Los Angeles: a testimony at the heart of the protests against the arrest of immigrant workers

Los Angeles has recently been the scene of massive protests against the Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) Federal Agency. What are the charges against ICE, and what do people claim?

ICE has been escalating their raids into Los Angeles since last Friday. Since the Trump administration started, there has been a lot of fear in Los Angeles about increased detentions and deportations of immigrants. Los Angeles is a city with a majority people of color and a high percentage of immigrants from Mexico and Central America. It’s really a city of immigrants. It is also a sanctuary city, in the sense that our leadership, like our city council, our city government and county government, have laid the groundwork and laid out policy that states that we will not be cooperating with or allowing ICE into the city to the greatest degree possible, because we do not want these federal agents to come in and effectively kidnap our neighbors, our community members, our coworkers.

What has been happening is that, since last Friday, ICE has started doing really aggressive escalatory raids in L.A. They have been going into businesses primarily, like car washes. They have been entering and raiding businesses where they think that people who are working there are immigrants and day laborers. That started last Friday and it continues. They are saying that there is going to be 30 days of raids like this.

To my awareness, they have already detained over 100 people in these raids and they are clearly planning to detain and deport others as well. So the protest movements want ICE out of L.A.. We want them to stop detaining and deporting our neighbors and our community members. We want an end to this really escalatory violence on the part of the federal government.

Before Friday, ICE was not operating in Los Angeles?

There was intermittent ICE activity in L.A. before Friday. It was increasing since the start of the Trump administration. But on Friday, they sent a bunch more ICE agents, and they did these really aggressive public raids of multiple businesses across the city. They ramped up and started staging for more aggressive operations.

What happens when ICE arrests people? What if those people have kids and families?

Honestly, I do not think the federal government provides much support at all. Maybe there is a caseworker that can call someone, but really, it is left to the community. The government just takes people in and lets the consequences unfold.

When they arrest someone, do they detain them somewhere or they deport them immediately?

They do detain them. And it’s not quick — people can be detained for months before being deported. It’s not like they pick them up and put them on a plane the next day. Some sit in detention centers for a long time before anything happens. It is because immigration law is separate from criminal law. There are not the same standards of due process or requirements for timely proceedings. So there is a lot of injustice that unfolds, even more than in the criminal system, which is already deeply flawed.

Do people have the right to a lawyer?

I do not think so — or at least not automatically. I could be wrong, but my understanding is that people in immigration proceedings do not have a guaranteed right to an attorney unless they can afford one. There was a program that ensured minors had legal representation, but the Trump administration defunded it. Now, there are children going through deportation proceedings without any lawyer.

Indeed, it seems that they arrested some kids as well.

Yes. There have been reports of children being detained, even prior to Friday. They have been trying to detain and deport even young children, teens, and targeting them while they were going to school. The Los Angeles Unified School District has stated today that they are going to be using the school police forces to guard graduation ceremonies and the schools themselves and try to prevent ICE from entering any schools, which are supposed to be sanctuary sites.

Is this the first time ICE has acted this aggressively in LA or in the country?

I believe this is the most aggressive ICE action we have seen nationally. There have been raids before, but this level of coordination, militarization, and intensity seems unprecedented.

In a move that seems unprecedented in decades, Trump has sent the national guard and even military forces to Los Angeles. What’s going on and what are the reactions?

This is an incredibly escalatory and unnecessary action. There have been protests and rallies. They have been predominantly very peaceful — not entirely, of course because people are really angry.

But the escalation of sending in the National Guard, sending in Marines, active military, is just pure brute show of force from the Trump administration trying to dominate and oppress Los Angeles and Angelenos. The actual reality is that people are out in the streets expressing their outrage, rage at what is happening, expressing their despair and anger, and calling for ICE to get out of L.A.. Sending in the National Guards is not going to make Angelenos feel more safe.

All it does is raise tensions and drive forward this conflict, so that Trump can justify even more escalatory actions from ICE or from the military forces, and also probably so that Trump can distract from the budget bill that they are trying to pass, which dramatically cuts services to working people and is a major transfer of wealth to the billionaire class.

Is Trump really sending in 2,000 National Guard troops?

He said he was, but I am hearing that only about 300 were actually sent. I am not sure that is confirmed, but it seems like they are not totally succeeding in rallying the number of forces they claim.

How did people react?

I think people are really afraid and angry.  I was downtown yesterday and seeing dozens of cop cars driving by with their sirens ablaze, seeing a hundred people in uniform. It’s terrifying. I live not too far from downtown. Although there is no protests or ICE activity in my neighborhood yet, I hear the helicopters pretty much all day. They have been flying around.

It’s a very ominous and kind of frightening feel in the city, but also offset by the bravery, the courage, the strength and the power of the people who are, like myself and my comrades, out in the streets and fighting back.

What have been the reactions of the local authorities?

