SIGN OF THE TIMES is my favorite Prince album. It's one of his classic albums, yes, but it's so much more than that.
IMAX or not doesn't usually matter to me. But I'm going to see the concert film in IMAX.
Prince stretched on that album like no one else. He was already an incredible artist but he became even more so.
If you wanted a starting point for Prince, that's where I'd encourage you. The title track, the duet with Sheena Easton ("U Got The Look"), "I Could Never Take The Place Of Your Man," and so many more hits. And then these great deep tracks like "Forever In My Life" and "Starfish and Coffee."
It's an amazing double disc album.
If you've never heard a Prince album, that's the one you must hear.
Closing with C.I.'s "The Snapshot:"
Andry Hernández Romero, the gay Venezuelan makeup artist who was wrongfully deported to a notorious Salvadoran mega-prison earlier this year by the Trump administration, has been released and sent back to his home country.
In a Friday, July 18, statement, Immigrant Defenders Law Center (ImmDef) confirmed that Hernández Romero was one of more than 250 Venezuelan men who had been released from Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) in El Salvador and sent to Venezuela as part of a prisoner swap. The U.S. exchanged over 250 Venezuelan men the U.S. had sent to be imprisoned in El Salvador in exchange for the release of 10 U.S. citizens who had been imprisoned in Venezuela.
“We have been fighting to free Andry, our other clients, and all the men from CECOT for more than four months,” ImmDef executive director Lindsay Toczylowski said in a statement Friday. “We are incredibly relieved that it appears most of them have been freed from the torture prison the U.S. government sent them to, and potentially may be reunited with family soon. But as an American, and as a lawyer who believes deeply in the rule of law and due process, my heart remains heavy.”
“What happened here is a dangerous travesty of justice,” Toczylowski continued. “We have long known that the allegations that the men at CECOT were members of a dangerous gang were baseless. We know the Trump administration denied them due process and sent them to a prison notorious for abuse and torture. The Trump administration misled the public and our courts by claiming that the U.S. government was not in control of what happened to the men at CECOT, only to eventually -- after 125 days -- orchestrate a prisoner swap using human beings as pawns. So, while we are grateful they will not spend another night being tortured in El Salvador, we also grieve the ongoing and lasting damage being done to our democracy by an administration that is willing to violate our Constitution, U.S. asylum laws, and international law.”
Fleeing anti-gay persecution in his home country, Hernández Romero, who has no criminal history, entered the U.S. legally last year. Prior to his deportation to El Salvador, he had been pursuing an asylum claim from a detention center in San Diego, California. In May, a judge dismissed his case.
“This country has long been a beacon of hope and a safe harbor for those yearning for freedom. But the Trump administration is torching our values, using people like Andry as pawns in their quest for power,” HRC President Kelley Robinson said in a statement Saturday. “Andry will not have to lay his head down in a Salvadoran gulag tonight, and that is welcome news. But he should have never been subjected to unknown terrors in that prison, his due process rights continue to be denied, and we do not know what awaits him in the country he fled due to persecution for his sexual orientation.”
Migrants at a Miami immigration jail were shackled with their hands tied behind their backs and made to kneel to eat food from styrofoam plates “like dogs”, according to a report published on Monday into conditions at three overcrowded south Florida facilities.
The incident at the downtown federal detention center is one of a succession of alleged abuses at lails operated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency (Ice) n the state since January, chronicled by the advocacy groups Human Rights Watch, Americans for Immigrant Justice, and Sanctuary of the South from interviews with detainees.
Dozens of men had been packed into a holding cell for hours, the report said, and denied lunch until about 7pm. They remained shackled with the food on chairs in front of them.
“We had to eat like animals,” one detainee named Pedro said.
Degrading treatment by guards is commonplace in all three jails, the groups say. At the Krome North service processing center in west Miami, female detainees were made to use toilets in full view of men being held there, and were denied access to gender-appropriate care, showers or adequate food.
The jail was so far beyond capacity, some transferring detainees reported, that they were held for more than 24 hours in a bus in the parking lot. Men and women were confined together, and unshackled only when they needed to use the single toilet, which quickly became clogged.
