Los Angeles is leading the way in resisting Trump’s mass deportations
On Jan. 20, during President Donald Trump’s inauguration, more than 2,000 people and 20-plus grassroots organizations gathered in Los Angeles to protest the administration’s immigration policies and promises of mass deportations. Waving flags of Latin American countries, chanting “Si Se Puede” and holding signs that denounce ICE and Trump, hundreds marched from Mariachi Plaza in Boyle Heights, California, to the federal Metropolitan Detention Center downtown where many detained by ICE are held. They joined over 60 community organizations such as Black Lives Matter LA and the Palestinian Youth Movement in protest.
Since Inauguration Day, those in Los Angeles, particularly East L.A. and Boyle Heights, have held several rallies and protests nearly every day against ICE and in support of the undocumented community.
“People want an end to the deportations,” said Gabriel Quiroz Jr., an organizer with Centro CSO who helped organize the Inauguration Day protest. “They’re seeing ICE in their neighborhoods. They’re hearing reports about ICE activity. There’s a lot of fear. But then there are a lot of people that are gonna stand up and fight back against this. They’re not gonna take this quietly.”
Quiroz said that while Central CSO and other community organizations in Boyle Heights and East LA have been leading activism efforts, there have also been a lot of spontaneous protests of people in the community showing up to gather and wave flags downtown. Quiroz has led and attended multiple protests since Trump’s inauguration, including student-led walkouts. As a community organizer, Quiroz has helped guide the youth protesting. He provided them with a megaphone and a banner that said “Lucha Contra Trump.”
Following the inauguration, there have been several walkouts of high school students from their schools in protest of the Trump administration and ICE raids, particularly in East LA and Boyle Heights, which are areas that are over 90 percent Latino.
“People are out there for their parents, out there for their grandparents, or they’re out there for themselves,” Quiroz said. “Even if we’re documented ourselves, our parents probably aren’t, our grandparents probably aren’t, so we know that we are not removed from that struggle. It’s important for us to be out there.”
Carlos Montes, a member of the Centro CSO, who was also a participant in the East LA walkouts in 1968 — a student-led uprising over 50 years ago in which thousands of Latinos in the area walked out of their schools to demand equal treatment — also helped organize the inauguration protest, attended several others and guided the students in their walkouts.
Montes said he is “thrilled and exhilarated that the young generation has taken the initiative to come out and say no to deportations and the Trump attacks. I think it’s awesome that the students are continuing the traditional tactic of the walkouts that we popularized in ‘68.”
Leilani Mercardo’s daughter, a sophomore at Garfield High School in East LA, participated in the student walkouts against ICE. Once Mercado heard about the walkouts, she joined her daughter and the two protested in Downtown Los Angeles together.
“I was actually very happy and proud of her,” Mercado said. “It brings me peace to know that she’s aware of her surroundings. She’s not going to abide by ignorance and ignore what’s going on around her, so it was kind of a bittersweet moment, definitely an opportunity for us to bond.”
Mercado said she has been to three of the protests, one on the inauguration and two that followed. She said it is important for her to participate because it helps her feel like she is being part of the change by being outside and outspoken.
Having grown up in East LA and raising a daughter there, Mercado feels strongly for her community. She said that the protests are bittersweet because “it’s unfortunate that the rights of undocumented people and our families are being violated, but at the same time, I felt like we were doing something about it together.”
“It’s very close and dear to my heart,” Mercado said. “I come from a family of immigrants. I think that almost everybody in this community does. We’re all affected on some level, and ultimately this is against the human rights that our people deserve.”
Mercado said that she saw a lot of signs during these protests, but one that resonated with her the most was one that said “Don’t bite the hands that feed you.” She said her grandfather, uncle and cousins were farm workers, so that sign meant a lot to her. Another sign she said was memorable to her was one that read “Education, not deportation” because she has many close friends that are on Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, which allows children brought to the U.S. to go to school and work without threat of deportation.
She said that immigrants and undocumented people are often misrepresented and dehumanized in the media, and she hopes the protests will change the perception of the false narratives that are against them.
“They’re good people,” Mercado said. “They’re good humans, and aside from them having a significant contribution in the community and family values and respect for the land, they also do contribute financially with their work, their labor and good morals.”
Quiroz said that the protests were filled with youth, families and community members in Los Angeles, many waving flags from Latin American countries and dancing to traditional Mexican songs like “La Chona,” and supporting street vendors selling candies and ice cream.
“You got young kids, everybody dancing to music, waving flags, using the ‘Si Se Puede’ chants, ‘Pueblo Unido’ chants,” Quiroz said. “It’s pretty cool, because these are chants their parents … and their grandparents were probably using decades ago. It is beautiful — that Latino resistance.”
At protests organized by Centro CSO, they have had community members, advocates and elected officials speak out about why it is important to fight Trump and support the undocumented community. They also had a “know your rights” workshop built into a play put on for the community, which ended in ICE agents being defeated because the community knew their rights.
Quiroz said that he has noticed an increase in police and ICE presence in the community since Trump’s inauguration. He said that he has heard reports of unmarked cars passing by residential areas and markets. Even at the protests, Quiroz said they faced a lot of police repression. At one of the protests, police showed up in riot gear, broke up the crowds with their batons and fired projectile weapons. Some people were detained at the protests, though no one was charged. As someone who is experienced with protests, Quiroz was able to help manage.
“In that situation, I think that having been organizing and being activists for a couple years now, our leadership is very needed,” Quiroz said. “So I think it was great for us to be there in that situation, because we kept people from getting arrested, getting themselves hurt, because you can’t be protesting here if you’re in jail and you’re hurt.”
Quiroz said that grassroots organizations will continue to take the lead and work alongside the community to push the protests forward. He said the protests are building on Los Angeles’ rich history of Chicano activism, which includes the East LA Walkouts for equal education and the March 2006 student walkouts in support of immigrant rights.
In mid-February, over 60 community organizations in Los Angeles formed the Community Self-Defense Coalition, which is committed to patrolling neighborhoods and spotting ICE. Quiroz said that they have been informed on how to spot ICE, verify reports of ICE activity and inform the community of their activity. He said they are also careful not to spread fear, but to spread knowledge.
Mercado said that there have been people creating platforms for others who want to participate and want to help. She said many in the community are also continuing to promote events and donating their time, money or supplies in support of the protests to ensure a safe environment.
“If people don’t actually step foot on the ground, go outside, hold a sign and get the attention of bystanders or the media, nothing gets done,” Mercado said. “Attention is attracted by holding signs and being vocal about what it is we want, and it encourages other people to do the same. Then they come to realize that we’re all affected by this. It just unifies everyone.”
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