The political authorities like the LA City Council and the LA County Board of Supervisors and the mayor have been very clear. They have been pretty united in saying what is happening is unacceptable, that ICE activity like this needs to stop, we want ICE out of LA, that the sending in of National Guard and Marines is totally escalatory and unnecessary. So the political authorities have been pretty united and clear on that, actually. Consequently, Trump has been saying “Oh, we are going to arrest the mayor of Los Angeles.”

How have the unions reacted to that situation?

One of the biggest flash points in the last week has been that David Huerta was arrested. He is the leader of SEIU-USWW, and also the president of the SEIU State Council. He represents almost a million workers across California. When the raids started on Friday, he was present and was documenting, filming what was happening, and calling for it not to happen. He was tackled and injured by ICE officers and then arrested. Now he’s facing federal felony charges for “conspiracy to impede a federal officer.” He has been released on bond, thankfully, but if convicted, he could face years in prison. So, they have arrested and detained one of the most powerful labor leaders in California.

The labor movement has pushed back hard. There was a big rally yesterday of about 10,000 workers and union members led by SEIU, with many different unions present, showing support and turning people out. Thankfully, Huerta was released on bail at his hearing on Monday.

Have you got some support from other unions in other states or at the federal level?

Yes. There were solidarity actions across the country — in Seattle, Boston, Denver, North Carolina, New York, New Orleans. All together, maybe two or three dozen different actions. L.A.’s was the biggest, but support came from everywhere.

I assume that today there is a campaign for the charges to be dropped against this trade-unionist?

Exactly. That’s the next step — demanding that the charges be dropped.

Would solidarity messages from foreign unions asking for the charges to be dropped be helpful to support the union leader who was arrested?

Absolutely. A message from unions in other countries calling for the charges to be dropped would be very well received. We need as much international solidarity and pressure as possible. It also helps people here feel seen, and it shows that the world is paying attention.

How do the businesses react to the situation when ICE is coming into their premises to pick up immigrants?

Different businesses are getting more organized to have clear policies in place if ICE does come to their business. Things like not letting people in without a warrant, asking to see a warrant, not releasing any documentation about their workers to ICE agents. More and more businesses are getting organized to really oppose. In one example that I am aware of in Orange County, there was a chain of restaurants that is really beloved and was the site of one of these raids. They closed the restaurant for a week because they didn’t want to be open and present the possibility of another raid.

If ICE is raiding these places, taking out all the workers, who is going to do the job?

That’s a great question. I do not know the exact numbers, but L.A. is probably about 50% Latino. A huge percentage of people are immigrants. It is not possible for Los Angeles to run without immigrants. It is just simply not possible. It is a city that, unlike any other in the U.S., is truly bilingual — people speaking Spanish and English. So if you take out the immigrants, everything would just shut down.

How do they identify the immigrants they want to expel from the country?

I do not know exactly what their processes are supposed to be, but I do know they are making a lot of mistakes. They are detaining people who are U.S. citizens at times. Sometimes those people get identified quickly and get released, but sometimes they do not and they wind up spending a night or even a weekend in ICE detention. That has definitely happened.

What does DSA do in this context?

I am really proud of what DSA has done in the last week.

Our members have been out in the streets at the protests. We have also been doing “know your rights” trainings — informing people about things like: always carry your ID, don’t talk to someone unless they have a real warrant, and how to check if the warrant is valid. We have also done “train the trainers” sessions to expand the reach of these trainings.

We are hosting a mass call today to share updates on responses DSA members are organizing around the country.

In addition to protesting, we are accompanying people to their immigration check-ins because ICE has started detaining people at those mandatory check-ins.

What do you mean by “mandatory check-ins”?

If someone is in the U.S. and known to the government, they may be allowed to stay temporarily, but they are required to check in regularly with ICE. That means going to the immigration office and confirming their presence and address. These check-ins used to be routine. But now ICE is detaining people during them — even those who have followed all the rules for years. They show up for their check-in and get detained or deported.

How many people demonstrated against ICE in L.A.?

Across the different protests, I would probably say somewhere between 50,000 to 100,000 people came out.

How many members do you have in your chapter?

We have 4,000 members, and they have been very active in the protests and in supporting immigrants — giving them advice on what to do in case they get arrested or harassed.

Do you expect the protests to continue, or might they die down now that the military is in the city?

I think they will continue as long as the raids continue. It is hard to overstate how much L.A. is an immigrant city. So many people are immigrants themselves or have immigrant family. As long as people are being attacked like this — kidnapped from their jobs or off the street — I don’t see things de-escalating. Especially with the increased show of force from the National Guard and Marines.

If this continues in other states, could it spark similar resistance?

Definitely. If ICE continues acting like this in other states, it could trigger widespread backlash and social movements. LA is unique as a deeply immigrant city, but other cities will respond too. There is real potential for a national movement to grow from this.

Interview made on Tuesday, June 10, 2025