What To Do When You See ICE In Your Neighborhood

How can you deter the Trump administration’s immigrant deportation machine when it pops up in your community? Follow these steps.

By Justin Caffier, The Intercept

To commemorate 30 days of its Los Angeles occupation, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and its auxiliary federal forces swarmed the city’s MacArthur Park earlier this week with cavalry, gunner-mounted humvees, and lines of agents kitted out for war. Monday’s boondoggle, later revealed in a leak as “Operation Excalibur,” resulted in no known arrests. This slapdash show of force accomplished little more than shutting down a children’s summer camp and further pissing off beleaguered Angelenos. It failed, in part, because LA has spent the past month learning how to fight back.

Local news reports indicate that activists were ready. They preemptively raised the alarm with multilingual flyers, had lawyers on deck, and shouted warnings through megaphones once federal agents arrived.

During the botched raid, U.S. Border Patrol Sector Chief Gregory Bovino made it clear that the occupation is only just beginning. “Better get used to us now,” Bovino told Fox News at the scene. “Because this is going to be normal very soon. We will go anywhere, any time we want in Los Angeles.”

But in Downtown LA that evening, a coalition of community groups held their own press conference celebrating 30 days of resistance. Well aware of the impotence or unwillingness of elected leaders to meaningfully hinder the federal terrorization of the city and the complicity of local law enforcement, these groups have spent the past month — many much longer than that — organizing collective approaches to protect those without documentation. Fired up by that morning’s raid, speakers were clear-eyed about the David-vs.-Goliath fight ahead. But they were more resolved than ever to win it. As everyone there seemed to fully understand, Los Angeles is the test case for what President Donald Trump will try to get away with elsewhere. Fighting back here matters far beyond city limits.