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Yahoo
an hour ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Brad Lander Managed His Arrest Just Fine. What He Saw in the Interrogation Room Broke Him.
Sign up for the Slatest to get the most insightful analysis, criticism, and advice out there, delivered to your inbox daily. Brad Lander thought he was making another trip to Manhattan's immigration court on Tuesday to protest U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's detentions and deportations of undocumented people in New York. Instead, the city's Democratic comptroller and mayoral contender was shoved against a wall by masked ICE agents, handcuffed, led through the same corridors where he'd been escorting immigrants only moments earlier, and detained for roughly five hours. Federal officials claimed he had 'assaulted' and 'impeded' their officers, though Lander was released without charges. Gov. Kathy Hochul sought to intervene and branded the episode 'bullshit.' New York Attorney General Tish James called it 'a shocking abuse of power.' Rival candidates Zohran Mamdani and Andrew Cuomo both condemned the arrest. With early voting for the Democratic primary opened, and more than 130,000 ballots already in, voters are now looking at images of a would-be mayor in zip ties. Barely 24 hours after walking out of 26 Federal Plaza, I called Lander to talk through the arrest, what exactly happened, and how the experience could reshape the last stage of his campaign. Our conversation has been edited for length and clarity. Aymann Ismail: What were you doing inside 26 Federal Plaza on Tuesday? Brad Lander: So this was the third time I've done it. I've gone each of the last three weeks as a part of a friend of the court program organized by Immigrant ARC that asks people to come down and bear witness to immigration hearings and, in some cases, escort people out of the building. About three weeks ago, the Department of Homeland Security changed their policy. They dismissed people's cases, stripped them of their asylum-seeker status, and subjected them to expedited removal. I've been able to escort five individuals or families out of the building without incident, and that felt great. But in this instance, following what's happened to Sen. Alex Padilla and to Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and others, they decided to arrest me. It's a sign of Trump's creeping authoritarianism and of the threats to our democracy. Did the ICE agents give you any warning? Was there anything different about the case of yesterday? ICE agents mill around the elevator bank. When I came up in the elevator yesterday before I even got to the floor, as soon as the doors open, a group of ICE agents were holding someone that they were detaining. We knew this was a possibility in every case, and at least in my limited experience so far, the seven people that I've accompanied, you don't know whether they're going to come grab the person or not until you turn the corner into the elevator lobby. Walk me through what was happening in that exact moment when ICE agents grabbed you. At first, I had spent a minute talking to Edgardo [the man he was escorting] as another volunteer explained what was going on. I could see how scared he was, and I was just hoping I'd be able to walk him out of the building. Then when the ICE agent started surrounding us and grabbing him, I did what I had been trained to do. I asked to see the judicial warrant. It all moved pretty quickly from there. Reportedly an agent said before your arrest, 'You want me to arrest the comptroller?' I did not hear that. I know that's been reported. I had not heard that at the time. I was asking for the warrant, and one agent said, 'I have the warrant.' That led me to say, 'Well, can I see it?' Otherwise, as you can see on the video, there was kind of a melee. And volunteers are doing more of the talking, asking for badge numbers, asking for the warrant, asking on what authority they were arresting him. This is part of the problem. In an arrest done by uniformed officers in an appropriate way, they name the person and explain on what authority they are making an arrest. And none of that happened yesterday. What was happening in your mind in that exact moment? I was trying to stay focused on Edgardo. There's an important tradition of bearing witness, of nonviolent civic action, of saying, 'I am going to object when people's rights are being stripped away from them.' I was focused on that: Asking the questions about where the authority comes from, objecting to the due-process violations, insisting that the rule of law be followed. That was what was in my head. Homeland Security accused you of assaulting and impeding federal officers. What do you make of that accusation? The video making its way around the internet quite clearly shows that that was not the case. I only learned of that once I got out. I was surprised by it, yes, because it's so patently not what the video shows happened. What happened once you were detained? What kind of facility did they take you into? Were you detained with anybody else? What was that experience like? They brought me to just a room, like an interview room—imagine a Law & Order interview room—most of the time with one ICE police