cross-posted from: https://hexbear.net/post/6440808
In September, the United States Supreme Court paused a temporary restraining order intended to stop Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from terrorizing Los Angeles with roving patrols, giving ICE the green light to target people because of the color of their skin or the language they speak.
But even while the restraining order was in effect starting in July, ICE never stopped targeting day labor centers in Los Angeles. On August 8, masked men in tactical gear surrounded the Van Nuys Community Job Center, and pointed weapons at my coworkers and me. When I asked to see a warrant, I was met with cold stares and a Border Patrol agent wielding a teargas canister.
I am the executive director of the Instituto de Educación Popular del Sur de California (the Institute of Popular Education of Southern California or IDEPSCA), the largest operator of day labor (jornalero) centers in California. We run five of the seven city-contracted day labor centers in Los Angeles, including the Van Nuys Community Job Center. The City of Los Angeles funds these official day labor centers to provide direct services to day laborers, including know-your-rights trainings, health and immunization clinics, housing support, and language classes, and contracts with nonprofit organizations like IDEPSCA to operate the centers. Our day labor centers are overseen and paid for by the city, and several of our sites are on city-owned or state-owned property.
ICE has raided our day labor sites at least 14 times since June.
Just days before the raid, Mayor Karen Bass hailed a 9th circuit ruling upholding the temporary restraining order against ICE as “a great day for Los Angeles” and said that she hoped fear among immigrant communities in our city would subside.
It didn’t feel like a great day for Los Angeles when we looked down the barrels of guns pointed at us by federal agents in our workplace.
While my coworkers and I were held at gunpoint, I felt fear and rage, but not surprise. This was the 6th time ICE raided the Van Nuys Community Job Center in under three months. Just three hours earlier, my staff witnessed the same Border Patrol agents kidnap seven day laborers from the parking lot in front of the center. Over the course of that same week, three day labor centers we operate next to Home Depots were raided a total of four times.
Without the restraining order, things will only get worse. Our entire city is on edge now that ICE is receiving billions more in funding to kidnap and disappear our immigrant neighbors, thanks to congress. ICE’s budget for fiscal year 2026, which began on October 1st, is a whopping $18.7 billion.