House votes to repeal D.C. laws on noncitizen voting, police discipline
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Yahoo
11 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Vice mayor who called ICE ‘the biggest gang there is' and for ‘cholos' to defend their territory should resign, cop union says
The vice mayor of a small city in California who called on the criminal 'cholos' of Los Angeles to stand up to raids on undocumented migrants by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents is facing calls to resign, with the local police union calling her actions 'shameful.' In a clip posted to Instagram and then swiftly deleted, Cynthia Gonzalez, Vice Mayor of Cudahy, said: 'I want to know where all the cholos are at in Los Angeles – 18th Street, Florencia Where's the leadership at? 'Because you guys are all about territory and, 'This is 18th Street, this is Florencia.' You guys tag everything up, claiming hood and now that your hood's being invaded by the biggest gang there is, there ain't a peep out of you.' Gonzalez appeared to be referring to ICE but does not name them in the video. She continued: 'It's everyone else who's not about the gang life that's out there protesting and speaking up. We're out there fighting our turf, protecting our turf, protecting our people, and, like, where you at? 'Dude they're running amok all up on your streets, on your streets and in your city and, peep, when the big gang guns come in nothing but, like, quiet and we're out here, the regular ones that have never been jumped in out here calling things out and trying to organize. 'So don't be trying to claim no block, no nothing if you're not showing up right now trying to, like, help out and organize. I don't want to hear a peep out of you once they're gone, trying to claim that this is my block. This was not your block. You weren't even here helping out. So whoever is the leadership over there just f***ing get your members in order.' The L.A. Police Protective League (LAPPL) has reacted angrily and demanded Gonzalez's resignation. 'The 18th Street and Florencia street gangs are notoriously dangerous Los Angeles-based criminal enterprises,' it said in a statement. 'Both gangs have a known history of murdering police officers. In 1998, an 18th Street gang member murdered LAPD Officer Filberto Cuesta. Recently, several Florencia gang members were convicted of the 2022 murder of LAPD Officer Fernando Arroyos. 'What Ms Gonzalez urged and taunted these specific gangs to do in her social media post puts police officers and other law enforcement professionals at greater risk. Her actions are deplorable and potentially illegal. She should resign and she should be prosecuted if what she called for broke the law.' The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) also responded to the video, reposting it on Tuesday evening with a statement calling Gonzalez 'despicable' and alleging that she was calling on the gangs 'to commit violence against our brave ICE law enforcement.' 'This kind of garbage has led to a more than 500 percent increase in assaults against our ICE law enforcement officers. Secretary [Kristi] Noem has been clear: If you assault a federal officer, you will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,' the DHS said. The FBI has stated that it cannot currently confirm or deny whether an investigation into Gonzalez is underway. Still, spokesperson Laura Eimiller noted: 'Generally speaking, of course, the FBI condemns any calls for violence or targeting of law enforcement with violence.' The Independent has contacted Gonzalez for comment, but she has so far refused all media requests pertaining to the video. The City of Cudahy did issue a brief statement of its own in which it said: 'The comments made by the Vice Mayor reflect her personal views and do not represent the views or official position of the City of Cudahy. The City will not be providing further comment.' The Los Angeles Times has since quoted an attorney representing Gonzalez as saying that 'any suggestion that she advocated for violence is categorically false and without merit,' putting them at odds with the LAPPL and DHS in their interpretation of her words. The attorney continued: 'In her post, Dr Gonzalez issued a challenge to the Latino community: join the thousands of Angelenos already peacefully organizing in response to ongoing enforcement actions. 'Importantly, Dr Gonzalez in no way encouraged anyone to engage in violence.' Gonzalez's controversial video comes after weeks of controversy caused by federal raids on migrants in downtown Los Angeles, which saw local people hit the streets to protest and President Donald Trump call in the National Guard and deploy active-duty Marines to support local law enforcement against the wishes of California Gov. Gavin Newsom and L.A. Mayor Karen Bass. Two weeks ago, Gonzalez joined other L.A. County mayors at a press conference hosted by Bass at City Hall to address ICE's actions.