officer just sitting. I didn't have my phone. I was just sitting there for four hours. It's true that we're such creatures of our phones that four hours without one is notable. I was going over in my head what had happened. There were posters on the wall of the room, like, 'Wash your hands before you leave the bathroom,' except that the posters on the wall of this room said, 'Are you a parent who is detained and separated from your children?,' in both English and Spanish. It is horrifying that we have normalized family separation to the point that there's a standard bilingual poster for it on the walls of the interview room and detention rooms in federal immigration courthouses. And the information is not helpful. It's like, 'Here's a hotline number, good luck to you.' The fact that it's a standard enough situation that we are separating parents from their kids that we've designed a bilingual poster to put on the walls as though somehow that excuses behavior that is really torture—yeah, it is enraging. Gov. Kathy Hochul called the arrest 'bullshit.' Were you surprised by that? I was grateful that the governor came down and helped get me out, and even more grateful that she announced $50 million for legal services for people like Edgardo who are facing deportation without lawyers. I was honored to be there for him, but what would've been way better for him was having a lawyer who could actually assert his rights and file his appeal. This is not a small issue. Forty percent of New Yorkers are immigrants. Fifty percent live in mixed-status households, including a million children, and making sure that they can't have their rights ripped out from under them is something that the city and the state have to be doing. Eric Adams continues to bring shame to himself and our city by showing that he's on the side of Trump and the ICE agents. The New York Times reported ICE didn't legally need the warrant you said it did. Was there confusion there? I'm not an immigration attorney. I was asking questions that I had been trained to ask. It is good for individuals when ICE comes to ask to see a judicial warrant, but I also will say I'm not an immigration attorney, and whatever the situation turns out to be, it can't be acceptable that people did everything right, presented themselves at the border, had a hearing, came to their hearing, filed their asylum application, and then just because DHS says, 'Ah, we're going to dismiss the case,' all of a sudden have no rights at all and can be disappeared into detention and deported with no rights whatsoever. That's why I was just asking for some due process. You mentioned Sen. Alex Padilla was detained in Los Angeles under similar circumstances, and Mayor Ras Baraka in New Jersey, too. Do you see this as targeted toward Democratic politicians defending immigration rights? Attorney General Pam Bondi has said on the record that their intention is to quote-unquote 'liberate' Democratic cities from their elected officials. That is Orwellian speak for authoritarian domination to say the federal government is going to come arrest elected officials who are either asking questions as Sen. Padilla was, or trying to enforce their local laws as Ras Baraka was, or observing in a court and asking for a judicial warrant as I was. I think that Donald Trump is coming after our cities and our democracy, and I think it's an important moment for leaders to step up, which is why I was glad that Congress members Nadler and Goldman went down to observe in court today. I hope other elected officials will do it, too. I hope other people will sign up with Immigrant ARC to bear witness and be escorts themselves. They can make examples of Sen. Padilla and Mayor Baraka and me. But if Americans by the thousands, by the millions, show up as we did over the weekend at the No Kings march in peaceful, nonviolent witness, we can respond to this moment of crisis with a love of our democracy and what it means to be governed by the rule of law. That's what we got to do. If you become mayor, where will you draw the line between New York City's sanctuary policies and cooperating with federal law enforcement? Our sanctuary laws are clear and appropriate. If an individual has been convicted of a serious or violent defense, then the New York City sanctuary city laws instruct cooperation with ICE. In investigating a criminal activity, both local and federal government have a role to play, depending on the case and the scope and the charges. But where people have not been convicted of a serious or violent defense, our laws do not permit collaboration between New York City personnel or contractors and federal immigration agents. And I will not allow it. I won't allow ICE in our schools or our public hospitals or our shelters as necessary. I'll put my body on the line as I did yesterday. I want to provide more legal resources so that folks have attorneys to know what to do in their cases. If parent coordinators in schools can offer to families connections to community-based legal organizations, that'll help people come to court more ready so that somebody like Edgardo or Zed or Maria and Manuel or the other families that I've met and the thousands in court every day. New York City can help make sure they have lawyers if they're facing deportation proceedings, and get the information they need to make good choices. That's what we should be doing. The only way New York City can stand up for the values reflected by that statue in the harbor is if we're doing better to live up to them. We need to deliver affordable housing and safe neighborhoods and good streets and transportation to all New Yorkers, whether they are here since birth or here since breakfast. That's what I'm going to do as mayor.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
