{"id":243,"date":"2026-06-01T18:09:42","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T18:09:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/smartmovinghome.com\/?p=243"},"modified":"2026-06-01T18:09:42","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T18:09:42","slug":"a-year-after-beating-back-trumps-first-ice-surge-los-angeles-remains-vigilant","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smartmovinghome.com\/?p=243","title":{"rendered":"A Year After Beating Back Trump\u2019s First ICE Surge, Los Angeles Remains Vigilant"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Read more US Boat Bombing Campaign Surpasses 200 Deaths After Latest Strike<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

One year after the Trump administration deployed thousands of federal agents to Los Angeles to arrest and detain people, immigrant rights activists are cautiously optimistic about the success of their organizing efforts. Although arrests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in Southern California have dramatically dropped, organizers expect them to ramp up again in the future.<\/p>\n

On June 6, 2025, multiple raids by ICE agents across the greater LA area sowed terror and chaos, resulting in dozens of arrests and spirited protests. Those raids marked the start of a campaign that lasted many months and included showdowns and violent arrests at garment factories and car washes, Home Depot parking lots and swap meets, outside schools and inside courthouses.<\/p>\n

As fear spread across the sprawling metropolis, LA\u2019s streets emptied and the characteristic bustle of summer activities came to a near standstill. For graduating seniors and their families, the timing couldn\u2019t have been worse. With many first- and second-generation immigrants becoming the first in their families to graduate high school or university, their planned celebrations turned into grim affairs with low turnout.<\/p>\n

Office workers, janitors, lawyers, and tourists stayed away from downtown LA, which is home to several federal immigration offices and courthouses. Instead, regular showdowns between protesters, police, and National Guards ensued, amid building walls and sidewalks festooned with anti-ICE graffiti.<\/p>\n

According to Human Rights Watch, the June 2025 LA raids \u201cset the stage for similar and subsequent abuses in cities around the country.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today, the streets of downtown LA are scrubbed clean, the graffiti painted over. Office workers and tourists jostle for parking spots, and ICE agents are scarce. At a May Day 2026 gathering outside LA City Hall, a young man named Richie who has been active with the Community Self-Defense Coalition explained that ICE agents are less visible now \u201cbecause we ran them out. They still try to be clandestine, but we ran them out.\u201d Still, Angelinos remain on high alert. Richie added, \u201cWe see them, and we let the community know, and the community knows what to do.\u201d<\/p>\n

What the activist was referring to was the painstaking work that immigrant rights activists like him did to counter last year\u2019s ICE raids. \u201cWe just let them know that we are exercising our First Amendment right to freely assemble, and to let them know that they\u2019re not welcome, that they\u2019re invaders,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

In early 2025, as Donald Trump took office for the second time, local organizations anticipated ICE raids. They mobilized their members and spent months preparing. Dozens of groups convened under the banner of the Community Self-Defense Coalition in February 2025, and trained hundreds of volunteers in the art of safely and effectively confronting ICE agents.<\/p>\n

In June, when ICE unleashed its might, Community Self-Defense Coalition volunteers immediately began patrolling neighborhoods, confronting agents with bull horns, warning undocumented people to stay indoors, and calling on their documented neighbors to join the solidarity actions. They studied ICE operations and adjusted their responses accordingly.<\/p>\n

According to community activist and high school history teacher Ron Gochez, ICE\u2019s initial approach was to go \u201clooking for individuals by names and pictures of their faces and going to homes or work sites.\u201d But residents were ready, armed with \u201cKnow Your Rights\u201d cards and the understanding that no matter how aggressive federal agents were, they had the right to refuse them entry.<\/p>\n

ICE agents then pivoted to what Gochez called \u201ckidnappings\u201d or \u201csnatch and grabs.\u201d \u201cWe were a little more successful stopping those,\u201d said Gochez. \u201cAs they see that our tactics are working, they change theirs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although ICE arrested more than 14,000 people in the LA area in all of 2025 \u2014 more than double the previous year \u2014 Gochez pointed out that it was a small fraction of the city\u2019s undocumented population and disproportionately less than other cities facing ICE raids. Gochez, whose organization Uni\u00f3n del Barrio is one of the groups leading LA\u2019s Community Self-Defense Coalition, says \u201cin Minneapolis, when they did their operation there, when they killed Renee Good and Alex Pretti, in six weeks they took 4,000 people.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Further, Gochez explained, \u201cjust for context, the neighborhood where I live and work, South Central LA, has a bigger population than all of Minneapolis, and just the undocumented population in LA proper is larger than the entire population of Minneapolis.\u201d<\/p>\n

