Los Angeles: « You don’t know if you’re going to get home » – The Ice Nightmare and the City of « Refuge » for immigrants

Los Angeles has turned into lobster after the Trump government’s « declaration of war » to residents of the second largest US city who react massively and with determination to implementing its anti -immigration policy.

Hundreds of arrests have been made in the last five days while yesterday the Democratic Mayor of Los Angeles imposed prohibition In the city center in the evening.

Mass demonstrations continue, like the more limited, police episodes, while the flame seems to be spreading to other US cities with corresponding mobilizations.

At the same time, the Texas governor decided to call on the ethnicity to his city « to safeguard the order » without the respective riots.

Dangerous to be on the streets

For millions of immigrants without papers life was never easy in the US. However, with the Donald Trump government unleashing a series of aggressive raids against immigrants and calling for more than 700 US Marines to suppress the demonstrations that followed, the last few days are particularly intensified.

As a city of immigrants, the residents of Los Angeles recognize and support the work and contribution of immigrants, whether they are recorded or not

In East Hollywood, away from areas in the center of mobilization, Payo is on his bench and cooks for passers -by

He moved to Los Angeles three years ago by the State of Oaxaca in South Mexico. She has a one -year daughter in the United States.

But in the country he now calls his « home », even doing his job feels dangerous. Payo and others spoke to Al Jazeera about the climate in recent days in the area.

« I feel tension. It’s a bit dangerous even to be out here on the street, « says Payo.

However, he feels that he has no choice but to continue his work to support his daughter, as well as his family in Mexico.

« I have never felt like this during the period I live here, » he says. « When you leave your home, you don’t know if you will come back. »

They don’t go to work by fear of arrests

« The world doesn’t go out so much. They do not go to work because they are scared, « said Jose Medina, who works as a hospital cleaner and came to Los Angeles from El Salvador for the first time about 45 years ago.

He says that the city’s status as a metropolis with a large Latin American community is one of the reasons that made him go there. According to 2023 census data, Spanish are spoken to almost 40% of Los Angeles households and the city’s links with Latin America are as old as the United States themselves.

« It’s a beautiful city, a city of working people, » says Medina, noting that immigrants without paperwork often do demanding jobs such as construction, landscape design and cleaning services.

Ice agents’ raids across Los Angeles and the state in recent days are often aimed at workplaces, which enhances the sense of concern in immigrant communities. So is the militarized way of enforcing the legislation.

Invading agents and broom businesses

« What you see in the news is that they are chasing the most violent criminals, but we know that this is a lie. We see agents entering a home depot and picking up everyone, without even researching, « said Jose Madera, director of the Pasadena Community Labor Center, which offers support to workers.

« With a wage job, if you lose one day from your work, this is the rent, or this is the food on the table for your kids and family, » he added for the financial cost of staying home from work because of fear of Ice raids. « This is the decision that every employee should make on a salary and every immigrant. »

Even the rights one has in the deportation process are either ignored or violated.

The parents of a 23-year-old man deported to Mexico after his arrest on Friday told the Washington Post newspaper that he signed what he thought was a form that consent to a Covid-19 examination, but may have been a document that agreed to depart.

Sensitive locations traditionally excluded from enforcement activities for immigration, such as courts, have also been raid. Los Angeles school officials said on Monday that school safety would create perimeter seat belts around schools so that families feel safe as they monitor students’ graduates.

Marlene Marin, a hairdresser owner in East Hollywood, who has been living in the city for 35 years and comes from the capital of Peru, Lima, said that many people are afraid to get out of their home to avoid being arrested and deported.

In a speech on a military basis on Tuesday, Trump served as an inflammatory rhetoric, promising to « liberate » the city from « animals » and « a foreign enemy ».

Ice has shared on social media an image showing agents of the immigration service along with heavy armed soldiers arresting a man.

US reports now say that the forces of the National Guard are accompanied by ICE agents to arrest immigrants, as they were forced to flee in the past few days.

photos from today’s Ice Los Angeles Immigration Enforcement Operation. pic.twitter.com/FB1AGH0QCX

– US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (@icegov) June 10, 2025

The rich tradition of solidarity in Los Angeles

The story of Los Angeles is tied to anti -racist tradition and filled with examples of solidarity with immigrants. From the uprising in 1992 after the acquittal of white police who tortured Radey King to Black Lives Matter, Los Angeles has been in the forefront of discrimination.

During the 1980s, the city was a key part of the movement that provided support to refugees escaping from countries such as El Salvador and Guatemala, where military governments, with the support of the United States, were conducting brutal campaigns.

When a Roman Catholic priest named Luis Olivares offered refugees and asylum -free workers within the La Placita church near the historic center of the city, immigration officials threatened to raise the church if Olivares continued. In the end, the government did not threaten.

Mario Garcia, a professor at the University of California in Santa Barbara, who wrote a biography of Olivares’ life, says the Trump government has promoted an aggressive agenda with few comparisons in modern US history.

« Ronald Reagan in the 1980s did not include the militarization of the Ins (Immigration and Naturalization Service) in his immigration policies. It did not include the use of National Guard and Marines to suppress demonstrations in favor of undeclared immigrants and refugees from Central America, « he told Al Jazeera.

« Los Angeles has a long history of protest against unconstitutional efforts to suppress freedom of speech and mass peaceful demonstrations, » Garcia added. « As a city of immigrants, the residents of Los Angeles recognize and support the work and contribution of immigrants, whether they are recorded or not. »

With information from Al Jazeera

Source: In