The LA Heat Can Melt ICE
A brief summary of the anti-ICE protests in Los Angeles.
Los Angeles is a “Sanctuary City.” Passed last year, it denies the federal government access to city property, resources, and personnel, including cops, for immigration enforcement.
It turns out that the federal government can still easily disappear people without the city’s help.
On Friday last week, ICE showed up decked out in military equipment and started stealing people off the streets.
Garment workers. Taqueros. Car wash workers. Farm workers. Day Laborers. Construction workers. Mothers. 2-year-olds. American citizens. Fathers on Father's Day.
The state-sponsored kidnappings are part of an escalation in cruelty by the Trump administration to boost deportation numbers.
The idea of agents tackling day laborers in Home Depot parking comes from the mushed brain of bald, sad racist Stephen Miller, who ripped into ICE for not arresting enough people.
Now my neighborhood is missing the familiar faces I used to see in the mornings or afternoons on my drive. The typically crowded bus stops are empty. There are open sidewalks where the fruit vendors set up shop every week. I haven't seen the woman I buy flowers from in Echo Park in a week.
I keep wondering if the streets are empty because ICE took my neighbors, or are they hiding at home, worried a trip to the grocery store will be the last time anyone sees them?
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Toe to Toe.
Early on June 8th, word got out about a raid in the Fashion District. Community members and immigrant advocates stood toe to toe with federal agents who were dressed and armed for combat.
The group overwhelmed the ICE and FBI agents, forcing them to throw tear gas at the group before fleeing the area. People put their bodies in front of vans to try to stop them from leaving with the detained immigrants.
Friday’s raid set off a battle between Angelenos, masked federal agents, and local police who were gleefully following orders to protect ICE agents from the public.
On Saturday, I arrived at the heavily graffitied Metropolitan Detention Center to find a group protesting outside its driveway. Detainees from yesterday’s raids were inside, including labor leader David Huerta, who was arrested and hurt during Friday's protest outside Ambiance Apparel.
The group danced in the street to YG and Nipsy Hustle’s “Fuck Donald Trump” and Los Tigres del Norte's “Somos Más Americanos.”
Cars drove by honking, waving, or both. People shouted outside the building’s driveway.
“Free them all!”
“Free David Huerta!”
“Quit your jobs!”
Once the sun set, the garage door flew open, and the previously lurking federal agents stormed out and began firing pepper balls at fleeing demonstrators.
Then came the sounds of metal pins from deployed flash bangs hitting the ground, followed by the thunks of tear gas canisters launching into the air from CO2-powered launchers.
A tear gas canister landed at my feet and began hissing smoke. I stared at it, frozen in shock, before the burning sensation overcame my body, throat, and eyes.
I fled, blinded and choking, as more flash bangs popped next to me.
Further south, in the predominantly Latinx/Hispanic working-class neighborhood of Paramount, community members were in a street battle with federal agents whom they'd trapped in a Home Depot parking lot.
Protesters engaged in a back-and-forth late into the night with the feds and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
They took on both agencies and won, stopping ICE’s planned immigration enforcement operation from ever happening that day.
Occupied LA
What has followed over the past two weeks has been mischaracterized as a riot that has engulfed the city. It wasn't.
To Trump, it's an insurrection.
He's deployed the National Guard and Marines to protect federal buildings. Reaper drones are flying overhead, surveilling protesters. ICE and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) are pointing guns at anyone who dares to intervene on the streets.
The local police are also getting in on beating people up.
The Los Angeles Police Department, Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, and California Highway Patrol have violently cracked down on protests with a gloves-off approach, unlike I’ve ever experienced in the five years I’ve spent covering protests.
They’ve broken bones, trampled people with horses, shot people in the head with 40mm rounds, and tear-gassed kids.
It’s nowhere near their response to the George Floyd Uprising in 2020.
Their new, aggressive tactics come after the LAPD shook the city down for more money to cover training their officers not to be violent children again.
Police reforms are a graveyard for change. Their use of force and tactics isn't the result of insufficient training, but an issue with policing itself.
It's the result of police immunity from punishment and liability.
In the face of police violence, the people haven't backed down, including getting more creative in their tactics.
Outside City Hall, a group built barricades from benches and chairs in Grant Park to conceal themselves from the 600 rounds of less lethal munitions LAPD fired at them.
What's happened over the past two weeks is likely to continue.
Trump either gives up or sends in the tanks, but even that won't stop Angelenos from fighting back.
When it's your family members and people from your community being stolen in front of your eyes, what else could you do but fight?
Below are photos from June 8 - 9, 2025.
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