Fact Check: Unpacking claims video shows over 500 construction workers detained by ICE in Texas
Claim: A video shared on social media claimed that over 500 construction workers being detained by ICE agents at Texas job sites in late June 2025. Rating: In late June 2025, a 10-second video circulated online purportedly showing a mass detention of construction workers by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents gained traction on social media. For example, on June 25, 2025, one Instagram post (archived), which accumulated over 449,000 views as of this writing, stated: "BREAKING: Over 500+ construction workers — mostly Hispanic — have been detained by federal agents in Texas while simply showing up to work. Workers are reportedly being rounded up at job sites and taken to holding camps. This all happened in just the last 48 hours." (occupydemocrats/Instagram) Snopes readers contacted us about the claim, with one reader emailing to ask whether the "video of construction workers detained by ICE" was "accurate or not." The video accompanying the post showed a large number of workers gathered in what appeared to be a temporary tent structure at a construction site. A caption embedded in the video asked: "so, if all these construction workers are detained by ICE, who's doing the construction?" The same video had been circulating on other social media platforms including TikTok (archived) and Threads (archived). However, Snopes' investigation found that while the video appeared to be authentic footage of a construction site gathering, it was miscaptioned and did not show an ICE detention operation in late June 2025. Snopes has not yet been able to confirm who filmed the footage, but there was no evidence the clip was the product of artificial intelligence (AI) software or other digital manipulation. The same video had been circulating on Instagram prior to the June 25 claim. For example, one Instagram account posted (archived) the identical footage on June 8, 2025, with a Spanish-language caption that translated to "Here are the workers detained by ICE." (usalatinnews/Instagram) That earlier post received over 531,000 views, predating the recent posts by more than two weeks and indicating that the video was not tied to any verified enforcement action within the past 48 hours, as recently claimed. Snopes found no publicly available evidence supporting the claim that a mass ICE raid involving more than 500 workers took place in Texas during the time period described in the post. While ICE has carried out workplace enforcement actions at construction sites in recent months, the largest confirmed (archived) operation occurred in Tallahassee, Florida, where "100+" workers were arrested on May 29, 2025, according to the agency. In Texas, the largest publicly documented (archived) construction-site raid involved 25 arrests at job sites in South Padre Island and Brownsville on June 4. We reached out to ICE to ask whether its agents had conducted any operation involving the detention of 500 or more construction workers in Texas during late June 2025. An ICE spokesperson responded directly to Snopes via email: "The video is not related to any activity by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement." Based on visual clues in the video—such as safety signage, worker attire, and the industrial scale of the operation—the footage may have been recorded at the Port Arthur LNG construction site in Texas. This liquefied natural gas export terminal, being built by Bechtel Construction Service for Sempra Infrastructure, regularly holds large safety meetings and worker gatherings that could account for the scene shown. Photos shared on Facebook by both Bechtel (archived) and Sempra (archived) show similar large tented structures used for events and meetings at the Port Arthur LNG site as well as the exact same safety signage, supporting the likelihood that the video was filmed there. Snopes reached out to Sempra Infrastructure and Bechtel to confirm whether the video was filmed at the Port Arthur LNG site and whether any immigration enforcement actions took place at or near the site during the relevant period. As of this writing, neither company has responded to our inquiry. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. "ICE arrests more than 100 illegal aliens during targeted enforcement operation in Tallahassee." ICE News Releases, Accessed June 26, 2025. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. "ICE Rio Grande Valley conducts worksite enforcement operation resulting in 25 arrests." ICE News Releases, Accessed June 26, 2025. Bechtel Corporation. "Sempra Infrastructure announces EPC contract with Bechtel for Port Arthur LNG Phase 2." Bechtel Press Releases, Accessed June 26, 2025.
