Memo Torres breaks down ICE-related news in Southern California today. Below, you'll find links and references to everything discussed in the video, allowing you to take a closer look at each topic.
It’s day 55.
ICE RAIDS
July 25th:
- Agent pulls rifle on rapid-responder.
July 29th:
- Downtown L.A.: Border Patrol raided and arrested Downtown Mac, a popular tattoo artist, at his store. He is accused of spitting at an agent while Border Patrol was operating in the downtown toy district last month. He was seen paraded while wearing a white bag of mesh over his head and wearing an anti-ICE shirt by Chef Gregory Bovino, Assistant David Kim, and the agent accusing Downtown Mac of spitting on him. The raid happened in under 90 seconds.
- Downtown Union Station: ICE Out of L.A. members followed a group of agents who chased a man into the downtown Union Station. They called out the agents for racially profiling the man, to which you can see dozens of agents walk away as protesters were filming them.
- Santa Ana: Residential neighborhood operation.
July 30th:
- Highland Park: ICE is seen scouting the area of Echo St. and Ave 50
- Slauson & Western Home Depot: “Wondering around”
- Montebello: DHS spotted in a residential area. No reports of them taking anyone.
- Northridge: It looks like one man was taken.
- West Hills Home Depot: Agents seen staging in the area.
- Van Nuys: Conducting an operation at a home.
- Costa Mesa: It appears that agents pulled over someone by the DMV on 19th st and Meyer Pl.
- Costa Mesa: Garfield and Paularino. They pulled over a lady in a white car. We’re unsure if she was taken.
- San Diego: A man reverses while agents are trying to pull him from a car. He crashes, and eventually, he gets dragged to the ground.
- Pasadena: Seen staging behind the Island’s in the Hasting Ranch area.
- Long Beach: seen with rifles out in front of a strip mall.
- Downtown 8th & Grand: Spotted in the area.
OTHER NEWS
- Jose Luis Zavala, a Pomona father who was taken from his gardening job in La Mirada to the Downton Federal building last month and then transferred to El Paso, was released after almost two months and is back with his family. Initially, his wife was able to get him medication with the help of Pasadena Mayor while he was at the Downtown detention center.
- Charges dropped against Alejandro Orellano for supplying protesters with protective masks during the protests.
- LA County moves to ban masked agents. They will be working on a new law and voting on it soon.
- Supervisor Hahn conceded that it is unclear if the county will be able to enforce the law when it comes to actions by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other federal agencies. “Ultimately, it might have to be decided by a court,” she said.
- Legal scholar Erwin Chemerinsky said Tuesday that a court could have to decide if the ordinance is interfering with the ability of officers to carry out their duties.
- “The key is that it has to apply to all law enforcement. It can’t just apply to federal law enforcement,” said Chemerinsky, dean of the law school at the University of California, Berkeley.
- ICE is using the LAPD to track down immigrants for deportation.
- The case of Juarez-Basilio and several dozen others identified in federal court records shows how L.A. police are nevertheless enabling ICE to find new targets by routinely sharing fingerprints with federal law enforcement.
- Earlier this year, the Stop LAPD Spying Coalition, a prominent watchdog group, sent a letter to the city’s Police Commission warning that information collected by LAPD officers during routine pedestrian and traffic stops is flowing into massive databases — where they can be mined by immigration authorities to aid in tracking down a wanted person.
- Lulac: ICE is offering $50K bonuses and 6-figure salaries to recruit 10,000 new agents under Trump’s new $165B mass deportation plan budget. Meanwhile, EMTs, teachers, and social workers earn a fraction of that. This is how the government is choosing to “defend the homeland.”
- DHS is urging DACA recipients to self-deport
- In recent months, the administration has tried to strip 525,000 DACA recipients, also known as Dreamers, of benefits, although no regulatory changes have been made to end the program.
- For example, the Health and Human Services Department said it would make DACA recipients ineligible for the federal healthcare marketplace in June. Then last week, the Education Department said it was looking into five universities that offer financial help for DACA recipients. Also, immigration enforcement officers have arrested and detained DACA recipients throughout the country, which immigrant advocates said weakens protections of this group.
- "Illegal aliens who claim to be recipients of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) are not automatically protected from deportations," DHS assistant press secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement to NPR. "DACA does not confer any form of legal status in this country."
- "The notion that it does not provide protection is simply false," said Thomas A. Saenz, president and general counsel of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, adding that there are reasons DACA protections can be revoked from an individual, including being charged with a crime, which would make them vulnerable to deportation.
- Other lawyers point to infractions like driving under the influence of alcohol as a reason DACA and its protections can be revoked.
- In recent months, the administration has tried to strip 525,000 DACA recipients, also known as Dreamers, of benefits, although no regulatory changes have been made to end the program.
