ICE Now Claims It Showed Up at Raided Philly Car Wash to Help Employees
Okay then. Plus, what we know (and don't know) about the Philadelphia plane crash.

ICE agents conduct a raid at the Complete Autowash car wash in Philadelphia on January 28th (image via ICE)
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ICE Now Claims It Showed Up at Philadelphia Car Wash to Help Employees
One of the biggest Philadelphia stories last week was the tragic plane crash. And I’ll get to that in a moment. The other big Philadelphia story last week was the first confirmed report of an ICE raid happening in Philadelphia under the new administration.
While rumors had been circulating of ICE raids in the area prior to that — including just before Donald Trump actually took the oath of office — last week, news outlets were able to confirm that ICE raided Complete Autowash on Hunting Park Avenue in North Philadelphia on Tuesday; the raid made national news.

ICE agents conduct a raid at the Complete Autowash car wash in Philadelphia on January 28th (image via ICE)
But what you probably don’t know is this: ICE is now claiming that agents showed up at the Philadelphia car wash to protect car wash employees. You heard that right. ICE has issued a statement saying that the agency “conducted a worksite enforcement operation Jan. 28 at Complete Autowash in Philadelphia based on allegations employees were being subjected to labor exploitation.”
How very nice of them. If this claim from ICE sounds a little bit to you like Donald Trump claiming that his 25 percent tariff on Canada is because of all that fentanyl that’s coming over the Canadian border or his claim that DEI policies were responsible for last week’s plane crash in Washington, I wouldn’t be inclined to disagree with you.
In any event, ICE says the car wash raid in Philadelphia yielded seven arrests for immigration violations: six people from Mexico and one from Dominican Republic. No word on how their investigation into “labor exploitation” is going. FFS. I can’t believe I have to report this.
What We Know (and Don’t Know) About the Philadelphia Plane Crash
There’s still crash debris littering the streets. Authorities have released the identities of all of the victims. There’s a video circulating online showing a man at a diner near the crash being hit in the head with a piece of crash debris that came flying through the diner window. There are also now some terrifying doorbell camera videos of the tragic crash.
OK, but what caused the crash? We know that the plane crashed less than one minute after taking off from Northeast Philadelphia. We know that the plane made a slight right turn followed by a slight left turn after reaching about 1,500 feet. And we know that the plane immediately went into a steep descent after that. Then it crashed. As for why all of that happened, as with most plane crashes, it will be quite some time before the NTSB completes its investigation. Authorities announced on Sunday that they had located the all-important black box — eight feet underground.
More on this as it develops.
By the Numbers
$7: What a dozen standard eggs are costing at some area grocery stores right now. So that’s leading to more interest in backyard chickens, which are still illegal in Philadelphia.
6: Weeks of winter we have left, according to that groundhog in the Pennsylvania town whose name I’m not going to attempt to spell. So I’m thankful that Monday tops out at around 50 degrees.
$84 million: What Pennsylvania personal injury and product liability lawyers spent on advertising in 2023. You can read more about how lawyer billboards took over Philadelphia in Tom McGrath’s deep dive here.
Where Are You Going to Eat This Week?
I advise you to take a peek at our just-released 50 Best Restaurants in Philadelphia list. Just take your pick. And some of those restaurants are participating in Philly Mag’s fabulous Wine & Dine event at the Kimmel Center. Get tickets for that while you can.
Local Talent
The Grammys did their thing on Sunday night, and Pride of Quakertown Sabrina Carpenter beat out Pride of Berks County Taylor Swift for best pop vocal album. Carpenter had lots of people to thank and shout outs to give. And in what might be a national television first, the Main Line town of Bala Cynwyd had its named uttered. Carpenter thanked her mom for driving her to Bala Cynwyd for voice lessons. There were probably a lot of people trying to look up this hot little town. But how would they even begin to know how to spell it? Amusingly, those responsible for providing the closed captioning appeared to have no idea what the heck she said and didn’t even try to attempt to spell it. They just left it out.
Also among the locals and local-ish folks who earned statues: Philadelphia Orchestra maestro Yannick Nezet-Seguin; the Crossing chamber choir; bassist and producer Adam Blackstone; and classical musicians Karen Slack and Michelle Cann for their album Beyond the Years — Unpublished Songs of Florence Price.
Congrats to all the winners! As for Swift, she ended the night a loser, shut out from every award she was nominated for. But I think she’ll survive.