Yahoo
11 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Workers living in fear of ICE raids in Los Angeles are hiding ‘like Anne Frank'
Ongoing raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in Los Angeles have reportedly driven members of the city's Latino population into hiding, with one man claiming: 'It's like Anne Frank.' A month after protests erupted in opposition to ICE's actions in L.A. – leading President Donald Trump to send in the National Guard and active-duty Marines to maintain order over the wishes of California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Mayor Karen Bass – a climate of 'insanity and terror' abides, according to The Wrap. The report quotes anecdotal evidence from locals who say that Latino residents, both documented and undocumented, are preferring to absent themselves from work and stay indoors. Doing otherwise would mean risking detention by armed agents in combat gear, who have been storming homes, businesses and even medical clinics with 'faces obscured, no warrants and no identification' over the last month. The Department of Homeland Security reports that over 1,600 immigrants were detained in southern California in the two weeks leading up to June 25, equating to 101 arrests per day in support of Trump's roundup of illegal migrants, the Republican having promised the biggest mass deportation push in American history on the campaign trail last year. Among those cited in the report is a local father who is struggling for childcare because his nanny is too scared to come to work and owners of car washes, grocery stores and restaurants across the city who say they have been forced to stay closed to protect their work forces, whom they feel are being arbitrarily targeted. 'People are staying home. It does feel very scary out there right now,' immigration attorney Jaclyn Granet said. 'It's incredibly disturbing to witness as a human and also as an immigrant attorney, who works with foreign talent. I support the idea that America is better when we have a global community within our borders. 'It really feels like this program of mass ICE raids and mass detention is extremely short-sighted… If you're raiding the farms, the restaurants – how long does it take until a restaurant has to close, or we don't have this crop or that crop?' She added: 'Do I think that this level of force is necessary? Absolutely not. That is part of the chaos and scare tactics meant to be communicated through these raids. Part of Trump's plan is to create chaos.' Residents have been routinely posting videos of clashes between agents and citizens to social media, seeking to document what they regard as scenes of harassment and intimidation unfolding in their neighborhoods. With tensions running high, Cynthia Gonzalez, the vice mayor of Cudahy, a city southeast of L.A., faced calls to resign last week for challenging the notorious 18th Street and Florencia gangs to help local residents stand up to ICE, which she referred to in an Instagram video as 'the biggest gang there is.' Gonzalez subsequently issued a statement via her attorney stating that she 'in no way encouraged anyone to engage in violence.'
Yahoo
11 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Meet ICEblock: The app that lets residents know when immigration agents are in their community
A nationwide spike in immigration enforcement actions under Donald Trump's administration has been met with a surge in social media activity organizing against them. Grassroots efforts on social media platforms are sharing legal information and alerting users to real-time locations of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers in neighborhoods across the country. But one developer has built a tool to specifically alert users to ICE's whereabouts, adding to a growing patchwork of social media-driven, real-time alerts on the state of Trump's anti-immigration footprint. More than 70,000 users are on ICEBlock, an anonymous crowd-sourced app that lets users report real-time ICE activity within a five-mile radius. By Tuesday morning, the app was the top social networking app in Apple's App Store, and the third most-downloaded free app overall — behind Love Island USA and ChatGPT. Later that afternoon, ICEBlock reached No. 1. 'In recent years, ICE has faced criticism for alleged civil rights abuses and failures to adhere to constitutional principles and due process, making it crucial for communities to stay informed about its operations,' according to the app's website. 'Modeled after Waze but for ICE sightings, the app ensures user privacy by storing no personal data, making it impossible to trace reports back to individual users,' the website says. ICEBlock is available in 14 languages and exclusively available on iOS devices over privacy concerns that Android could expose user information. Its slogan: 'See something, tap something.' 'When I saw what was happening in this country, I wanted to do something to fight back,' developer Joshua Aaron told CNN, adding that the administration's sweeping deportation efforts resemble systemic removals in Nazi Germany. 'We're literally watching history repeat itself.' The app 'does not condone violence of any kinds,' Aaron told The Independent. 'We state this multiple times in the app, and I have reiterated this in every interview I have given. ICEBlock serves to 'inform not obstruct' and its goal is to allow people to avoid potentially harmful encounters with ICE.' Following coverage of the app on CNN on its business and tech website, administration officials have accused the network of 'advertising' and 'promoting' it — and suggested Aaron should be criminally prosecuted. 