All Articles
How L.A.’s Playbook Can Guide Chicago’s Fight Against ICE
With ICE terrorizing Chicago, independent media outlets The Triibe, Unraveled Press and The Chicago Reader joined forces to report on their activities in the city and suburbs. We spoke with them about the lessons and strategies they learned from media in L.A. and D.C. for their coverage.
DAILY MEMO: First Confirmed Death in NY Under ICE Custody Brings New Death Toll to 19
On day 106 of immigration raids, a man was taken in Oxnard while reports in Highland Park, Rancho Cucamonga, Costa Mesa, and Cypress Park led to either false alarms or no confirmed detentions. Meanwhile, nationwide developments included the death of a man in ICE custody in New York, new lawsuits challenging raids and courthouse arrests, protests met with teargas outside a Chicago-area ICE facility, an appeals court ordering the deportation of Atlanta journalist Mario Guevara, and controversy over Florida Atlantic University’s secretive ICE partnership.
OaxaCalifornia Resists Through Mezcal: L.A.’s Zapoteco Leaders Turn Rare Agaves Into Acts of Defiant Joy
No mass-market mezcales here; instead, small-batch agave masterpieces from maestros who've guarded ancestral recipes across generations, sipped alongside tlayudas and live danzón to remind everyone that resistance sometimes tastes like nuanced earth and wild honey.
DAILY MEMO: Federal Agents Have Now Killed 18 People
Border Patrol and ICE may have been slowed down by rains and vigilant rapid responders today, but they were still spotted scouting in different areas like Highland and Cypress Parks. Meanwhile, broader developments include California winning a temporary pause against Trump’s public benefits restrictions, LA County halting food vendor crackdowns due to safety concerns, growing outrage over ICE deaths, solitary confinement, and body-cam failures, and new USCIS naturalization test changes raising concerns over immigrant access to citizenship.
Revisiting SE7EN’s Urban Dystopia through Photos, 30 Years Later
Here's how the crew behind the psychological horror thriller hid the L.A. sun and palm trees to create a neo-noir masterpiece.
How Did Texas Get a Taco-Dispensing ATM Before L.A.?
We're just mad we didn't think of it first.
DAILY MEMO: Rapid Responders Foil ICE Raid Again at The Same Car Wash Targeted a Third Time This Week
On day 104 of raids, federal immigration agents carried out operations across Southern California, taking people from car washes, apartments, and public spaces in Santa Ana, Anaheim, Los Angeles, Orange, Oxnard, Santa Barbara, West Covina, Jurupa Valley, Lake Forest, Santa Maria, San Luis Obispo, Pasadena, Rancho Cucamonga, and San Jacinto. Meanwhile, ICE badly injured the Van Nuys Car Wash owner during a raid, an immigration judge ordered the deportation of pro-Palestinian activist Mahmoud Khalil, another longtime resident with three Marine sons faces deportation after a violent arrest, and L.A. County paused food vendor enforcement due to safety concerns tied to ICE activity.
The Complicated Relationship Between Chicano Identity and Mexican Cultural Appropriation
Not all Chicanos appropriate Mexican Culture, but they're more at risk of slipping into it. Beyond the social media apology lies a deeper betrayal: how the journey of huaraches and mezcal from symbols of poverty to luxury items reveals our own community's internalized anti-Indigeneity.
DAILY MEMO: Agents Raid Mexican Consulate on Mexico’s Independence Day and More
Federal immigration agents were spotted across Southern California, where multiple people were detained, and rapid response patrols deterred some operations. In other news, Border Patrol expanded to Chicago, L.A. County approved $30 million in rent relief for victims of fire and ICE, Senate Democrats raised concerns about the Pentagon sending military lawyers as temporary immigration judges, and California lawmakers advanced SB 627, the “No Vigilantes Act,” to ban extreme masking by law enforcement.
DAILY MEMO: Car Wash Workers With Legal Status Have Their Papers Thrown Out by Agents Who Arrest First, Verify Later
Over the weekend, ICE raids spread from Wilmington and Long Beach to Santa Ana, Downey, and Panorama City, with incidents of agents pointing rifles, rejecting legal documents, and detaining workers at car washes and Home Depots. Meanwhile, immigrant communities reeled from the death of deported mother Estela Ramos Baten, the abduction of a Chicago day laborer suing police, and mounting controversy over Trump’s shifting immigration policies at home and abroad.