“The bus became disgusting. It was the type of toilet in which normally people only urinate but because we were on the bus for so long, and we were not permitted to leave it, others defecated in the toilet,” one man said.
“Because of this, the whole bus smelled strongly of feces.”
When the group was finally admitted into the facility, they said, many spent up to 12 days crammed into a frigid intake room they christened la hielera – the ice box – with no bedding or warm clothing, sleeping instead on the cold concrete floor.
Newly published video provides insights into the immigration arrest of a chiropractor outside of his child’s Beaverton school.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement stopped Mahdi Khanbabazadeh, 38, while he was driving his child to Guidepost Montessori school on July 15.
The arrest marked the first confirmed immigration enforcement action outside of an Oregon school. Until earlier this year, federal policy prohibited immigration officials from making arrests near certain locations such as schools, houses of worship and hospitals.
OPB obtained edited video clips showing the arrest from Khanbabazadeh’s family. OPB authenticated the footage before publishing it and is using Khanbabazadeh’s name with his family’s permission.
One video from inside the vehicle blurred the faces of Khanbabazadeh and his child, who was in the backseat. It was recorded at 8:17 a.m., according to a timestamp on the video.
“Daddy, police!” the child said from a carseat as officers told the man to roll his window down further.
“Yeah, that’s police,” Khanbabazadeh replied as he retrieved his identification for the officers.
“Where are you headed?” one of the ICE officers asked.
“Day care,” Khanbabazadeh replied.
In another clip from the same video, recorded around 8:32 a.m., the father implores the officers to delay their arrest.
“There is a baby in the car,” Khanbabazadeh said. “Is it hard to wait for three minutes?”
A clip taken from the same dashboard camera shows ICE officers smashing the driver’s side window of the car after the child has left the vehicle. Khanbabazadeh tells the officers he is getting out.
This is not acceptable. This is not right. But this is what Chump is turning the country into. The man was going through the process of getting a green card. On the day he was terrorized and kidnapped, he was dropping his child off at the school. There is no excuse for this.
Nor is their any excuse for immigrants dying in US government custody. Another has. Laura Strickler and Patrick Smith (NBC NEWS) report:
An investigation is underway after a Vietnamese national died in the hospital on Saturday while in Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody, according to an email seen by NBC News.
Tien Xuan Phan, 55, had been in custody at the ICE Processing Center in Karnes County, Texas, for seven weeks. A representative for the family did not respond to a request for comment.
According to the ICE email, Phan was taken to the local hospital, Otto Kaiser Memorial Hospital, on Friday for "evaluation due to seizures, vomiting, and unresponsiveness and was later airlifted to the Methodist Hospital Northeast for further evaluation."
[. . .]
So far this year, eight detainees have died while in ICE custody, according to the agency's own figures, including one other from Vietnam. The rest were from Mexico, Haiti, Colombia, Ukraine, Ethiopia, Honduras and Guyana.
President Donald Trump’s deployment of 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 Marines to Los Angeles to support federal immigration raids has triggered growing disaffection among sections of the US military.
As of this writing, some 2,000 National Guard soldiers and Marines remain deployed throughout Southern California in support of the mass deportation operation.
The domestic deployment has not sat well
with many soldiers, as indicated by a marked increase in calls to the GI
Rights Hotline, a non-profit, non-governmental organization that
provides support for people in the military.
“They don’t want to deport their uncle or their wife or their brother-in-law,” explained counselor Steve Woolford.
In an interview with NBC, Woolford explained that the hotline typically receives 200 calls a month, around seven a day. However, Woolford said, this past Sunday alone it received 50 calls, with a majority from soldiers and their family members following the National Guard deployment to Los Angeles.
One soldier told the hotline, “I joined to defend my country … but No. 1 is family, and this is actually a threat to my family.” Some now agonize over the legality of their mission, fearful that they are being used for a cause they abhor.
Troops and their families have expressed the view that they did not sign up to suppress domestic protests or serve as pawns in a political conflict.
Would you want to be doing that job? No. And it's not what US troops signed up for. Matthew Chapman reports:
Troops in the California National Guard are speaking out to The New York Times about their loss of confidence in the mission President Donald Trump called them up for.
