The mad scramble to track ICE raids across L.A. County

Giovanni Garcia climbed to a dusty junction on the Southern Gate and studied the stage. It was quiet, only the people walking home from work, but Garcia was among the few people who had recently witnessed one of the federal raids in Los Angeles County recently.

Just a few minutes ago, several Instagram accounts warned that white vans with green US customs and border protection signs near the intersection.

This was the sixth day when the 28 -year -old Garcia spent up to 10 hours by following such warnings through the immigrant heavy neighborhoods of the 28 -year -old Garcia, with friends loading on the White Grand Cherokee and a large Mexican flag flying from Sunroof.

Garcia’s goal, which was fueled by sodes and snacks in a Northgate market, said that it was to capture migration and customs inventions or other immigration agents in the action of detention people on the street.

So far, it has been a fruitless chase.

Garcia, a Mexican US citizen living in the Southern Center, said, orum I have been doing this for six days. It sucks because I took these warnings, but I never do it in time. ”

Monitoring of ice activity has become a terrible entertainment for some Angelenos. In order to create a fever of information created by the user, which is not confirmed about federal movements and operations, Citizen, Nextdoor, X and other platforms have been dedicated to the purpose of the purpose.

Trying to keep up in real time can be equally exhausting and annoying. The reports sometimes turn out to be wrong, and the immigrant practitioners seem to hit and move with a rapid sensitivity and leave the opportunity to respond publicly.

It is impossible to determine how many people deal with this Sisyphean Chase. However, they have become a common view in recent days because anger has grown in response to viral videos of fast and violent concerns. A Times correspondent and photographer crossed the southern half of La County and met Garcia and other icy chases in the quest for hot federal agents, one step ahead.

According to the US census, Garcia’s Instagram Feed has emerged in the afternoon of Thursday in the afternoon: Ice agents, a city of about 90,000 people of the South Gate and more than 40% of foreign -born city, were detected. So Garcia put SUV in gear and accelerated.

He and his crew was late again. They came about 15 minutes after the witnesses said that the migratory agents on their green bullet -proof vests and their faces jumped from vehicles, handcuffed and took a man selling flowers in front of a farm -style house for years.

Orum I keep doing this because they’re dealing with my people, Gar Garcia said. “It is no longer about migration. Trump no longer targets criminals; he aims to hispanics.”

It was one of the raids in South La in recent days in houses, parks and enterprises ranging from car wash to grocery stores.

People whispered in the events caught in the photos and videos where the audience ran online: South Gate Park took off from a different crowd for a noticeable reason. Another was handcuffed on the sidewalk outside a Ross clothing store in Bell Gardens. Two men in Rosemead broke out of the parking lot of a furnace.

Workers in a fashion Nova clothing warehouse in Vernon told Times that the ice trucks were detected in the region and they heard that they planned to confront the employees during a shift change.

Nobody was safe for the federal execution effort from the elderly to children.

35 -year -old Jasmyn Vasillio said that he first raided a car washing at the southern gate of ice agents on social media, and then saw an article about the concern of the flower seller.

“I knew that the flower man was always there, and I live nearby, so I drove it right away,” he said, standing in the corner he stopped 20 minutes ago. “I think they just take people and leave.”

Manolo, who is doing a candle -making job in Vernon, said, ım I am another disappointed person who wants to see an end to this. We are not all guilty. ”

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

A 20 -year -old Latino, who refused to give his name to retaliation, said he did everything he could to raise awareness what he was doing in the southern gate neighborhood of immigration executive agents.

According to his tasks on Instagram, “I’m a US citizen, so I’m fine. I’m worried about other people. I’m worried about other people.

“They are here to work and tear separately from their families,” he said. “Sad. They came here for the American dream and that’s what happened.”

Young people Emmanuel Segu and Jessy Villa, shifting on social media last week, and aggressively detained people who appeared to be apparently eternal video flow, he said. They felt helpless in the face of printing, so they planned a protest in the heart of their communities.

On Thursday, they went to Atlantic Boulevard and Firestone Boulevard on the Southern Gate, where Villa shook a flagpole with both American and Mexican flags. More than 30 protesters participated in them, who told them slogans and told them to preventive posters. The drivers received support as they passed.

The 14 -year -old Jessy Villa protested the last ice raids in Southland on Atlantic Boulevard and the Firestone Boulevard on the South Gate.

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

Segura, a 15-year-old southern gate, said, “This is a little frightening. They take anyone at this point. I saw that the ice went to the car wash and took two people. And they are not hardworking people.” “So we planned to oppose the protest Ice, Trump and its administration.”

The 14 -year -old Villa lives in Lynwood nearby, he says that everyone he knows here is afraid or cared that he will be the next person in the ice raid.

Villa said, “The streets are empty. Nobody wants to go out. And children do not want to go to school, especially children who migrate here,” he said. “They are afraid of going to school in the morning and worrying that they will come home and find out that their parents are deported.”

Manolo, five miles away in Vernon, loaded candle boxes behind a black SUV on the loading pier of the candle -making business as its employees. He said that he followed the news and rumors of online raids and that the fear and response of the protests were destructive for the company and other small businesses.

“Everyone is worried about it, Man Manolo said at the beginning of that day how ICE heard ICE raided two gates. The company received a zero order call on Thursday morning, usually received from 50 to 60 a day. Migrant raids and protests were not injured by the end of the month, he said he might have to close his job.

Family members of STG Logistics employees are waiting to hear where their relatives are after an ice raid at the company’s facility in Compton.

(Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)

33 years ago, the US citizen moved to the United States from Guatemala Manolo, “all these people on the street on the street – hold on the street with handcuffs, traumatized you, why? Of course it makes me angry,” he said.

“And this is not just that, it affects people’s lives. It affects the economy, law enforcement officers. It affects your daily routine. When will it end?”