Activists and community members unite for immigrant rights in Boyle Heights
A month after the Trump administration rescinded the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, Los Angeles activists are continuing to press for greater protection for all undocumented immigrants.
Dafne, a DACA recipient and recent graduate of the University of Florida, has battled fear and stress since the program was cancelled.
“It’s really scary. At any moment, the [authorities] could come take my mom,” Dafne said. “Or they could change their minds and rescind my work permit and deport me.”
With Dafne’s and thousands of DACA recipients’ fates left uncertain, grassroots political groups are working to amplify the dialogue about immigrant rights.
March and Rally Los Angeles (MRLA) is one such group, which held a “Fight for ALL 11 Million” rally at Hollenbeck Park in Boyle Heights. The event featured speakers from local organizations like Centro Community Service Organization and the Defend Movement. It also attracted dozens of participants for whom the issue of immigration is deeply personal.
“I’ve lived my whole life knowing somebody [in my family] could get taken away and I wouldn’t see them anymore,” said Melina Rodriguez, an activist with ANSWER (Act Now to Stop War & End Racism) Coalition.
One of the rally organizers’ main goals is to freeze relations between the Los Angeles Police Department and U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Although Gov. Jerry Brown named California a “sanctuary state,” which restricts state and local agencies from helping immigration enforcement, some organizers with March and Rally Los Angeles, like Maro Kakoussian, believe more needs to be done.
Currently, LAPD follows Special Order 40, a police mandate that bans officers from questioning people to determine their immigration status.
Kakoussian worries that Special Order 40 won’t be effective if there are more crackdowns on undocumented immigrants. In late September, ICE arrested nearly 500 undocumented immigrants in a nationwide sweep of sanctuary cities. ICE says most of those arrested had criminal records, but that does not mean undocumented immigrants who don’t have criminal records won’t be arrested.
In June, Thomas Homan, the acting director of the ICE, told CNN that undocumented immigrants “should be worried.”
In a statement released earlier this month, Homan criticized California’s sanctuary state bill.
“ICE will have no choice but to conduct at-large arrests in local neighborhoods and at worksites, which will inevitably result in additional collateral arrests,” he said.
March and Rally Los Angeles hopes Saturday’s rally will put pressure on the LAPD. The organization wants further legislative guarantees that LAPD won’t collaborate with ICE to deport undocumented immigrants.
“We want ICE out of LA, out of the state of California,” Kakoussian said. “[We want them] to stop working with local law enforcement.”
For Dafne, immigration isn’t simply a political issue. It’s it’s a matter of survival.
“Nobody wants to leave everything they have and go to a different country where they might not know the language, or have a system of support,” said Dafne. “They do that because they need to.”
