The ICE raids show what state-sponsored terror looks like

Los Angeles Times

a day ago

A photograph of a paletero cart abandoned on a quiet neighborhood sidewalk has popped up repeatedly on my social media feed since Monday.
The cart belongs to Ambrocio 'Enrique' Lozano, an undocumented immigrant who sold ice cream in Culver City for nearly two decades before he was detained and placed inside an unmarked vehicle by masked federal agents, part of the ongoing Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids that have targeted Southern California. According to the Department of Homeland Security, 1,618 immigrants were arrested in the region from June 6 to Sunday.
Lozano was going about his business one moment, and was vanished the next — his ice cream cart serving as the only evidence that he was there in the first place. KTLA reported that his family did not know of his whereabouts until Wednesday night.
This haunting image has become emblematic of the climate of fear created by the Trump administration and its hardline immigration policies. All pretense that ICE is targeting immigrants with criminal records has gone out the window. Nowadays, the directive is to snatch anyone they can wherever they may be.
And they're doing so with impunity.
'If they point a gun or take someone in, local police cannot step in and interfere regardless of the circumstances,' Ed Obayashi, a use-of-force expert, recently told The Times. 'If Homeland Security says this is what we want, the policy guidelines when it comes to gun and force doesn't matter.'
In recent weeks, we've witnessed masked federal agents violently beat an immigrant father of three U.S. Marines. We've seen them arrest U.S. citizens and question individuals about where they were born, all without warrants. In Pasadena, a federal agent was caught on video jumping out of his car at an intersection and pulling a gun at someone who was trying to take a picture of his car's license plate. They've targeted churches and courthouses.
If you're wondering what state-sanctioned terror looks like, this is it. Former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet would be so proud.
'It is an attack, not just on our immigrant community, but [on] people of color,' L.A. County Supervisor Hilda Solis recently said in an interview. 'I know there are many people, including folks I'm associated with, friends, colleagues, who have families who are mixed status, and people are petrified to even show up to work, to send their kids to school. And this is harming our economy.'
It's also hard to ignore where many of the ICE raids have taken place — Boyle Heights, Bell, Huntington Park — the common denominator being that they're all areas with large Latino populations.
'It's quite revealing that no one from Ukraine, no one from Russia is being detained and deported — and they shouldn't be. They also came here fleeing war and seeking opportunity,' Martin Chairez, a minister at a church in Santa Ana, recently told my colleague Brittny Mejia.
'I think it's revealing that people from Central and South America are being targeted but people from Europe are not. And again, they shouldn't be, but neither should the people from South and Central America.'
For its part, the Department of Homeland Security has denied that its agents are targeting people based on their skin color. But that hasn't stopped Latinos from feeling like they're communities are being singled out.
'You're scared to be brown,' said Jackie Ramirez, a Los Angeles radio host for 'The Cruz Show' on Real 92.3. 'You're scared to look a certain way right now.'
Over the last week, Diego Luna has been moonlighting as late night guest host for 'Jimmy Kimmel Live!'
The Mexican actor, who most recently portrayed Cassian Andor in the critically acclaimed (and very Latino-coded) 'Star Wars' series 'Andor,' used Monday's monologue to deliver a full-throated defense of L.A.'s immigrant community in the wake of the ongoing ICE raids.
'Earlier this year when L.A. burned — immigrant workers risked their lives to stop the flames,' Luna said. 'They're the ones who build this country, they feed it, they nurture and teach its children, they care for the elderly, they work in construction and hospitality, they run kitchens.'
During his powerful speech, Luna also highlighted the contributions of immigrants that go beyond their labor.
'All the people that I met shared an unspoken gratitude to this country, a country that opened its doors to them. And the most beautiful thing of all, is that all these immigrants brought their stories with them, they brought their loyalties, their love and their traditions, always with the openness to adopt new ones, to grow and to complement each other in this vast cultural exchange,' he added.
You can watch the whole 12-minute segment here. It is very much worth your time.
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