\n<\/p>\n
Anya was hiding.<\/span> Crouched behind the counter at a car wash in Westchester, just outside Los Angeles International Airport, she kept quiet while her co-workers scattered outside. Some ran toward the In-N-Out Burger, others behind the Ralphs. One worker drove away in the car he was detailing. \u201cLa Migra\u201d was here.<\/p>\n Federal immigration agents managed to take five of her colleagues into custody, said Anya, a Ukrainian Russian asylum-seeker <\/strong><\/a>who asked to have her name changed to protect her pending case. And less than 24 hours later \u2014 with the car wash short-staffed and shaken \u2014 plain-clothed, undercover agents surrounded the business in unmarked white SUVs.<\/p>\n \u201cYou guys came yesterday,\u201d Anya\u2019s boss said in a video of the raid reviewed by The Intercept.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cDid we get car washes?\u201d an agent joked in return. They left with two more workers in handcuffs.<\/p>\n Across Los Angeles County, ICE\u2019s operations played out differently. When combat-ready federal agents gathered in large numbers at staging areas<\/a> in Paramount and Compton on June 8, protesters swiftly mobilized<\/a> collective resistance efforts<\/a> and emergency patrols. Agents responded<\/a> to large crowds with tear gas, flash bangs, and so-called \u201cless-lethal<\/a>\u201d weapons. Organizers maintain that this grassroots mobilization sabotaged enforcement operations, putting agents on the defensive and preventing them from conducting raids for the rest of the day.<\/p>\n As ICE raids escalated across Los Angeles in early June, sending protesters into the streets and immigrant communities into hiding, the contrast between how the consequential weekend unfolded in different parts of the city was stark. Divergent outcomes in majority Latino areas further east with a long history<\/a> of organizing and those largely disconnected from grassroots support highlighted the crucial role of community-led defense in the absence of meaningful government protection.<\/p>\n Unlike Compton or Paramount, the airport-adjacent Westchester is geographically and socially isolated from more established community organizing networks. And while LA\u2019s sanctuary laws prohibit local police from working with ICE, organizers argue that the local law enforcement agencies<\/a> can\u2019t be<\/a> trusted<\/a> to keep immigrants safe.<\/p>\n \u201cWorkers need to know their rights, whether it\u2019s at the workplace or at their home, and they feel empowered to exercise those rights,\u201d said Flor Melendrez, executive director of the labor advocacy group CLEAN Carwash Worker Center<\/a>. Car wash workers, street vendors, and day laborers working in high-visibility, outdoor spaces face heightened risk for arrests as \u201ceasy targets\u201d for ICE raids, while often lacking access to critical resources and workplace protections. Organizers said more than 26 car wash workers were arrested<\/a> across at least six businesses in the set of raids began on June 6.<\/p>\n According to the owner of the car wash, agents pressured workers into answering questions like where they were born.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThey didn\u2019t read their rights or anything at all. They just took them away immediately,\u201d Anya said. She told The Intercept the second raid was over in a matter of minutes.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Miles away from<\/span> Anya,\u00a0in a predominantly Latino neighborhood east of the Los Angeles River, a middle school teacher named Ruth was on her way to her school\u2019s graduation ceremony when she noticed a group of day laborers running in her direction from the Home Depot parking lot.<\/p>\n \u201cI started taking off my heels and putting on my flats. I got my megaphone and ran out of my car,\u201d she told The Intercept. \u201cI was ready.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Abandoned food stands and belongings scattered the parking lot. Ruth confirmed with witnesses that a handful of federal agents made a brief appearance but left without making arrests.<\/p>\n Ruth, who asked to be identified only by her first name so she wouldn\u2019t be identified at school, is a member of the Community Self-Defense Coalition<\/a>, a volunteer-led group that patrols neighborhoods for ICE activity. She\u2019s trained to identify undercover agents and vehicles; document raids; collect names and contact information to notify family members; and locate the detained and connect them to resources and legal assistance.\u00a0<\/p>\n Ruth has embraced organizing as a way to defend her community when existing institutions meant to protect people instead facilitate their persecution.<\/p>\n While California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, both Democrats, have condemned the Trump administration\u2019s draconian crackdown on immigration, community organizers and local immigrant rights groups point to a discrepancy between rhetoric and reality. So-called sanctuary policies prohibit local officials from assisting with federal immigration enforcement, but observers have called these into question after seeing members of the Los Angeles Police Department cracking down on protests against ICE<\/a> and seemingly protecting federal agents during raids.<\/p>\n To Ruth and other community defense organizers, LA\u2019s sanctuary laws are a \u201cmyth.\u201d The LAPD and the sheriff\u2019s department<\/a> \u201care working with ICE,\u201d she said. \u201cThey\u2019re protecting them. They\u2019re not protecting us.\u201d<\/p>\n While the LAPD has dismissed these allegations, a senior Department of Homeland Security official credited<\/a> the increase in ICE arrests in part to \u201cenhanced cooperation from local law enforcement partners.\u201d<\/p>\n The Community Self Defense Coalition steps in to provide the protection that local law enforcement agencies won\u2019t. When Ruth encounters ICE agents, she also notifies the Rapid Response Network<\/a> hotline, which operates as an early warning system for community members to report ICE activity. If necessary, the network alerts the surrounding community so that those who are vulnerable to arrest can avoid the area, while others can mobilize in defense.<\/p>\n \u201cIf we don\u2019t stand up and organize to defend our communities,\u201d Ruth said, \u201cwho\u2019s gonna do it?\u201d<\/p>\n ICE\u2019s mass raids<\/span> across Los Angeles County have led to the arrest of at least 300 people since June 6, according to immigrants\u2019 rights groups. But immigration lawyers and rights advocates maintain that the number is likely much higher, as groups continue to gather information from witnesses and family members. The detained have seemingly disappeared into the immigration detention system, as families and immigrant rights organizations struggle to locate them.<\/p>\n The enforcement tactics on display at Anya\u2019s car wash and across Los Angeles are part of ICE\u2019s latest push to meet a steep daily quota of 3,000 arrests nationwide. Since late May, arrests have increased dramatically from an average of 600 to over 2,000 per day, according to the Department of Homeland Security.\u00a0<\/p>\n In a statement<\/a> released June 8, the Department of Homeland Security claimed that ICE has arrested the \u201cworst of the worst illegal alien criminals in Los Angeles.\u201d<\/p>\n There is little reason to believe DHS.<\/p>\n \u201cThese are warrantless arrests targeting workers with no criminal background. We have laws that protect people\u2019s rights, regardless of whether or not we\u2019re documented, and those aren\u2019t being respected,\u201d said Aquilina Soriano Versoza, executive director of the Pilipino Workers Center<\/a>, a member organization of the Rapid Response Network. ICE agents \u2014 undercover, masked, or in tactical gear<\/a> \u2014 have targeted working-class immigrants conducting raids in previously banned \u201csensitive areas<\/a>\u201d without judicial warrants. They\u2019re separating families and instilling fear, Soriano Versoza said, for political theater. People are afraid to go to work, drive their kids to school, or even seek medical care.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
\n Photo: Claudia Villalona for The Intercept<\/span>
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