Los Angeles, California – As ICE raids erupted across Los Angeles last week, thousands of community members took peacefully to the streets to protect their neighbors against the federal government’s intensifying mass deportation ploy. Proudly carrying signs that read: “The People United Will Defend Immigrant Families” and “No Hate, No Fear, Immigrants Are Welcome Here”, a powerful coalition of LA residents mobilized to defend their neighbors and reject ICE’s nationwide terrorization. In response to the valiant display of community resistance, the federal government deployed 2,000 National Guard soldiers in a deliberate show of force, intimidation and escalation.
Anabel Mendoza, Director of Communications for United We Dream Action, said:
“For weeks, armed ICE agents have lurked outside of courthouses and school graduations to carry out its mass abduction agenda, sweeping up moms and dads while they cry out for their children, kidnapping students and elementary kids on their way to volleyball practice, and detaining leaders and activists, including SEIU-USWW President, David Huerta.
What we witnessed in LA over the weekend is proof that Americans of all backgrounds are coming together to boldly and courageously reject ICE’s cruelty. We, the people, will not stay silent nor retreat into fear as thousands of armed agents and National Guard soldiers descend onto our cities to terrorize our neighbors and loved ones. Our cities, workplaces and neighborhoods are all made stronger because of immigrants. Our nation depends on the power of everyday people, and we will all come together to defend one another.
We also know that when working people rise up and resist, the administration will do everything in its power to break us, including by unleashing the military against peaceful demonstrators as seen this weekend. Now more than ever, this moment demands working people continue to build the unbreakable people power resistance needed to protect each other. From LA to Boston, working people will continue to show up united.”
