DeMille Halliburton founded a running club 10 years ago to bring together residents of his South Los Angeles neighborhood.
On Saturday, he and several club members joined hundreds of other Angelenos for a different cause, the Run Against ICE, winding through the heart of the city to call for an end to raids by federal agents that have upended life for immigrants.
“We’re always trying to find a way to share how upset we are about what’s happening in the country right now, to be visible and outspoken,” said Halliburton, 61. “Enough is enough.”
Runners expressed a mix of outrage, heartache and defiance as they jogged in the hot sun for 15 miles through neighborhoods where raids have happened or that are important to immigrants, from streets lined with sidewalk vendors in Koreatown and MacArthur Park to Dodger Stadium, Chinatown, the Fashion District and the city’s historic core, a few blocks from the Metropolitan Detention Center where immigration detainees are housed.
Halliburton’s fellow running club member, Gabriel Golden, said he fears that L.A. and the nation have reached a boiling point because of the aggressive nature of the raids and what he sees as the racial profiling of Latinos like himself by federal agents identifying targets for detention and deportation.
“It’s been terrifying, and unacceptable,” said Golden, 42, a musician. “One of the first raids was by the Home Depot where I work near MacArthur Park.”
Even though he hasn’t personally been affected by the raids, Golden, a U.S. citizen who is half-Guatemalan, said he feels a duty to stand up for those who have been detained and their loved ones, to let them know they’re not alone.
Friends and colleagues have been asking how he’s doing and urging him to carry his passport wherever he goes to prove he’s a citizen —just in case. But Golden refuses to do it, out of principle.
Joggers in white “Run Against ICE” T-shirts — some waving U.S. flags, Mexican flags or banners that combined the two — headed toward MacArthur Park on their way to Echo Park and Dodger Stadium. At the Home Depot in MacArthur Park, several onlookers rose to their feet to clap, chant “Viva Mexico” and reach out to give high-fives and fist bumps.
After Dodger Stadium, the runners passed through Chinatown toward City Hall, stopping in front of the iconic building to rest again before the long stretch to the Fashion District and the canopied markets of Olympic Boulevard.
Merchants paused selling piñatas, street food and aquas frescas to take photos of the runners and cheer them on. The runners brought traffic to a halt, and motorists joined in the celebration, honking their horns in support.
The final stretch led past the detention center, which has become an almost sacred place to demonstrators who have protested and held vigil here, including the SEIU labor organizers, immigrant rights advocates and faith leaders who joined forces to plan the run.
The previous day, July 4, ICE had continued the ongoing operation that so far has rounded up more than 1,600 for deportation in Southern California.
In West Hollywood, video footage broadcast by NBC 4-LA showed ICE agents in bulletproof vests at the Santa Palm Car Wash on Friday morning. Two people who have worked at the car wash for decades were detained, two other workers told The Times.
“On a day meant to honor the ideals of liberty, democracy, and freedom from oppression, we instead confront a deeply troubling reminder of federal overreach. Independence Day should be a time for reflection and reverence, not fear and persecution,” West Hollywood officials said in a statement on the city website.
Federal agents detained a food vendor in front of a Target on Eagle Rock Boulevard on Friday, according to video shared on social media from the scene. The birria stand is a longtime, beloved staple for the Eagle Rock, Highland Park and Glassell Park neighborhoods. A GoFundMe started by the vendor’s brother raised more than $16,000 overnight to hire an attorney and support the vendor’s three children.
Also Friday, fans of the Galaxy soccer team left the stands over the owners’ lack of public support for immigrants and the team’s fans, who are majority Latino.
The Los Angeles Police Department made five arrests at anti-immigration enforcement demonstrations downtown on Friday, a department official said.
At the Saturday run, Laura Solis said she was struck by all the people who shouted “Thank you” as she, her 16-year-old daughter and other exhausted runners passed along the route.
“‘Thank you’ for what?” said Solis, 38, a Torrance resident, as she gazed toward the detention center’s imposing stone facade with slender prison windows. “Putting my body through a little bit of discomfort — it doesn’t compare to the suffering that these people inside there are going through. Wanting a better life — that’s their crime.”
Times staff writer Colleen Shalby contributed to this report.
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