Trump deployed the Guard to Los Angeles to crack down on protests against ICE deportation sweeps in the city, and later deployed the Marines as well. A federal judge initially blocked the move after the California government sued, but an appeals court allowed it to move forward.
"Six members of the Guard — including infantrymen, officers and two officials in leadership roles — spoke of low morale and deep concern that the deployment may hurt recruitment for the state-based military force for years to come," reported Shawn Hubler, shielding their identities to protect them against military rules prohibiting discussing active deployment. "All but one of the six expressed reservations about the deployment."
Many of the members "said they had raised objections themselves or knew someone who objected, either because they did not want to be involved in immigration crackdowns or felt the Trump administration had put them on the streets for what they described as a 'fake mission,'" the report continued.
“The moral injuries of this operation, I think, will be enduring. This is not what the military of our country was designed to do, at all,” one member of the Guard told The Times.
Chump is debasing our military by attempting to make them carry out his illegal attacks on immigrants. If you missed it, ICE numbers are not what they need to be. Arrests? No, employment. Chump's begging recent retirees to return to the work force as he tries to quickly add 10,000 ICE agents to the existing force. And that's why he's leaning on -- and abusing -- the US military. America's Voice notes the recent ICE assaults on service members, veterans and their families:
- US. citizen and Army veteran detained for three days after CA immigration raid. As Reuters highlights, George Retes said “U.S. officials arrested him during an immigration raid last week and held him for three days without explanation … he was manhandled by federal agents who broke his car window, damaged his vehicle and sprayed him with tear gas during the raid last Thursday … ‘It doesn’t matter if you’re an immigrant, it doesn’t matter the color of your skin. … No one deserves to be treated this way,’ Retes said. ‘I hope this never happens to anyone ever again.’”
- National Guard troops questioning their deployment to Los Angeles and newfound role in immigration. A New York Times article, “Trump’s National Guard Troops Are Questioning Their Mission in L.A.,” notes, “The level of public and private scorn appears to have taken a toll on the National Guard deployment to Los Angeles that President Trump announced last month, citing protests over immigration raids. Interviews with nearly two dozen people — including soldiers and officers as well as officials and civilians who have worked closely with the troops — show that many members of the Guard are questioning the mission. The deployment’s initial orders to quell scattered protests have given way to legally disputed assignments backing up federal immigration agents … Six members of the Guard — including infantrymen, officers and two officials in leadership roles — spoke of low morale and deep concern that the deployment may hurt recruitment for the state-based military force for years to come.”
- Military.com story: “Father of 3 Marines Who Was Beaten by ICE Agents Released, Leaving Family to Process His Detention,” notes, “A father of three Marines who was beaten and detained by immigration agents while landscaping outside of an IHOP in California last month was released from federal custody Tuesday after having spent more than three weeks in an Immigration and Customs Enforcement center … The son, 25-year-old Marine veteran Alejandro Barranco, told Military.com after the arrest that he initially “couldn’t believe” the video depicting his father being repeatedly punched in the head by federal agents as they pinned him to the ground … After his release, [the father] Narciso told his son that he went without water for 14 hours and that plumbing in the facility’s restrooms caused toilets to flood over. His father also spoke with others in the detention center, ‘innocent people in there who are going through the same things he did,’ Alejandro said. ‘It’s not fair, because they don’t deserve that.’”
- Administration trying to normalize domestic military deployments focused on immigration and border issues: In a KJZZ (Arizona NPR) story, “A swath of Arizona-Mexico border will become a designated military zone. Here’s what that means,” law professor and retired Lt. Col. in the U.S. Army JAG Corps Dan Maurer said, “Whether it’s the desert along the border, or whether it’s the city streets in LA, or at a detention center in Florida, the administration is conditioning the public to see this as a normal thing,” [referring to domestic military deployments in immigration/border matters] … By putting these installations along the border — where we didn’t have installations before — they’ve militarized the border to such an extent that that is now like Fort Hood, Texas, or Fort Bragg, North Carolina.”