Federal agents \u201cspent probably half a billion dollars and a year\u2019s worth of operations in LA to basically net about 1 percent of the undocumented population,\u201d explained Gochez.<\/p>\n

Nearly a year later, ICE raids in Los Angeles have markedly tapered in comparison to the previous year. Between January and April 2026, ICE arrests across the Los Angeles area numbered at only 2,612. And it\u2019s not just LA. Across the country, ICE arrests have slowed down dramatically. According to Gochez, part of the decrease in activity has been due to funding challenges in Washington, D.C. with the 2026 federal government shutdown.<\/p>\n

But ICE agents have also changed their tactics in response to widespread grassroots opposition, becoming less visible. \u201cThey\u2019re still trying to kidnap people,\u201d said Richie. \u201cJust because the media doesn\u2019t catch it, doesn\u2019t mean it\u2019s not happening.\u201d<\/p>\n

Today, ICE agents are targeting immigrants where activists can\u2019t gather en masse \u2014 outside court houses. Prior to the second Trump administration, so-called sensitive locations such as schools, churches, and court houses were protected from immigration enforcement. But in January 2025, the Department of Homeland Security rescinded those protections. This has placed immigrants who are fearful of deportation in a difficult situation. It is critical to attend court hearings, as failure to show up results in automatic deportation.<\/p>\n

Uni\u00f3n Del Barrio receives phone calls from people experiencing or witnessing arrests outside immigration courts on a near daily basis. \u201cWhile we legally cannot recommend for people to not go to their court cases or court hearings,\u201d said Gochez, \u201cwhat we can tell them is to never go alone. Make sure you take an attorney, and\/or at least community members or community organizations.\u201d<\/p>\n

For individuals whose entire family may be undocumented, taking a \u201csafety in numbers\u201d approach can be tricky. To mitigate this, the Community Self-Defense Coalition has organized an \u201caccompaniment committee\u201d whose members accompany people to court hearings. In case ICE agents are present and make an arrest, those coalition members can immediately alert the victim\u2019s family members. In some instances, activists also coordinate with people patrolling outside court houses to keep tabs on potential ICE activity. \u201cIt\u2019s not ideal, but we think it\u2019s better than nothing,\u201d said Gochez. \u201cAnd it\u2019s made a difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fear of ICE arrests has left an indelible mark on the city. According to the Los Angeles Times<\/em>,<\/em> retail centers frequented by Latinos are still seeing far less activity than before. \u201cBusiness is down for many merchants, and attendance has fallen at community events such as job fairs and holiday celebrations.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although most anti-ICE graffiti across LA has been washed off or painted over, there continues to be physical evidence of widespread anti-ICE sentiment. News media have spotted creative signs with messages like \u201cNo ICE, Please Get a Real Job\u201d or \u201cICE Stole Someone Here.\u201d City authorities have also posted hundreds of official signs across LA warning against the use of public property to stage immigration enforcement operations.<\/p>\n

Activists in the city of Highland Park, located just north of downtown LA, are considering installing an air raid siren to warn of ICE raids. And, as LA gets ready to host the World Cup soccer tournament this summer, thousands of union workers who staff the SoFi stadium are threatening to strike if the international soccer authority FIFA doesn\u2019t demand that ICE agents stay away from the games.<\/p>\n

If the continued expansion of ICE detention centers in California is any indication, ICE raids are still likely to ramp up once more. \u201cWe know that they\u2019ve hired thousands of more agents, and they\u2019ve bought all those crazy warehouses and turned them into their concentration camps,\u201d said Gochez. \u201cSo, we anticipate a second round of repression, and we\u2019ve been training people in our efforts to beef up our ranks to be able to defend the community once that happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read more Colombia\u2019s Presidential Election Could Reshape Relations With Trump Administration<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The city\u2019s activists painstakingly countered last year\u2019s ICE raids but still anticipate further rounds of repression.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":242,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-243","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-interesting"],"yoast_head":"\nA Year After Beating Back Trump\u2019s First ICE Surge, Los Angeles Remains Vigilant - Smart Moving Home<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/smartmovinghome.com\/?p=243\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Year After Beating Back Trump\u2019s First ICE Surge, Los Angeles Remains Vigilant - 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