Troops, terror and tears in Los Angeles as Ice raids show no sign of slowing

The Guardian

4 days ago

It was an extraordinary show of force, displayed in a mostly empty public park.
On Monday, a convoy of federal agents descended upon Los Angeles's MacArthur Park – in the heart of a predominantly immigrant neighborhood. Chaperones from a summer camp hurried children indoors, as protesters and media rushed to the scene. It was unclear whether immigration officials actually arrested anyone that morning.
City leaders denounced the spectacle as a 'political stunt' designed to terrorize Angelenos who have been reckoning with a relentless onslaught of immigration raids that began in early June.
The ubiquitous presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agents, and the threat of arrest, have become a part of daily life for immigrants across the city and broader region. The raids have also taken an economic toll on neighborhoods like MacArthur Park, where business owners say trade has slowed to a crawl as people choose to stay home.
Right across from the park, B&Z Osorio Restaurant has seen business cut in half since the Trump administration ramped up enforcement in the city. CO, who asked to be identified only by initials for safety reasons, is an employee at the restaurant known for its pupusas and sopa de gallina. He said that when the troops showed up earlier this week, a security guard ran into stores to warn everyone. Customers who were dining dashed outside to their cars. CO and his uncle slid a metal gate to close the entryway.
Since the onset of raids, CO said, his uncle, the owner and founder, has cut back on restaurant hours and produce orders to save money due to the drop-off in customers. At 10am on Thursday, when the restaurant would usually be full of families eating breakfast, there was only one booth occupied.
CO says that they have tried calling their local customers to offer them special deals, but many families have refused. 'They're either too scared or they haven't gone to work because of Ice. They say they'd rather cook at home. It's better and safer,' CO said. Monday's 'stunt and show of power', CO said, does little to help improve the current situation: 'Our customer base is mainly Hispanic. They are targeted the most.'
It's been nearly a month since immigration raids in LA and the surrounding region sparked massive protests. But as the weeks wear on and the demonstrations die down, the Trump administration's enforcement operations showed no sign of slowing.
Lawyers and advocates say that those arrested, including some US citizens, have been targeted for arrest at random – and likely because of how they look. In a legal complaint, legal aid and immigrant rights groups have accused the DHS of engaging 'in an extraordinary campaign of targeting people based on nothing more than the color of their skin, and in some cases, where they live or work'.
On Friday, a federal judge granted a temporary restraining order against the government's aggressive immigration sweeps, barring federal agents from stopping people in the district unless there is 'reasonable suspicion' that a person is violating immigration law. The order stops agents from using factors including 'apparent race or ethnicity, speaking Spanish or English with an accent, presence at a particular location (eg bus stop, car wash, tow yard, day laborer pick up site, agricultural site, ect)' as reasons to stop someone.
The ruling could have major implications –disrupting the federal government's relentless raids in the region. For weeks, armed and masked agents have made arrests outside car washes, Home Depot stores, churches and schools. Immigrants have been wrested away from their tamale carts and fruit stalls. On Thursday, agents targeted farms in Ventura county, east of LA, and arrested 200 people. One farmworker died, after a 30ft fall from a building during the raid.
Since 6 June, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has said that it has arrested nearly 2,800 immigrants across the region. Limited publicly available arrest data from the DHS shows that most of those who were arrested had no criminal convictions.
Some have already been swiftly deported to their home countries. Others have been sent to immigration detention centers in California's high deserts or to facilities out of state, where they have been without medications and adequate food. Families and lawyers have had trouble finding and speaking to loved ones who've been arrested.
MacArthur Park, about 2 miles (3km) west of the city's downtown, has been known since the 1980s as the Ellis Island of the west for its diverse population, a home for many Mexican and Central American immigrants who speak Indigenous languages. The park has also been a central area for free meal distributions for those in need and a summer camp for kids run by Los Angeles's parks and recreation department.
Jerica Medina, a cosmetician from Honduras, says that business has slowed down at her two MacArthur Park hair and nail salons – and that even the Covid-19 pandemic was busier than what's going on now with the Ice presence.
'I'm sad and angry for this community. It's impossible for us [the Latino community] to win,' Medina said, with tears falling slowly down her face. 'You know what Hitler did? That's what I feel right now. Except there are a lot of cellphones to record what happens.'
At the Home Depot up on Wilshire Boulevard, a dozen jornaleros (day labourers) stand outside the parking lot. The dozens of vehicles and horses seen on Monday are no longer here, but two volunteers wearing sunhats still look at the cars passing by through binoculars to ensure that they are not Ice vehicles.
Fernando Isaí, a volunteer organizer with the Los Angeles Tenants Union who was on patrol, said that since the first Ice raids at this store in June, community members have come together in shifts to help protect the area. The focus is on building consent with the workers and a 'network of care'.
'There was a very low turnout among jornaleros that week after the first raids,' Isaí said. Although people are on high alert, he said, workers have come back even this week. The tenants' union and other community organizations have focused on sharing information about immigrant rights and how to verify any sightings.
Violet, who declined to give her last name for privacy concerns, said that fewer clients are coming into her supplement and naturalistic healing shop. However, more people are calling in and reporting that they can't sleep and experience more anxiety and depression. Despite everything that is going on, she and the other doctors tell clients to stay positive.
'When something bad happens, we retain it. We have the capacity of quickly forgetting everything good that has happened to us and everything that we have achieved,' she said, trying to strike a note of optimism. 'This will pass.'