Also being targeted are immigrants who were being thanked for their assistance to US troops during the Afghan War and the Iraq War. Sayed Naser is one such person. And we've covered him here many times. Joey Safchik (NBC7) reported in June:
Just over two weeks after Sayed Naser was taken into Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody, the Afghan national was placed into expedited removal Thursday night, meaning Naser's case was dismissed by a judge.
Expedited removal is a tactic the Trump administration is using to speed up deportations.
A video of Naser being detained outside a San Diego immigration courtroom went viral, wracking up millions of views on social media, playing out on television and catching the attention of congressmembers. In the video, Naser tells the officers handcuffing him that he aided U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
NBC 7 has reviewed documents that support Naser's claims and has spoken to experts who say they are credible. However, the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement, "There is nothing in his immigration records indicating that he assisted the U.S. government in any capacity. All of his claims will be heard by a judge. Any Afghan who fears persecution is able to request asylum.”
Madeleine May and Hannah Marr (CBS NEWS) have quoted #AfghanEvac's executive director Shawn VanDiver stating, "A bureaucratic technically just stripped a wartime ally of his legal protections and fast-tracked him for deportation. Sayed stood with U.S. forces in combat. Now he faces removal without a lawyer, without a hearing and possibly without a country. This isn't just cruel, it's cowardly." June 19th, NPR's MORNING EDITION reported on Sayed's arrest:
QUIL LAWRENCE, BYLINE: The scene of ICE agents arresting immigrants at courthouses has become common in the past few months, but this one played out a bit differently last week in San Diego.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED ICE AGENT #1: Yeah, yeah, go ahead. We're going to take him.
LAWRENCE: Bystanders filmed as Sayed Naser was approached by two masked ICE agents after a routine immigration hearing. They don't show a warrant, and they don't even seem to be sure they have the right person.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED ICE AGENT #2: What's your name?
LAWRENCE: As they handcuff him, he starts to tell the onlookers that he's a former interpreter for the U.S. Army.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
SAYED NASER: I worked with the U.S. military back in my home country, Afghanistan.
LAWRENCE: Sayed Naser asked to withhold his family name because he fears for their safety in Afghanistan. And that's the whole point, says his lawyer, Brian McGoldrick.
BRIAN MCGOLDRICK: He spent three years working with the U.S. military at great risk to himself. And they've already killed part of his family.
LAWRENCE: Sayed Naser fled Afghanistan after the Taliban showed up at a family wedding and killed one of his brothers. He made a journey from Afghanistan to Brazil and then, sometimes on foot, traveled north to the U.S. border, where he was admitted legally last year. But McGoldrick says ICE agents took none of that under consideration.
MCGOLDRICK: Was all about filling their quota of 3,000 a day. They didn't care that, you know, he was really our ally. I don't think anybody took the time to even go through that.
LAWRENCE: ICE confirmed to NPR that Sayed Naser is in custody but didn't answer other questions. Sarah Verardo is with the advocacy group Save Our Allies. Her husband, Mike, was severely wounded in Afghanistan. In fact, President Trump hosted the Verardos at the White House just this April to honor that. But Sarah Verardo says seeing Afghans like Sayed Naser arrested is another wound.
SARAH VERARDO: And so much of the moral injury that we see among veterans now has really resurfaced with these issues of how we've abandoned our Afghan allies. And the Trump administration has an opportunity, while they do pursue strong immigration reform, to also say that as a nation, we stand with those who stood with us.
That's outrageous. But that's just one example. Mona Mahadevan (NEW HAVEN INDEPENDENT) reported last week on another:
Federal immigration officials on Wednesday seized an Afghan immigrant — a father of five and former interpreter for the U.S. military — outside a U.S. Citizen and Immigration Services (USCIS) office, following a routine appointment related to his green card application.
The arrest of Zia S., 35, took place in East Hartford.
Residents of a New Haven suburb, Zia, his wife, and their five children moved to Connecticut last year with help from New Haven’s Integrated Refugee & Immigrant Services (IRIS).
They had fled Afghanistan after the Taliban takeover in 2021, fearing that Zia’s work with U.S. forces made them targets for retribution.
Zia and his family arrived in the U.S. in October 2024 after receiving two-year humanitarian parole and one-time “boarding foils” from the U.S. embassy in Islamabad, allowing them to legally enter the country through JFK Airport. Once in the country, their Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) applications were approved, granting all seven family members a pathway to permanent residency.
