Community Defense Groups Take the Last Stand Against ICE in LA

Anya was hiding Crouched behind the counter at a car wash in Westchester just outside Los Angeles International Airport she kept quiet while her co-workers scattered outside Selected ran toward the In-N-Out Burger others behind the Ralphs One worker drove away in the car he was detailing La Migra was here Federal immigration agents managed to take five of her colleagues into custody declared Anya a Ukrainian Russian asylum-seeker who urged to have her name changed to protect her pending event And less than hours later with the car wash short-staffed and shaken plain-clothed undercover agents surrounded the business in unmarked white SUVs You guys came the day before today Anya s boss announced in a video of the raid reviewed by The Intercept Did we get car washes an agent joked in return They left with two more workers in handcuffs Across Los Angeles County ICE s operations played out differently When combat-ready federal agents gathered in large numbers at staging areas in Paramount and Compton on June protesters swiftly mobilized collective resistance efforts and crisis patrols Agents responded to large crowds with tear gas flash bangs and so-called less-lethal weapons Organizers maintain that this grassroots mobilization sabotaged enforcement operations putting agents on the defensive and preventing them from conducting raids for the rest of the day As ICE raids escalated across Los Angeles in early June sending protesters into the streets and immigrant communities into hiding the contrast between how the consequential weekend unfolded in different parts of the city was stark Divergent outcomes in majority Latino areas further east with a long history of organizing and those largely disconnected from grassroots encouragement highlighted the crucial role of community-led defense in the absence of meaningful ruling body protection Unlike Compton or Paramount the airport-adjacent Westchester is geographically and socially isolated from more established region organizing networks And while LA s sanctuary laws prohibit local police from working with ICE organizers argue that the local law enforcement agencies can t be trusted to keep immigrants safe Related Going Out to a Protest Here s How Not to Get Arrested Workers need to know their rights whether it s at the workplace or at their home and they feel empowered to exercise those rights declared Flor Melendrez executive director of the labor advocacy group CLEAN Carwash Worker Center Car wash workers street vendors and day laborers working in high-visibility outdoor spaces face heightened vulnerability for arrests as easy targets for ICE raids while often lacking access to critical guidance and workplace protections Organizers announced more than car wash workers were arrested across at least six businesses in the set of raids began on June According to the owner of the car wash agents pressured workers into answering questions like where they were born They didn t read their rights or anything at all They just took them away directly Anya disclosed She narrated The Intercept the second raid was over in a matter of minutes Miles away from Anya in a predominantly Latino neighborhood east of the Los Angeles River a middle school mentor named Ruth was on her way to her school s graduation ceremony when she noticed a group of day laborers running in her direction from the Home Depot parking lot I started taking off my heels and putting on my flats I got my megaphone and ran out of my car she narrated The Intercept I was ready Abandoned food stands and belongings scattered the parking lot Ruth approved with eyewitnesses that a handful of federal agents made a brief appearance but left without making arrests Ruth who appealed to be identified only by her first name so she wouldn t be identified at school is a member of the Public Self-Defense Coalition a volunteer-led group that patrols neighborhoods for ICE activity She s trained to identify undercover agents and vehicles document raids collect names and contact information to notify family members and locate the detained and connect them to support and legal assistance Ruth has embraced organizing as a way to defend her locality when existing institutions meant to protect people instead facilitate their persecution Related LAPD Won t Do Immigration Enforcement But Will Shoot You With Rubber Bullets for Protesting ICE While California Gov Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass both Democrats have condemned the Trump administration s draconian crackdown on immigration society organizers and local immigrant rights groups point to a discrepancy between rhetoric and reality So-called sanctuary policies prohibit local agents from assisting with federal immigration enforcement but observers have called these into question after seeing members of the Los Angeles Police Department cracking down on protests against ICE and seemingly protecting federal agents during raids To Ruth and other society defense organizers LA s sanctuary laws are a myth The LAPD and the sheriff s department are working with ICE she declared They re protecting them They re not protecting us While the LAPD has dismissed these assertions a senior Department of Homeland Assurance official credited the increase in ICE arrests in part to enhanced cooperation from local law enforcement partners The Society Self Defense Coalition attempts in to provide the protection that local law enforcement agencies won t When Ruth encounters ICE agents she also notifies the Rapid Response Configuration hotline which operates as an early warning system for locality members to analysis ICE activity If necessary the grid alerts the surrounding locality so that those who are vulnerable to arrest can avoid the area while others can mobilize in defense If we don t stand up and organize to defend our communities Ruth mentioned who s gonna do it Bilingual information for dealing with ICE taped up in Los Angeles in June Photo Claudia Villalona for The Intercept ICE s mass raids across Los Angeles County have led to the arrest of at least people since June according to immigrants rights groups But immigration lawyers and rights advocates maintain that the number is likely much higher as groups continue to gather information from observers and family members The detained have seemingly disappeared into the immigration detention system as families and immigrant rights organizations struggle to locate them Related ICE Agent Fled From Angry Residents Outside New York School and Got in a Car Crash The enforcement tactics on display at Anya s car wash and across Los Angeles are part of ICE s latest push to meet a steep daily quota of arrests nationwide Since late May arrests have increased dramatically from an average of to over per day according to the Department of Homeland Safeguard In a message distributed June the Department of Homeland Shield claimed that ICE has arrested the worst of the worst illegal alien criminals in Los Angeles There is little reason to believe DHS These are warrantless arrests targeting workers with no criminal background We have laws that protect people s rights regardless of whether or not we re documented and those aren t being respected explained Aquilina Soriano Versoza executive director of the Pilipino Workers Center a member organization of the Rapid Response Framework ICE agents undercover masked or in tactical gear have targeted working-class immigrants conducting raids in previously banned sensitive areas without judicial warrants They re separating families and instilling fear Soriano Versoza revealed for political theater People are afraid to go to work drive their kids to school or even seek physiological care Read Our Complete Coverage The War on Immigrants Soriano Versoza noted that countless of the detained continue to be denied access to legal assistance particularly those being held in the federal detention center in downtown LA Even elected personnel exercising their power of congressional oversight have been refused entry into detention centers I was present during the raid I saw with my own eyes the pains of the families crying screaming not knowing what to do just like me stated the daughter of Jorge Arrazola a car wash worker taken in a raid at a press conference organized by CLEAN Like a large number of of those arrested in the raids Arrazola was his household s sole breadwinner leaving his loved ones economically devastated and forced to fend for themselves CLEAN Carwash Worker Center along with other groups and unions have organized rights workshops and distributed red cards or Know Your Rights cards which outline how to assert rights in an encounter with federal immigration agents CLEAN and another group the National Day Laborer Organizing System have also implemented adopt a car wash or adopt a corner programs to set up assistants to warn workers of approaching ICE agents or provide direct aid and documentation during raids Anya s car wash is now receiving advocacy from CLEAN But it was too late to protect against the initial raids She and her bosses have located certain but not all of her co-workers One of her colleagues has already been deported to Mexico and another has since been transferred to an ICE detention center in Texas I ve known these people and seen them every day for two years Anya communicated The Intercept A few had worked at the car wash since it opened in the early s They have families she announced who are desperately trying to find them I don t know where they are I don t know how they re being treated Anya stated I feel helpless and hopeless The post Population Defense Groups Take the Last Stand Against ICE in LA appeared first on The Intercept