San Francisco Chronicle
6 hours ago
- Politics
- San Francisco Chronicle
What we know so far about how Trump's deportation effort is unfolding in the Bay Area
As of last month, Carolina's quest for asylum from violence in her Indigenous Guatemalan community seemed to be on track. The mother of two, who speaks only her native K'iche' language, had recently completed a check-in with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and was living with her family in Contra Costa County. Then she received a surprise message on her ICE smartphone app. 'This is your ICE officer,' the June 2 message said, according to Carolina's attorney. 'We want you to come in for an appointment.' Carolina did as she was told, arriving at 630 Sansome St. in San Francisco the next day. It wasn't until after she was arrested that her attorney — who shared her story with the Chronicle and asked that only her first name be used for her protection — would learn the reason for the appointment: Carolina's asylum case had been set aside without a reason given, and an old removal order reinstated. Leaving behind her husband and two young children, Carolina was flown to an ICE detention center in Arizona that same day. Carolina is among dozens of people that local advocates estimate have been arrested in the Bay Area this month in stepped-up operations by federal immigration authorities, as the Trump administration seeks to fulfill a campaign promise by boosting deportation numbers. The effort has been both expansive and disjointed, advocates say, going beyond promises to deport 'the worst of the worst ' while splitting families apart and leaving state officials scrambling for answers. While federal authorities have long had discretionary power to reject asylum applications and other temporary protections that allow people to remain in the U.S., previous administrations have typically used the tactic on a case-by-case basis, said Carolina's attorney, Hayden Rodarte, who focuses on asylum applications for the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights of the San Francisco Bay Area. 'But this is the first time we're seeing it in this systematic way,' Rodarte said, noting that Carolina has no criminal history and is the main caregiver for her 10-year-old daughter and 5-year-old son. 'This is the new reality now.' ICE officials have declined to release information about key aspects of recent Bay Area immigration operations, including how many people have been arrested, who they are and why certain people have been targeted for removal. ICE has posted videos on social media of arrests throughout Los Angeles at workplaces and elsewhere, and photos of those detained with alleged criminal histories, but immigration attorneys said the arrests in the Bay Area target those who are trying to follow the process and show up to court. 'They should be showing up to their court hearing. It's the right thing to do but it's so scary,' said Roujin Mozaffarimehr, a managing partner at ImmiCore Law, a Silicon Valley firm. 'It's just really nerve-racking.' Inside the information vacuum, local networks of immigration advocates, attorneys and courtroom observers have worked to piece together everything they know about the cases, in hopes of better understanding how ICE operations are unfolding in the Bay Area. Catherine Seitz, the legal director at the Immigration Institute of the Bay Area, said people have been arrested when they show up for a meeting with ICE during their removal proceedings, an often lengthy legal process. Those meetings typically happen once a year; ICE checks that the cases are still pending and people typically return home, Seitz said. In addition, ICE is detaining people, including those seeking asylum, who arrive to immigration courts in San Francisco and Concord for scheduled hearings. In some cases, government attorneys are attempting to remove people who have been here for less than two years by requesting their cases to be dismissed. Immigration officials then detain people and pursue expedited removal proceedings, a measure that is typically used at airports or at the border, Seitz said. 'The confusing part is, under the last administration, (a dismissed case) was a good thing,' Seitz said, adding that people could then move forward with their asylum petitions. Seitz said that by using expedited removals, the government can typically move forward with deporting someone without going before a judge. This was the case for Carolina, who arrived in the U.S. along with one of her children in January 2024, joining her husband and older child. Carolina, who is from an Indigenous rural area of Guatemala, applied for asylum while citing the violence and persecution from the government there. 'What hurts us most is seeing the children suffer through this,' Carolina's sister said in a statement translated from K'iche' and provided by immigration attorneys. 