,” Gluck wrote. “As a result, he took on a protective, almost paternalistic role towards his employees that is highly unusual for the type of large business that Ambiance has become today.”

Ambiance employees also wrote letters to the judge, including one who said he received a personal loan from Noh to pay for his youngest daughter’s college tuition. A warehouse supervisor also described the help of bonuses he received.

“When I needed help financially, the company lent me money and allowed me to pay it back little by little,” Jose Ortiz wrote in his letter to the judge. “Because of this, my children were able to continue studying at college and when they come by the company, Mr. Noh welcomes them like family.”

Gluck, Noh’s attorney, said the judge found that the crime was not about greed and sentenced his client to one year, “much less than the government was asking for.”

The company was sentenced to five years’ probation and was ordered to implement an effective anti-money laundering compliance and ethics program with an outside compliance monitor. That monitorship was set to end in October of this year.

Despite those troubles, the company, and its employees, seemingly continued to thrive.

Montserrat Arrazola’s father, Jorge, is another of those workers detained Friday. She said her father is the family’s breadwinner, and without his paycheck, there are “hard times coming” for her and her three brothers.

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But it’s the pain of separation that hurts her the most. Her family was able to speak to Jorge once, and he told them to stay calm. So Montserrat, a college student who wants to become a social worker, is trying. She talked instead about their recent family outing, when they all tried bowling, and how her dad is charismatic and caring.

“He’s a family man and he gives all his time to his family,” she said.

But not being able to contact those detained is stressful, said Carlos Gonzalez. His older brother Jose was also taken by ICE, and like others at the protest, Gonzalez called for due process rights.

Gonzalez and his brother had gone camping at Sandy Flat in Sequoia National Forest just the weekend before the raid, a rare chance for them to spend time together. Carlos said he received a call from a cousin Friday, and went to Ambiance, but couldn’t reach his brother in the chaos.

So Gonzalez went to the Metropolitan Detention Center downtown, but was told there were too many people to process, and was unable to get further information.

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

That is the last he has heard.

His family is caring for Jose’s dog Coffee, a 100-plus pound chocolate lab and pit bull mix who cries when Jose isn’t near, and working with a lawyer. But there is not much else they can do except wait, and speak out.

“I want people to know that this was inhumane,” Gonzalez said. “They were just working.”