Los Angeles on edge as agents threaten to ‘flood the zone’ with immigration raids | US immigration

A This week was hung on Los Angeles this week after a Supreme Court decision that led federal agents to raids without guarantee and targeting people according to their skin color, accents or work.

The immigrant communities have been cope for months in the midst of raids gathering thousands of people. In July, a judge issued a temporary limitation order that prevented agents from creating a racial profile in the South and Middle California – slowed down the raids, but did not stop them.

Then on Monday, the Supreme Court set aside this order and prepared the ground for a breastfeeding action. Department of Internal Security He swore Mücü Fighting the area in Los Angeles ”.

Fear and fatigue are obvious in the immigrant neighborhoods that many of them should choose between the risk of going to work and the risk of deportation, or when they stay at home and rented. In the meantime, organizers and volunteers double their efforts to keep people safe.

On Wednesday morning, two days after the Supreme Court decision, 49 -year -old Carlos Mandonado met with a dozen man in the shadow of a flowering tree outside a home tank. It is a popular place in the immigrant Weslakee neighborhood for daily workers to find construction works. But it is also the target of raids.

Mandonado, who was from Guatemala and undocumented, was standing in an open area where he had escape options. “I am always awake. I have eyes in front of my head and behind it, Spanish said Spanish. Suddenly, a yellow Penske truck rolled into the park and sent a chill from the group. A few men retreated, laughed tense. But he recognized the Mandonado driver. It wasn’t La Migra – This time.

In August, Mandonado fled narrowly when Patrol agents used a similar Penske truck as Troy Horse to draw daily workers. Representatives exploded from the truck and chased them, arrested the 16th Mandonado managed to move away; Running just attracted their attention.

Mandonado said that immigration agents should comply with the law, but instead they target people according to their skin color. “They’re racist,” he said.

Like him, immigrant workers are prepared for a new wave of raids. However, the threat is different this time. The Green Light from the highest court comes with economic pressure to return to the workplaces that immigrants are targeted by ICE.

A report In Los Angeles, which was published by the Kira Brigade this month, he searched immigrants and found that their earnings fell by 62% when they stayed at home to avoid raids. They fell for rent and took the risk of evacuation. As a result, the report found that 71% of immigrant tenants returned to work because of the risk of release despite the risk of deportation.

Invoices, rent, car payments and foods Mandonado and the other day workers can not only stay at home. Mandonado said, “They are afraid that they will throw them if they do not pay their rents,” Mandonado said.

Mandonado has been living in the US for more than 30 years. If it is taken into custody or deported, it is separated from its mother and three adult children living in the USA.

Daily workers are aware of the risk. Imiz We must have courage, ”he said.

Volunteer groups quickly

On the sidewalk near Weslake Home Depot, he set up a two volunteer sunshine and table. The Los Angeles community, which has placed volunteers in vulnerable workplaces since mid -June, together with the self -defense coalition. Jocelyn Hernandez, a regular volunteer, watched the ice activity and distributed brochures that explain renting guards and how to define ice vehicles.

Im I grew up in this area, ”he said. “It was my motivation to see my community disintegrate, to be one of the founding members of this field.”

Particularly in a community from Central America, especially in a community, the history of US intervention opposes the raids in which people have fueled the violence that forces people to escape from their countries. His family is from Mexico and El Salvador. “The reason we migrate here is because of a civil war established by the US,” Hernandez said.

In response to the court decision, “We expect this to deteriorate significantly,” he said.

On Tuesday, 800 people, including Hernandez, attended an emergency virtual meeting organized by the National Day Worker Organization Network (Ndlon). Jose Pasadena Community Business Center Director Madera, who combines daily workers with work, opened the meeting with a breath exercise to calm someone who felt anxious.

After the meeting, Madera explained the phone that the workers hoped that the courts would protect the constitutional rights of the courts, so that they can safely return to work, school and church. “The sad truth we live in, the legal system is the failure of all of us,” he said.

Organizers ask volunteers to “adopt” the public spaces where immigrants work. Their presence can be deterrent to the raids. They can also collect video evidence of illegal actions that can be used in court and help change the public. Madera said, “All these government levels fail, but we can’t fail each other,” Madera said.

Madera believes that Los Angeles has now put the tone of other cities like Chicago under the Trump administration. “This is something Los Angeles is proud of – we show other cities how to protect themselves.”

For helping the city to protect itself, Ron Gochez, the founder of Union Del Barrio’s La section, sends trained volunteers to patrol the neighborhoods looking for ice.

On Tuesday, Gochez hosted a community education to teach volunteers to document ice activities. Thanks to the order of the July Court, he is afraid that after a stagnation in raids, another wave will push the immigrant communities to a more dangerous position.

“We feel this [the raids] Potentially they will put a lot of people on the streets, G Jochez said. People go to work knowing that they can be kidnapped and endanger their freedom. “

Immigrants around the city call Union Del Barrio to ask for help for grocery delivery or go to the hospital. The group received a call from a diary worker who needed to work because he was rented months, but he needed to work because he was very afraid to go to Home Depot. The group named the name of a business center. “But he literally one of thousands of people in the same position, G Gooz said.

Mandonado returned to Home Depot in Weslake, said he plans to return to Guatemala after his 72 -year -old mother got rid of eye surgery. He hopes that adult children who are citizens can help return to the United States through legal migration routes. He said it was a piece of land that returned home with a waterfall and fruit trees. While talking to the plants, he dreamed that the waterfall was sitting with a cup of coffee.

He wants to return home freely at a time he chooses, not through harsh detention and deportation system. Im I don’t want to leave like this, ”he said.