'Our country has so much violence and we fled to this country with the hopes of finding joy here. But now we're seeing things worsen here with family separations.' There is no removal order for Carolina's husband and children, and the rest of the family's asylum cases remain pending before immigration court in Concord, Rodarte said. Because federal agencies have not released information on the arrests, advocates and attorneys have sought to use their networks to keep an unreliable count of the number of people detained. Last weekend, hundreds of demonstrators gathered outside of an ICE facility in San Francisco after immigrants said they had received orders to check in with the federal agency — spurring concerns from advocates that officials were planning to detain people with detention circumstances similar to Carolina's. Though a handful of immigrants showed up Saturday and Sunday, the office remained closed and ICE officials did not detain anyone, later saying that the closure was due to protests. ICE enforcement in the Bay Area has differed from Los Angeles, where the agency has targeted car washes and other workplaces, as well as gathering spots for day laborers such as Home Depot parking lots, to take people into custody — sparking conservative support along with widespread protests and accusations of racial profiling. Trump has waffled on the tactics, at times saying migrant workers are dangerous and take jobs that could go to Americans, and at other times saying they are ' almost impossible to replace.' But with the Department of Homeland Security this week reversing instructions for ICE to pause raids on farms, meat packing plants, restaurants and hotels, advocates for immigrants worry that the more aggressive actions ICE has taken in Los Angeles and parts of the Central Valley could happen in the Bay Area. Jason Houser, a former ICE chief of staff under President Joe Biden, said the Trump administration appears intent on reaching arrest quotas of 3,000 people per day. To achieve those goals, ICE has begun targeting immigrants who have been vetted and given a legal status to stay in the country, versus focusing on only those with criminal histories. There aren't enough people with criminal backgrounds to meet the quotas that the White House has set, Houser said. 'When you set quotas at the White House of arrests,' he said, 'ICE is going to take the easiest path to get their hands on people that they can bring into detention.' Since Trump's second term started, ICE said it has arrested over 236,000 people who were in the country illegally and deported more than 207,000, below the administration's goals but a significant increase from recent years. In his first term, Trump deported 1.5 million people, while Biden had deported 1.1 million people as of February 2024, according to Migration Policy Institute, a Washington, D.C., think tank. The detainment of more people poses other challenges for immigration courts. There are currently roughly 700 federal immigration judges — a decrease after Trump fired judges in California, Louisiana and other states — and a backlog of nearly 3 million pending cases due in part to a spike in people seeking asylum since 2022, according to government data. In many cases, it can take someone going through a removal proceeding nearly 10 years to get ahead of a judge, said Carl Shusterman, a Los Angeles immigration attorney. 'If he's just going to put another million people a year in immigration court,' Shusterman said, 'it'll take 15 to 20 years to get a hearing.'
Refinery29
13 hours ago
- Refinery29
From Wildfires To ICE Raids, L.A. Latines Keep Fighting Back
Just five months ago, Mexican firefighters were rushing to Los Angeles to keep the city from burning to the ground. Now, before there's even been time to process or heal from that trauma, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is targeting undocumented immigrants with brutal raids. Since Friday, June 6, the organization has violently seized 330 people. Immigrants are living in fear — of showing up at graduations, churches, grocery stores and their places of work. This fear, of course, isn't new, but it's currently being magnified in cruel ways. It feels like there is no safe space. To make matters worse, we're seeing this play out in real time with every video, every post, and every update with social media making it impossible to avoid. The cycle doesn't just happen once, it replays and retraumatizes us each time. Colombian therapist Cristina Castrillón, LMFT, says these conditions can trigger and further traumatize immigrants — many of whom have already experienced the trauma of leaving their homelands and families behind. Castrillón also points out that immigrants, particularly people of color, are more prone to complex post-traumatic stress disorder (CPTSD), which studies have found can result from experiencing long-standing trauma. 'Then there's the social and economic adversity of being undocumented, being impacted by things like food scarcity,' Castrillón adds. 'There might also be more chances for higher substance abuse.' According to the therapist, there is no shortage of trauma for immigrants. 'This is especially true for folks who fled their homelands due to violence — like people from Central America.' And now, it's happening all over again. On that fateful Friday in June, entrepreneur, educator and immigrant rights organizer Sharet García witnessed one such ICE raid unfold in downtown Los Angeles' Piñata District, a neighborhood that's long been home to countless Latine immigrant-owned businesses over the years. She was shopping for decorations for her son's high school graduation party when she witnessed the raid take place. 'ICE had just trapped all the workers inside this fashion apparel company,' she tells Refinery29 Somos. 'I knew that we needed to record this. We couldn't stay quiet; I wanted the people to know.' Even though she's undocumented herself, García — founder of UndocuProfessionals, which serves as a safe space for undocumented students and professionals — knew she had to stay at the scene. But, more importantly, it was clear she could not do it alone. She would need to rally her community. 