They Planned Parties and Salsa Music for July 4th. ICE Raids Made Them Think Twice.
Bell Gardens' footprint is a small one — nearly 38,000 residents on a little more than two square miles southeast of downtown Los Angeles. The city, where more than 96 percent of residents are Hispanic, is one of more than two dozen so-called Gateway Cities that make up a hub of largely Latino working-class communities.
In recent days, the mayor of Bell Gardens, Jorgel Chavez, started questioning whether to move forward with Thursday's event.
Immigration raids by federal agents have become an almost daily occurrence in Southern California. About 2,000 immigrants have been arrested in the Los Angeles region since June 6, often by masked agents who have detained people at shopping-center parking lots, carwashes, bus stops, auto shops and other public places. The raids, many of them captured on videos posted to social media, have spread fear among residents who worry they could be targeted by agents regardless of their legal status or criminal record.
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