The family had received support from the New Haven-based Integrated Refugee and Immigrant Services, or IRIS.
“I can't even imagine being in their shoes right now. And then the fear that they must have if he can be picked up like this what about the rest of the family? What about others?” Maggie Mitchell Salem, of IRIS, said.
IRIS saic there are hundreds of people – potentially thousands, including families – who have resettled in Connecticut from Afghanistan.
And they are concerned about how many others might be in jeopardy after a Trump administrative order takes a closer look at those who have entered the country since January 2021.
Zia "is terrified about a future in Afghanistan under the Taliban," [his attorney Lauren] Petersen said Wednesday while driving to Plymouth to meet with her client. When she spoke to him on the phone earlier, "he said, 'Kill me here in the U.S. Don't send me back to Afghanistan,'" she said.
"He was just totally shaken. He told me he hasn't slept since he got there," Petersen said. "It is so surprising and so upsetting ... I don't think in all his interpreting for U.S. troops he was ever surrounded by guys in masks and shoved into a van."
Donald Chump is giving the US an ugly name around the world. He is a disgrace and a War Criminal. Mark Rivera, Barb Markoff, Christine Tressel and Tom Jones (ABC7) report:
A new lawsuit is accusing the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Department of Justice (DOJ) of colluding to "intentionally strip people of basic due process rights," by arresting individuals appearing for their hearings in immigration court.
The news comes after the ABC7 I-Team recently reported on two former immigration judges who fear that during President Donald Trump's second administration, the immigration court system is being tossed aside in favor of expedited deportations.
This week, the I-Team interviewed the former head of Chicago's immigration court who confirmed she and other assistant chief judges across the country were given new guidance from the Justice Department that relaxed the standards for dismissing cases in immigration court for noncitizens. Once those cases were dismissed, the judge said ICE agents were waiting in the court to re-arrest those people.
I hate to be the one to make the call but I believe due process is already dead at this point unless the courts take real action.
In a press release, the National Immigrant Justice Center notes:
“We are witnessing an authoritarian takeover of the U.S. immigration court system by the Trump administration,” said Keren Zwick, director of litigation at NIJC. “People who attend their hearings to seek permission to remain in this country and comply with U.S. immigration law are being rounded up and abruptly ripped from their families, homes, and livelihoods. Meanwhile, the administration is issuing directives telling immigration judges to violate those same immigration laws and strip people of fundamental due process rights. We must continue fighting to overcome the administration’s escalating attacks on the U.S. Constitution and rule of law.”
“The Trump administration has cast an unconscionably wide net to ensnare people and families who attend immigration court hearings in compliance with their legal obligations, only to face life-threatening imprisonment, swift removal, and the prospect of indefinite family separation,” said Faisal Al-Juburi, chief external affairs officer at RAICES. “The egregious and unprecedented coordination amongst government agencies that we are witnessing not only inflicts irreparable harm upon infants and adults alike for seeking refuge in the United States but also establishes a chilling precedent in which law and order are abandoned in favor of stoking widespread panic and fear — leaving the entire American public at risk, regardless of immigration status.”
“The Trump-Vance administration is weaponizing immigration courts by threatening people who follow the law and appear for their hearings as directed by the court. This unlawful scheme will chill participation in the legal process and violates the fundamental principles of due process and fairness that underpin our legal system,” said Skye Perryman, president and CEO of Democracy Forward. “People seeking refuge, safety, or relief should not be arrested, detained, and deported without a chance to be heard and given due process. We are in court to defend the rule of law, stop this abuse of power, and ensure that justice and not political agendas guide the immigration system.”
“These directives forsake any notion of immigration courts as a neutral forum, weaponizing them into a trap for immigrants who show up in reliance on the American promise of a fair process before a judge, only to be met instead with handcuffs and shunted into a fast-track deportation process controlled by ICE agents,” said Jordan Wells, Senior Staff Attorney at LCCRSF.
