Urgent report from Los Angeles
We stand in solidarity with our immigrant communities
If all you’re seeing from LA right now is tear gas and burning cars, you’re missing most of the story.
Last Friday, June 6, ICE officials cosplaying in quasi-military gear and hiding their identies started raiding workplaces across LA and detaining immigrants. Well-organized rapid response teams leaped into action, videoing arrests and informing people in the area of their rights. They shouted and chanted for ICE to leave, as many of us are doing. The Trump administration rapidly escalated the situation, taking control of the California National Guard and sending them into our streets.
Members of Artists 4 Democracy have been present for many of the demonstrations and we want you to know
ICE is detaining ordinary people, not “violent criminals.” They are raiding restaurants, car washes, assisted living homes, and big box retailers, mostly in low-income Black and Brown communities. They are trying to enter K-12 schools but so far have been turned away. ICE is disappearing people and denying them their legal rights.
The protests began peacefully, with people from all walks of life and all across the region, working class folks marching side by side with office workers, families with kids in strollers, and sidewalk vendors. (We all need sustenance while defending democracy.)
Every day since Friday there have been peaceful protests, demonstrations, and interfaith vigils that are not getting the kind of media coverage that looting and tear gas get.
The curfew that started last night is limited to a single square mile in downtown LA, in the middle of a sprawling urban region of more than 4,000 square miles. Our city is not a “hellscape.” Most folks who aren’t directly at risk of being detained are going about our daily lives as usual. Many of those who are at risk are staying home, not going to work or their children’s graduation ceremonies, and that is a tragedy.
Putting the National Guard on our streets was intended as a provocation. As we hit send, Marines are staged in nearby Orange County. This unnecessary escalation is a threat to all of us — to our safety and our democracy.
What can you do?
Artists 4 Democracy is encouraging everyone to show up this Saturday, June 14 for a No Kings protest in your community. Bring friends and family with you. Tell everyone you know to be there too. For folks in LA, if you don’t want to go downtown there are locations across the region: Pasadena, Studio City, West Hollywood, Culver City, Whittier, Santa Monica and more. Wherever you are this weekend, find your nearest protest and show up for yourself and for our neighbors who can’t. When we show up at protests like these, we’ll see all the people standing with us, and it will strengthen the spines of those who have access to the levers of power.
Below are a few brief reports and images from A4D members who’ve been on the streets since Friday. Keep scrolling down further for more actions you can take to support the communities hardest hit by these cruel raids.
“I was at the gym on Sunday when I saw a livestream from Brandon Lamar, the head of Pasadena NAACP, that showed people gathering in front of the AC Hotel because they’d found out ICE officers were staying at three hotels in Pasadena: the AC, Hotel Dena, and the Westin. I left the gym all sweaty and joined about 60 people in front of the hotel. We marched around the hotel led by Brandon and City Councilman Rick Cole. Soon a crowd of more than a hundred people had gathered. Students from Muir High School started playing guitars with folks from NDLON, people were sharing sunblock and water, and we were dancing. Mayor Victor Gordo and local clergy addressed the crowd. It was a totally peaceful expression of our dedication to protecting our immigrant neighbors. We do not consent to ICE in Pasadena and Altadena. I heard later that the protest led to ICE leaving the hotel. It’s time for ICE to check out of LA.”
“I scrambled downtown at about 3:30 pm on Sunday, after getting an alert to show in response to the immigration raids. As I walked from Chinatown I came upon crowds on the 101 freeway overpasses. It was a young crowd, so different from the protests I've been to since January. People started moving down the onramp and slowly into the lanes. I continued on to the designated "safe area" for protestors near the detention center. I saw folks carrying coolers with jugs of milk to treat eyes hit by tear gas. Some wore gas masks and bulletproof vests. A loudspeaker announced, "You have one minute to vacate the area" and suddenly, people were running. As I started back to my car, I passed a street blocked by police on horseback. I thought I would be safe as long as I was walking away from the detention center, but then realized they were firing rubber bullets and sandbags, so I began to run too. Still, I stopped long enough to pick up a rubber bullet, a souvenir. In all my years of protesting, I’d never seen one before. I hope the in next days and weeks people aren’t scared to come out after seeing the images being presented on the news. LA is not on fire. We already burned, this year, but we are okay. We aren’t the city to pick a fight with. People in LA will show up.”
“When the march on Sunday, June 7, reached its destination — the detention center where ICE holds the kidnapped — the group I was with stopped in the MOCA parking lot under Barbara Kruger’s mural, Untitled (Questions), to bear witness. The march had been peaceful up to then. Once we arrived at the locus of our protest, the mood shifted rapidly. Between us and and the imprisoned was a wall and a line of police who started setting off stun grenades the moment we arrived. The skirmish lines were real, the standoff pregnant with tension. Police shot rubber bullets to push the crowd back. Protesters would retreat, regroup, and hold. The LAPD circled overhead, loudspeakers telling us to disperse, that we were unlawful. Well, these are unlawful times. Kruger's words above us asked, ‘Who follows orders?’”
“I was downtown on Monday for the labor rally demanding the release of SEIU President David Huerta. The rally was peaceful and inspiring. People were handing out free water and snacks. There were families. We marched, chanting and chatting, to the building where Huerta was being held, then to the Placita Olvera where a band on a truck arrived and everyone cheered and danced. In stark contrast to the atmosphere of the march, National Guard members were stationed outside the Federal Building in full battalion gear holding guns. When we left mid-afternoon we were passed by 30-40 police vehicles filled with SWAT teams speeding toward the crowd we had just left. For what? LA is showing up for it’s community, it’s neighbors, standing up for the rights of all people and families. I’m proud of LA.”
Show up this Saturday, June 14 for a No Kings protest in your community.
What else can you do?
There’s more you can do to stay in the fight for our democracy:
Donations: Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA) is a fantastic local organization that supports our immigrant communities. The National Immigration Law Center (NILC) is a national organization doing great legal work for immigrant rights.
Social media: Now is a good time to share stories about how immigrants are an integral part of American society. You can also share Know Your Rights information. It’s not so helpful to share the images of cars on fire — leave that to the click chasers.
Personal: Reach out to someone right now who might be at risk or afraid to make sure they’re okay.