'They lined up 30 to 40 people there,' she says, adding that some of the detained workers' daughters were present. The children reassured their parents that they were in this lucha together, and that they would never stop fighting for them. 'It was really hard to see that, but we wanted to make sure that we recorded everything. And that's when everything started happening.' Slowly but surely, people showed up to protect the Piñata District workers. Ultimately, García says, it became difficult for ICE to detain people because the crowd was 'not allowing them to just easily leave.' This solidarity isn't lost on the people of L.A., who are currently turning out in troves to protest the military occupancy in their sanctuary city. One Latine Angeleno, who requested to go only by the name of Crystal, has attended several protests in the city and can vouch they are not nearly as violent as certain media outlets portray. ' This fear holds a lot of people back from being in public, making it even more critical for documented citizens to stand up and fight back. ' To be clear, seeing these images — whether you are undocumented or not, whether you love someone who is undocumented or not — harms folks mentally and emotionally. And the cruel truth is: that's the point. '[Seeing violent footage] just further creates a narrative that makes us feel alienated,' says Castrillón. 'Think about what that does to someone's sense of self, worth, identity and belonging.' In short, this dehumanizing treatment rips apart our self-esteem and sense of security to shreds. It can lead to higher rates of anxiety, depression and relational issues. Some people have even left the country in what's being called ' self-deportation,' because they no longer feel safe in the U.S. Other people are experiencing vicarious trauma when they see their loved ones in fear or hear them talking about their trauma, she adds. But, as always, the community protesting these immoral ICE raids proves that they're not criminals; they're just trying to do what's right. 'There are people carrying and passing around water and snacks,' says Crystal, who also notes that some folks are acting as medics, carrying first-aid kits, masks, and goggles, and treating people who have been wounded by rubber bullets. 'I feel like that's what's not being credited, not being shown. It's a very different experience being there than watching it.' A large percentage of immigrants and folks on the front lines are Latine. But make no mistake, these ICE raids are not just a Latine or 'raza' issue. While it's true, Latinos account for a majority of immigrant communities, we're not the only ones impacted. According to a Pew Research Center analysis of U.S. Census Bureau data: 'A third of all Latinos in the United States — an estimated 21.4 million people — are immigrants.' That's roughly 45% of the nearly 50 million immigrants currently living in the U.S. The next largest group? Immigrants from Asian countries, who make up 28% of the U.S. immigrant population. This doesn't account for immigrants from African, Caribbean, Middle Eastern or European nations. And just for context: less than 10 miles from the Piñata District, in Mid-City, you'll find L.A.'s Little Ethiopia. Each and every single immigrant is equally important in this struggle. Every immigrant's story matters. Every community is part of this fight. Edwin Sotos, an immigrant rights and community organizer knows this firsthand. He says these are the people who have long been on the front lines, often undocumented themselves. But even those committed to the work are feeling the weight. Castrillón says, many in the movement may have experienced or are currently experiencing compassion fatigue. ' Despite attempts to erase or dehumanize immigrants, our communities continue to show up, for each other, for justice and for joy. That in itself is a powerful act. ' 'People are really feeling burned out, fatigued, unable to continue, or needing moments to themselves to pull away from the work,' she says, adding that keeping up your 'self-care is necessary, because it is becoming so pervasive, there is no break — especially for people on the front lines.' Sotos agrees, pointing out that people in the immigrants' rights movement have always felt a lot of feelings. 'For one, I feel very inspired to see how people are becoming very aware of how ICE has been treating our communities and how violent and terrorizing they are towards our community, and that the community is standing up against them and fighting back,' he says. 'I feel that if we had this type of awareness 10 to 15 years ago, a lot of our work and advocacy would be very different.' Sotos also feels upset and concerned with how some influencers and content creators have responded. 'They either center themselves and erase immigrant voices or overlook and ignore the work that we have done as immigrants and documented people to get [to] where we are right now.' Overall, though, Sotos attests this time is more intense. 'I'm definitely concerned at how different and how much more violent this round of ICE raids are in comparison to what we have seen in past years. I do think that these violent attacks from ICE, and the deployment of armed forces, are going to have a long-term effect on our community.' 'In our fight for immigrant rights, we have to include [folks from other countries], too,' Soto says. 