“Our friends, neighbors, and families are told to ‘do it the right way’ — to follow the legal process. They’re doing just that — showing up to court, complying with the law. Despite this, they’re being arrested and detained,” said Priyanka Gandhi, interim CEO for Immigrant ARC. “This isn’t justice. It’s a deliberate attempt to intimidate and disappear people before they can be heard. We’re defending the integrity of the legal system, protecting every person’s right to due process, and holding the Trump administration accountable for their deeply harmful practices aimed at the most vulnerable communities.”
“Our immigration courts should be places where people can seek justice and protection — not be ambushed and arrested simply for showing up. The Trump administration has created a dangerous climate of fear that undermines both due process and the integrity of the legal system,” said Edna Yang, co-executive director of American Gateways. “We are forced to challenge these unconstitutional practices and defend the right to be heard, fairly and safely, in a court of law.”
Read the Immigrant ARC et al. v. Department of Justice et al. complaint:
Lives are being destroyed. People who are not criminals are being kidnapped and beaten. Luis Leon is only one example. Kelly Rissman (INDEPENDENT) reports he was granted political asylum by the US government back in 1987. The 82-year-old man did not have his Green Card on him, he'd lost it and he was going to his local Philadelphia immigration office to get a new copy when he was kidnapped by ICE agents last month. His family thought he was dead. They heard nothing. Now they have heard -- Chump threw him on a plan and shipped him to Guatemala -- Luis Leon is from Chile.
These aren't criminals, not the people being kidnapped. Those doing the kidnapping are criminals. Sandra Fish, Taylor Dolven and Andrew Graham (WYOFILE) report:
Immigration arrests have quadrupled in Colorado and almost tripled in Wyoming since President Donald Trump took office in January with a significant shift in who is being targeted, new data from the federal government shows.
Most people arrested by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents between Jan. 20 and June 26 of this year in Colorado and Wyoming did not have any criminal convictions, according to ICE data released over the last few weeks. Among those arrested who had a conviction at the time of their arrest, the most serious crime is most often noted by ICE as drunken driving in both Colorado and Wyoming, the data shows.
The data, obtained from ICE and published by the Deportation Data Project, is the most detailed, publicly available picture of who is being swept up by ICE’s dragnet arrest tactics in the two Western states this year. The University of California, Berkeley School of Law, which is behind the project, published the data, and The Colorado Sun and WyoFile analyzed arrests made under the jurisdiction of ICE’s Denver field office, which covers both states.
The ICE arrest data contradicts the purported goals of the Trump administration to target the “worst of the worst.” Increasingly, ICE is arresting immigrants with no criminal history, the data shows. Advocates who work with immigrant communities said the tactics, which include arresting people who appear for their immigration court proceedings, are unlike anything they’ve seen before.
Laura Lunn, director of advocacy and litigation at Rocky Mountain Immigrant Advocacy Network, said in her 15 years of working with immigrants, she has never seen ICE arrest people with pending asylum cases and no criminal history. Now, she said, that is common in Colorado.
“People are being picked up from their homes, workplaces, people are being picked up as they’re walking their dogs,” she said. “This is ruthless and I’ve never seen anything like it before.”
Chump's acting like the High Chancellor in V FOR VENDETTA. and
A crowd of more than 50 community organizers and Philly residents gathered outside the Juanita Kidd Stout Center for Criminal Justice on Friday morning for a rally in response to an arrest by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents earlier this week.
The arrest on Wednesday was conducted by plainclothes ICE agents working, who worked with Philadelphia police to detain a man exiting the building.
A recording of the arrest shared by immigrant advocacy nonprofit Juntos shows ICE agents tackle the community member to the ground as they exit the courthouse. Despite requests from onlookers to identify themselves and provide a warrant, at no point in the video do ICE officers do either.
[. . .]
Guadalupe Nunez was joined in speaking at the Friday protest by Elena Emelchin Brunner, an immigrant rights organizer with Asian Americans United, and Lenore Ramos, an organizer with Juntos, as well as the ICE Watch volunteer who witnessed the Wednesday arrest, who preferred to remain anonymous.
Ramos was noticeably choked up during her speech, where she described what she has witnessed while acting as Juntos’ Community Defense Organizer.