'What they're doing is actively encouraging people to avoid law enforcement activities, operations, and we're going to actually go after them and prosecute them,' Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said Tuesday. 'What they're doing is illegal.' White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the app 'sounds like this would be an incitement of further violence against our ICE officers.' Leavitt and other administration officials have repeatedly claimed ICE agents experienced a '500 percent' increase in 'violence' against them, though the data supporting that figure is unclear. Administration officials have repeatedly threatened to prosecute anyone who reports information about ICE agents' locations. 'We haven't seen the clip. We'll take a look at it. But certainly it's unacceptable that a major network would promote such an app that is encouraging violence against law enforcement officers who are trying to keep our country safe,' she told reporters on Monday. ICE acting director Todd M. Lyons called the network's 'promotion' of the app 'reckless and irresponsible.' 'Advertising an app that basically paints a target on federal law enforcement officers' backs is sickening,' said Lyons, touting the '500 percent' figure. 'And going on live television to announce an app that lets anyone zero in on their locations is like inviting violence against them with a national megaphone,' he added. 'CNN is willfully endangering the lives of officers who put their lives on the line every day and enabling dangerous criminal aliens to evade U.S. law. Is this simply reckless 'journalism' or overt activism?' A statement from CNN noted there is nothing illegal whatsoever about writing about it or any other app. 'This is an app that is publicly available to any iPhone user who wants to download it,' the statement said. 'There is nothing illegal about reporting the existence of this or any other app, nor does such reporting constitute promotion or other endorsement of the app by CNN.' Aaron said the administration's threats have not deterred him. 'We will not be intimidated,' he told The Independent. 'As long as ICE agents have quotas, and this administration ignores people's constitutional rights, we will continue fighting back,' he said. 'No human is illegal.' Communities have long relied on social media platforms to spread the word about police sightings. Instagram and X users flag sobriety checkpoints. Drivers log speed traps on Google Maps and Waze. And Citizen, originally named Vigilante, maintains a network of police scanners and lets users upload their own real-time crime footage. Instagram stories and group chats on encrypted messaging apps like Signal and WhatsApp are now full of location-specific ICE information. Thousands of people follow Reddit communities like r/ICE_raids, r/LaMigra, and r/EyesOnICE, pooling information from immigration attorneys, news outlets and advocates for real-time updates on raids and how to handle federal law enforcement interactions. Protests and marches — including 'No sleep for ICE' events where demonstrators sing, play music and bang pots and pans outside hotels where agents are staying — are organized almost exclusively through social media apps and chats. Google Maps and Waze users are reporting 'icy conditions.' And on TikTok, where users fear certain language could be blocked from users' algorithms, accounts are offering similar advice for 'staying safe on the road.' That ubiquity of social media resistance also is meeting an expansive government surveillance network that continues to grow under the Trump administration, fueled by a small army of Silicon Valley contractors. Days after Trump entered office, ICE posted several notices on the federal procurement website seeking contractors for a range of tools to expand the agency's capacity to track and surveil immigrants. Contractors are reportedly leading government-wide efforts to build advanced facial recognition software, sophisticated tracking devices, and, of course, social media screening. 'ICE is trying to turn people's faces into QR codes,' according to Will Owen, communications director with civil rights watchdog the Surveillance Technology Oversight Project. 'This is a dystopian attack on immigrant communities that will tear families apart through the click of a camera lens. It will also lead to countless mismatches, since real-time facial recognition is especially error-prone.' Palantir, a tech firm founded by Trump ally Peter Thiel, is allegedly behind a government-wide surveillance system collecting information across all agencies. The Trump administration has deployed officials across federal law enforcement agencies to focus on immigration enforcement, with an alleged directive from White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller to make at least 3,000 daily arrests — a quota that immigration attorneys say will almost certainly result in 'collateral' arrests that could devastate families and communities. The administration is also expanding partnerships with local police departments and jails to pursue and detain immigrants and demanding Congress earmark billions of dollars for more detention centers. More than 57,000 people are currently held in ICE custody, or roughly 140 percent more than its detention capacity. A vast majority of those immigrants do not have a criminal record, and 93 percent have not been convicted of any violent crime. The Trump administration has thus far detained an average of roughly 20,000 immigrants each month, three times as many under the same point in 2024. "When I see things like ICE outside of elementary schools, that's what we are trying to push back against, because you need to do more,' Aaron told TIME. 'You need to protect your neighbors.'
