Several Los Angeles-area Fourth of July celebrations have been rescheduled or canceled altogether amid Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids.
Among them was Los Angeles County’s Gloria Molina Grand Park Summer Block Party, which was postponed to an undetermined date later this summer out of “an abundance of caution,” organizers said.
“We know this is disappointing news. We were so looking forward to celebrating with all of you at #TheParkforEveryone,” they wrote on Instagram. “Please know that your safety is our absolute first priority.”
Other postponed events include a summer movie and concert series in Rowland Heights, the city of Cudahy’s Independence Day Celebration, and a Fourth of July event in Huntington Park.
Cancellations were widespread as well. The East Los Angeles Rockin’ 4th of July celebration won’t be happening, the L.A. County Department of Parks and Recreation said. Neither will the Fourth of July Freedom Walk in Whittier’s Palm Park or the Independence Day celebration in Bell Gardens.
The El Sereno Bicentennial Committee also had to cancel its parade, which it said usually attracts more than 1,200 spectators.
“The people who participate in the parade are some of the most patriotic people you would meet,” the committee said, Los Angeles ABC affiliate KABC reported. “They believe in the promise of this land, of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.”
Many notices by organizers did not mention ICE specifically, but the context is clear: the agency’s activity in the area has prompted protests and the subsequent deployment of both the National Guard and Marines against the wishes of Gov. Gavin Newsom.
As Newsom’s lawsuit plays out in court, about 4,000 National Guard members and 700 Marines are still in the city, according to NBC News.
ICE has arrested more than 1,615 people in Los Angeles since the beginning on June, the Department of Homeland Security said.
One class-action lawsuit filed this week by the American Civil Liberties Union and others alleged “unlawful stop and arrest practices” and “illegal conditions of confinement.”
“Masked federal agents, sometimes dressed in military-style clothing, have conducted indiscriminate immigration operations, flooding street corners, bus stops, parking lots, agricultural sites, day laborer corners, and other places, setting up checkpoints, and entering businesses, interrogating residents as they are working, looking for work, or otherwise trying to go about their daily lives, and taking people away,” the suit states.
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