'At some point, they are struggling with the same issues. Immigrants come [to the U.S.] from almost every country in the world, and from different races and different ethnicities, cultural and racial backgrounds.' To that end, Sotos spotlights a few resources for undocumented people who may not identify as Latine: The UndocuBlack Network: Black immigrants who organize communities and advocate for policy changes National Korean American Service & Education Consortium (NAKASEC): Korean and Asian American immigrants fighting for social, economic, and racial justice Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California: Civil rights advocates for the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community Even so, it's irrefutable that the effect of these brutal raids are hitting L.A.'s Latine communities hard. On TikTok and Instagram, the fear is loud and visible with videos showing just how deeply these raids are shaking us. One viral clip shows an MSNBC reporter standing in an empty field — farmland usually tended by immigrant workers, now deserted due to ICE threats. Another video shows a KTLA anchor reporting on an ICE raid at a local elementary school. People are scared. And the same conversations aren't just happening online, they're happening in person, over WhatsApp and on the phone. García says she has received an increased number of calls from undocumented individuals admitting they want to protest and show their support but are worried about their safety, especially being in close proximity to la migra. 'Some people are angry about what they're seeing, but there's definitely a lot of fear in the community,' says García. This fear holds a lot of people back from being in public, making it even more critical for documented citizens to stand up and fight back. Doris Anahí Muñoz, an artist and activist who previously endured family separation at the hands of ICE, says there are several things she wished she knew during one of the darkest moments of her life. 'The hardest part of a path to citizenship is how costly it is,' says Muñoz. 'I wish I had known about these kinds of organizations back then. For people like my parents, they didn't even know support like this existed.' Thankfully, community support is growing, as a result there are more resources available including free legal services across L.A., offering help to undocumented folks in need. Some of these organizations include: The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA): Diverse immigrant families and individuals whose mission is to achieve a just society fully inclusive of immigrants UCLA Civil Rights Project: Legal services networks, nonprofits and private practice attorneys who can assist undocumented residents needing legal assistance Chicas y Cafecito Community Resources Los Angeles: A round-up of helpful phone numbers and legal services for immigrants At the end of the day, mental health experts and community organizers also acknowledge and agree: this work is heavy and it is important for the people in this fight to take care of themselves and each other. One of the best and most important ways to do just that is to find moments of joy. 'Our true community efforts are the most important in this. We really need each other right now to keep this movement going,' says Muñoz. Naturally, people are doing this — dancing in the street, hyping each other up and chanting like the ancestors are watching. Sotos admits, it can be difficult for organizers and community advocates to center their own emotions and well-being since their primary focus is fighting injustice. 'But I will say that I have been sleeping and resting more because I've been very tired. Also, being in community spaces and connecting and checking in on my friends and my family has been very helpful,' he says. 'We're validating each other, sharing that we are there together and that we're going to defend and protect the community. But we're also going to be there to connect, uplift each other and hear each other out.' Castrillón encourages folks to have self-care practices on their own time, too. 'Some people cannot step away from it like other folks can. Not everyone gets the privilege,' she says. But even if you only have five minutes, try to use those to check in with your body. Ask yourself: 'Did I eat well today? Am I nourishing myself? Am I sleeping enough and getting enough rest? Am I getting support?'' she suggests. 'Cry, be held, be seen. Go to therapy, support groups or healing circles.' These are all warm and necessary reminders that we are not alone. Sotos echoes this truth. 'I feel sometimes we are so into wanting to protect our community and advocate, and we feel like we need to be strong,' he says. 'But sometimes, we just need someone to listen to us…especially in the work that we do.' Despite attempts to erase or dehumanize immigrants, our communities continue to show up, for each other, for justice and for joy. That in itself is a powerful act. As Sotos puts it: 'Being openly undocumented is my most powerful tool at this point. My mere existence as an undocumented person is my most powerful resistance.' Resources for undocumented people who may not identify as Latine The UndocuBlack Network: Black immigrants who organize communities and advocate for policy changes National Korean American Service & Education Consortium (NAKASEC): Korean and Asian American immigrants fighting for social, economic, and racial justice Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California: Civil rights advocates for the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community Self-care tips from mental health professionals Check in with yourself to make sure you're eating, hydrating, resting and taking care of your body Talk to friends and family to avoid the isolation that results from living and reliving trauma in person and on social media Try to take breaks from the work to find moments of joy with the people you love Where to donate
