In downtown Los Angeles on Friday, hundreds gathered as part of a nationwide protest of ongoing immigration raids that have rattled cities and communities across the country.
Labor organizers, clergy leaders and immigrant rights groups gathered at La Placita Olvera to march down to the federal detention facility where Immigration and Customs Enforcement holds detainees. They came together less than a month after a Minneapolis woman, Renee Good, was fatally shot by an ICE agent, and protests have roiled the city as raids have continued.
L.A. City Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez made an appearance and reiterated the common refrain to “abolish ICE.”
“Look at all the people around you. This is what’s going to save us from authoritarianism,” she said, addressing the hundreds that had gathered in La Placita, a historical site of Latino organizing. “I’m a council member, but the government will not save you. It’s the people that are standing arm in arm with you that are going to save our families, keep our families whole and repair the harm that the federal government is doing.”
The protest was one of several across the country as immigration raids have continued. This time, Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and CLUE, a clergy organization, came together to organize a march to the detention center.
Organizers recognized the death of Good, a 37-year-old mother of three who was shot multiple times by an ICE agent in Minneapolis on Jan. 7. She had dropped off her son at school when she came upon ICE agents during a raid.
Federal officials have defended ICE agent Jonathan Ross’ actions as self-defense and have accused Good of weaponizing her vehicle in “an act of domestic terrorism.”
Local and state officials, citing video evidence, have rejected that claim, and calls to rein in ICE have escalated as her death has resonated across the country.
Among the speakers was a fast-food worker at McDonald’s, who said she feared going to work every day last summer when ICE raids were intensifying in Los Angeles. Another fast-food worker spoke of organizing in response to the fear, and said that Minnesota’s fight was also L.A’.s fight.
“From the West Coast to the Midwest, we are united with one voice to say: ICE out,” Julieta Garcia said to big cheers.
Cesar Sandoval Cruz, a sophomore at Wilson High School, said young people today are “witnessing history before our very own eyes.”
“We are seeing as our neighbors, families, strangers and everyday hardworking people are getting kidnapped off our streets,” he said. “We are here to say that enough is enough. We are not going to stand by and watch as this is taking place in our city.”
State Sen. Sasha Renee Perez, a Democrat who represents Altadena, spoke about her efforts to pass legislation that would force ICE agents to be unmasked and identify themselves. The Trump administration is challenging it in court.
Passing legislation in this moment, she said, was not enough.
“We are going to need one another as we fight this fascist administration,” Perez said. “Direct action works. Do not let anybody tell you otherwise — the people of Minnesota are proving it right now.”
Beata Landes, 23, held a sign she wrote herself: “Keep your hands off my family.”
“So many of my friends and family members are undocumented,” she said, “and the fear is palpable.”
Landes said she drove from the Westside because it was important to share solidarity with those opposed to ICE actions.
“Being around like-minded people is hopeful and inspiring,” she added.
Despite the obvious dangers of trailing and recording ICE agents, residents have continued to show up in large crowds in Minneapolis. Videos online show residents blasting whistles as they warn neighbors that ICE agents are in the area. In Los Angeles, rapid response network groups have also continued their efforts to track agents’ movements across the city.
The interactions have at times turned violent. On Wednesday, a federal agent shot at a suspect during a raid in South L.A. The Department of Homeland Security said the agent opened fire after the suspect rammed federal law enforcement with his vehicle.
As the air filled with the scent of incense and music, L.A. resident Leneta Antoine-Wood held a sign that read “ICE out of Tovaangar,” a reference to the Indigenous people of the Los Angeles Basin. Antoine-Wood, who is part Native, said she felt it was important to advocate against the raids. She said she knows someone who is being held in the Adelanto facility outside of L.A., and conditions there are worse than a prison.
“Immigrants have more rights to be here,” she said. Her shirt reading “No one is illegal on stolen land” echoed that sentiment.
Antoine-Wood and her husband, Rob Woo, have been part of several protests against ICE and government overreach. They participated in the Standing Rock demonstration against an oil pipeline through tribal land in North Dakota.
Despite acknowledging that little may change while Trump is in office, Wood said it was important to be out there to show the strength of opposition to the administration’s actions.
“His administration doesn’t follow any of the laws,” he said, and Trump himself has “no good interest in this country.”
“Everybody’s just gotta make sure that they vote,” he said. “You gotta protest.”
As the crowd prepared to march Friday to the detention facility a few blocks away, they held a moment of silence for those who have died or gone missing while in ICE custody. People held photos of those who have died — including Johnny Noviello, a 49-year-old Canadian who died in a Miami detention facility, and Brayan Rayo-Garzon, a 27-year-old Colombian who died in Missouri.
The mood lifted as the crowd began to march south. They called for “ICE out of L.A.” and for several moments stopped traffic as they spilled into the street.
The post From Minneapolis to L.A., how Renee Good’s death reignited calls to abolish ICE appeared first on Los Angeles Times.
