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ICE OFF - Five abductions of Northeast L.A. residents by armed masked agents, reportedly without a single signed warrant, on the first day of school in the new year marked a breaking point for several Eastside elected officials and community leaders.
Joined by members of East Area Progressive Democrats (EAPD), two City Councilmembers and two L.A. School Board members stepped up at a press conference on Jan. 12 and a large street protest days later, on Jan. 18, to denounce ICE, its reliance on racial profiling to target and abduct residents, and the terror its activities are inflicting on Angelenos.
The press conference took place across the street from Eagle Rock Plaza, where the Trump-friendly hardware retail chain Home Depot filed plans in August to open an eighth retail outlet within a 8-mile radius.
Ysabel Jurado
Both Councilmember Ysabel Jurado, who represents Eagle Rock and convened the press conference, and EAPD as an organization have strongly opposed any Home Depot at the site as unneeded, as undermining responsible local small businesses, and as a potential danger to area residents. They cite a pattern of complicity by Home Depot in allowing masked armed ICE agents to use its premises to stage raids that have swept up customers and several day laborers, including U.S. citizens, without lawful warrants. One such raid in Monrovia in August turned deadly when agents chased Roberto Montoya into traffic on the nearby 210 Freeway where Montoya was killed.
Jurado announced at the press conference that vehicles identified by volunteer local monitors as operated by ICE agents were seen earlier on Jan. 12 using the Eagle Rock Plaza parking lot as a convening point before or after staging raids on local residents.
The Jan. 18 protest occurred at the corner of York Blvd. and Figueroa, the site of what many area residents called the kidnapping of a school parent and food vendor by ICE agents on Jan. 12, one of the incidents that prompted the press conference. Eyewitnesses described masked agents rolling up to the scene and chasing the vendor before taking him away in one of their vehicles.
Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez, who represents Highland Park, participated in the street protest. A longtime leader for immigrant rights and against police brutality, Hernandez held a sign stating “Stop Deportations.” Hundreds joined in the boisterous, often upbeat, thoroughly peaceful demonstration.
Community resistance to ICE and the Trump Presidency runs both deep and wide across L.A. That point resonated at the press conference, including in remarks by School Board Vice President Dr. Rocío Rivas to reporters from multiple news outlets. Having led successful efforts by LAUSD to keep ICE agents out of school sites, Rivas insisted on establishing channels of accountability for agents’ conduct or risk “impunity,” even for horrifying beatings or killing of residents, such as the murder of Renee Good on Jan. 7 in Minneapolis. Rivas later took part in the street protest in Highland Park, a community she represents. L.A. School Board member Karla Griego, who represents Eagle Rock, also took part in the press conference.
Darren Gold, a Neighborhood Council member in Highland Park, spoke at the press conference. He described bystanders’ efforts, in the wake of the food vendor’s abduction, to pack up his cart and ensure its protection from thieves or confiscation. Such caretaking and custodianship by Good Samaritans of the property of neighbors targeted by hate-fueled, unconstitutional actions of the federal government echo local oral histories from January 1942.
Dr. Rocio Rivas
Eighty-four years ago this month, Executive Order 9066 provoked the brutal roundup and harsh imprisonment of Japanese Americans, many of whom lost their homes, businesses, tools of trade, and keepsakes in the hasty eviction from their communities and forced removal to prison camps with the most rudimentary provisions for survival. But a few found a small, saving grace in the kindness of friends, colleagues, neighbors, or fellow churchgoers or union members who safeguarded their homes, precious furnishings such as pianos, or belongings such as art and silverware through the bitter, four-year imprisonment.
Arlene Guzman, Hans Johnson
History does not provide do-overs. But it does provide lessons. The ongoing and overwhelming outpouring of solidarity for families of kidnapped residents and besieged immigrant communities now happening in L.A. stands in sharp contrast to the quiescence of most neighbors and bystanders here in 1942. The heart of L.A. may be broken by the lawless assaults by ICE, perpetrated using our own federal tax dollars. But the spirit of L.A. along with many of its elected officials and community leaders are rising together to meet the challenge.
(Hans Johnson is a longtime advocate for LGBTQ+ rights, environmental justice, and public education. His columns have appeared in USA Today and leading newspapers across more than 20 states. Based in Eagle Rock, he serves as president of East Area Progressive Democrats (EAPD), California’s largest grassroots Democratic club with over 1,100 members. Hans brings decades of organizing and policy experience to his work, advancing equity and accountability in local and national politics.)