Los Angeles Times
18 hours ago
- Politics
- Los Angeles Times
Lawyers for Kilmar Abrego Garcia ask judge to keep him in jail over deportation concerns
NASHVILLE — Attorneys for Kilmar Abrego Garcia asked a federal judge in Tennessee on Friday to delay his release from jail because of 'contradictory statements' by President Trump's administration over whether he'll be deported upon release. A federal judge in Nashville has been preparing to release Abrego Garcia to await trial on human smuggling charges. But she's been holding off over concerns that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement would swiftly detain him and try to deport him again. Abrego Garcia's attorneys are now asking the judge to continue to detain him following statements by Trump administration officials 'because we cannot put any faith in any representation made on this issue by' the Justice Department. 'The irony of this request is not lost on anyone,' the attorneys wrote. Abrego Garcia, a construction worker who had been living in Maryland, became a flashpoint over Trump's hard-line immigration policies when he was mistakenly deported to his native El Salvador in March. Facing mounting pressure and a Supreme Court order, Trump's Republican administration returned him this month to face the smuggling charges, which his attorneys have called 'preposterous.' In a response to the request by Abrego Garcia's attorneys on Friday, acting U.S. Atty. Rob McGuire agreed to delaying Abrego Garcia's release. He reiterated his stance that Abrego Garcia should remain in jail before trial and that he lacks jurisdiction over ICE, stating that he has no way to prevent Abrego Garcia's deportation. Justice Department spokesman Chad Gilmartin told the Associated Press on Thursday that the department intends to try Abrego Garcia on the smuggling charges before it moves to deport him, stating that Abrego Garcia 'has been charged with horrific crimes, including trafficking children, and will not walk free in our country again.' Hours earlier, Justice Department attorney Jonathan Guynn told a federal judge in Maryland that the U.S. government plans to deport Abrego Garcia to a 'third country' that isn't El Salvador. Guynn said there was no timeline for the deportation plans. Abrego Garcia's attorneys wrote in their filing on Friday that Guynn's statements were the 'first time the government has represented, to anyone, that it intended not to deport Mr. Abrego back to El Salvador following a trial on these charges, but to deport him to a third country immediately.' The filing by Abrego Garcia's lawyers also cited a post on X on Thursday from White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson: 'Abrego Garcia was returned to the United States to face trial for the egregious charges against him,' Jackson stated. 'He will face the full force of the American justice system — including serving time in American prison for the crimes he's committed.' Abrego Garcia's attorneys wrote Friday the Trump administration brought Abrego Garcia back 'only to convict him in the court of public opinion.' 'In a just world, he would not seek to prolong his detention further,' his attorneys wrote. 'And yet the government — a government that has, at all levels, told the American people that it is bringing Mr. Abrego back home to the United States to face 'American justice' — apparently has little interest in actually bringing this case to trial.' Abrego Garcia's attorneys have asked the judge to delay his release until a July 16 court hearing, which will consider a request by prosecutors to revoke Abrego Garcia's release order while he awaits trial. Abrego Garcia pleaded not guilty on June 13 to smuggling charges that his attorneys have characterized as an attempt to justify his mistaken expulsion to a notorious prison in El Salvador. When the Trump administration deported Abrego Garcia in March, it violated a U.S. immigration judge's order in 2019 that barred his expulsion to his native country. The immigration judge had found that Abrego Garcia faced a credible threat from gangs that had terrorized him and his family. The human smuggling charges pending against Abrego Garcia stem from a 2022 traffic stop for speeding in Tennessee, during which Abrego Garcia was driving a vehicle with nine passengers without luggage. U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara Holmes in Nashville wrote in a ruling Sunday that federal prosecutors failed to show that Abrego Garcia was a flight risk or a danger to the community. During a court hearing Wednesday, Holmes set specific conditions for Abrego Garcia's release that included him living with his brother, a U.S. citizen, in Maryland. But she held off on releasing him over concerns that prosecutors can't prevent U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement from deporting him. Finley and Loller write for the Associated Press. Finley reported from Norfolk, Va.
