Demonstrators outside Los Angeles City Hall protest against immigration raids on June 11. Photo / Joshua Lott, the Washington Post
A little more than a month after mass demonstrations against federal immigration raids gripped Los Angeles, the protest movement hasn’t stopped - it’s transforming.
Its spontaneous nature has shifted into a methodical one, as activists prepare for a longer fight against United States President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.
Volunteers are stationing themselves outside Home Depots to monitor for ICE activity targeting day labourers, and a citywide strike is planned for next month to protest against the raids.
Organisers are hosting smaller demonstrations, co-ordinating know-your-rights workshops, and passing out pamphlets to keep community members informed.
And some residents who weren’t involved before are getting involved now.
There’s strategy behind the shift.
Immigration advocates and some city leaders told the Washington Post it’s crucial to continue finding ways to express dissent as the Trump Administration continues to target Los Angeles County’s large immigrant community.
Thousands of National Guard troops, which Trump deployed to LA in an unprecedented move in June, remain in the area.
ICE continues to conduct operations, showing up last week at MacArthur Park in central Los Angeles and at two Southern California cannabis farms.
“We’re in this for at least three and a half more years,” Los Angeles City Council member Hugo Soto-Martínez (Democrat) said, describing the thought process behind the anti-ICE movement.
“What are the values that we’re leading with? What is the core messaging that we are trying to uplift? What are our demands?”
The White House in a statement said that it’s committed to removing people who are in the country illegally.
“In LA, these were not merely ‘demonstrations,’ they were riots - and attacks on federal law enforcement will never be tolerated. The Trump Administration will continue enforcing federal immigration law no matter how upset and violent left-wing rioters get,” said Abigail Jackson, a White House spokeswoman.
The protests began in June after a series of immigration raids across the greater Los Angeles area.
More than 100 people were arrested around that time, including outside a Home Depot in Paramount, a city in Los Angeles County.
Workers who witnessed the June 6 ICE operation said officers began handcuffing anyone they could grab as more than a hundred men and women standing in the parking lot began to run.
Protesters hit the streets that weekend, in demonstrations largely organised by activist groups and labour unions. They drew thousands of people but were not especially large by Los Angeles standards.
While videos circulated showing self-driving Waymo cars set ablaze and windows smashed, and Los Angeles police reported that some people threw “concrete, bottles and other objects”, the protests were mostly peaceful according to local authorities and previous reporting by the Washington Post.
Trump repeatedly condemned participants as “insurrectionists”, “looters”, and “criminals” - and ordered thousands of California National Guard troops and hundreds of active-duty Marines to the city.
During those protests and in the weeks since, Soto-Martínez, the son of two Mexican immigrants, said labour unions, non-profits and volunteer groups have banded together to defend, educate, and protect immigrant communities.
Last week, Soto-Martínez said, more than 1000 people gathered at a convention centre for a two-hour training on non-violent direct action.
Residents also conduct walks around their neighbourhoods to spot ICE agents, sign up for networks that quickly disseminate information about ICE sightings and deliver food to families who are afraid of leaving their homes.
Social media posts shared by the Los Angeles Tenants Union on July 3 showed volunteers near the Home Depot on Sunset Boulevard, the site of an ICE raid late June. While there, residents passed out flyers with information on how to report ICE sightings.
Coral Alonso, a mariachi performer, said many residents have also turned to fundraising for those impacted by the raids or gathering to protest at La Placita Olvera, a historic plaza in Los Angeles.
On Friday morning local time, immigration activists there announced a citywide strike for August 12 to rally against the ongoing federal immigration actions.
The advocacy groups, including unions SEIU 721 and United Teachers Los Angeles, urged all community members to keep protesting as part of the “Summer of Resistance”.
“We are going to stop Trump’s terror campaign against our community,” said Angelica Salas, executive director of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights. “We will not stop marching. We will not stop fighting. We will continue to appeal to the hearts and minds of all Americans.”
She said the city remains under a “military siege”.
There are about 4000 service members from the California National Guard on the ground currently in the Los Angeles area, a spokesperson for the US Army said in an email to the Washington Post.
“Title 10 forces are protecting federal personnel conducting federal functions and federal property in the greater Los Angeles area,” the spokesperson said, citing the statute that allows federal deployment of the National Guard if there is “a rebellion or danger of a rebellion” against the government.
“They can and have accompanied federal officials conducting law enforcement activities, but they do not perform law enforcement functions.”
Meanwhile, the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California, representing immigration advocacy groups such as the coalition and five workers, on July 2 sued the Department of Homeland Security in the US District Court for the central district of California.
The lawsuit alleged that the federal Government is violating Fourth and Fifth Amendment rights by “abducting individuals en masse” and holding them in a federal building in Downtown Los Angeles “which lacks beds, showers, or medical facilities”, without counsel, due process or probable cause.
ACLU lawyers delivered arguments in federal court last week, and the city of Los Angeles and several other Southern California cities are seeking to join the lawsuit.
Jackson, the White House spokeswoman, said of the lawsuit: “Enforcement operations require careful planning and execution; skills far beyond the purview or jurisdiction of any judge”.
Some magazines and content creators that hadn’t focused on immigration issues are also taking a new approach.
LA Taco, once a food and culture publication on the verge of closing, has shifted its focus to a social-media-first strategy covering ICE activity.
And after attending a few protests in June, Jared Muros, a content creator with more than 250,000 followers on Instagram, moved his content away from fashion and entertainment to emphasise video journalism about the impact of ICE raids.
Muros, who grew up in Los Angeles’ Latino-populated neighbourhoods, said he had concerns over how his audience would react to the transition, but ultimately was motivated to correct rhetoric he overheard that those detained in the raids were “just criminals”.
“I feel like more people have started to speak up, but it’s more so people who are affected or who have immigrant parents or know somebody who is Latino and has been profiled.” Muros said, “But more and more, I do see more people speaking up.”
Marie-Rose Sheinerman contributed to this report.