“I sit on one side of a plastic screen, unable to offer a hug or even a handshake, and I watch as ICE employees bring them in and out of their cages. It makes me physically ill every time,” Ramos said. “Over a decade ago, Philadelphia declared itself a sanctuary city … And yet, while we experience the expansion of fascism in our city, our city is not standing behind our immigrant communities. Instead, it’s stepping all over them.”
Media attention largely focused on Downtown Los Angeles during the height of immigration and National Guard enforcement in June, but local officials and advocates are sounding the alarm about the increased presence of federal immigration agents threatening communities and businesses nearly 30 miles north.
Community members in the San Fernando Valley are rallying together to defend against rising immigration enforcement in their neighborhoods following weeks of tense protests across the county.
LA City Councilmember Imelda Padilla, who represents the San Fernando Valley’s high-Latino and immigrant neighborhoods of Panorama City, Van Nuys, Sun Valley and North Hollywood, said ICE is conducting raids in the area at local shops, food trucks, parks and gathering spaces.
“These raids, which began and were elevated in greater Los Angeles, are now hitting closer to home,” Padilla said in an Instagram video.
On July 5, local advocates reported that at least seven people, including street vendors, were taken by ICE from a Home Depot in Van Nuys. That following Tuesday, the San Fernando Valley rapid response team reported that ICE took seven more people from the same location, the third time the site was targeted, organizers said. A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security confirmed with LA Public Press that 13 people, including two who were previously deported, were arrested at the Van Nuys Home Depot during two morning operations.
In mid-June, the valley experienced a slew of raids targeting Home Depot, Lowe’s and Costco in the Pacoima neighborhood — one of the first high-profile enforcement actions to hit the region. At least 10 people were taken by ICE, according to LA City Councilwoman Monica Rodriguez, who represents neighborhoods including Mission Hills and Sylmar. A woman who sold tamales for more than a decade near Lowe’s was forcefully shoved to the ground and suffered a heart attack, the San Fernando Valley Sun reported on June 19.
The recent enforcement actions and social media reports of ICE agents staging operations at Van Nuys Airport have left these northeast neighborhoods on edge. In late June, Padilla called on Los Angeles World Airports to present an oral report to the city council about federal activity in the area.
“The Valley is different now,” Maria Flores, co-founder of mutual aid organization Amor Al Valle 818, said. “You don’t see people at the bus stops anymore. You don’t see your street vendors. And that makes me sad because that is not how our community looks like.” Flores said she’s spotted abandoned ice cream carts on the street, and she has helped vendors pack up their stands following reports of federal agents nearby.
Founded about a year ago in Pacoima by Flores and her brother Daniel Flores, Amor Al Valle 818 aims to “create community within our own community,” Daniel Flores said. Joining with other local collectives, they have organized free markets stocked with donations of diapers, clothing, shoes and hygiene products. Volunteers help check reports of ICE activity and amplify community warnings.
The coalition is also helping with grocery runs and ensuring families get the exact ingredients they need, “whether it is frijoles pintos versus frijoles negros, we want to make sure that they’re not going out to the streets,” Maria Flores said. In early July, Amor Al Valle 818 and other neighborhood organizations raised over $1,000 to buyout local vendors.
The siblings run Amor Al Valle 818 on the side in addition to their full-time jobs. They accept donations on Venmo, and they are seeking volunteers.
What a wonderful coalition and what a wonderful service. What Maria and Daniel Flores are is leaders and inspirers. And what they're doing can duplicated in communities across the country. Can and should be.
We need to do more.
We need to ask more as Allegra Love (SOURCE NM) points out:
To prepare to write this column, I finally watched the viral video of an ICE agent tasing a a man in an Albuquerque Walmart. As Source’s Patrick Lohmann reported, the man was Deivi Jose Molina-Pena, 33, whose friends and family say arrived in the United States legally under Temporary Protected Status about two years ago from Venezuela.
Watching videos of police violence has never been my thing, so as the 20-second clip ran, I found my eyes focusing on the other officer on the scene, a balaclava covering her face, who seemed intent on protecting a shelf of cheap blenders nearby from falling over, even while the victim, Mr. Molina Peña, collapsed and slammed his head on the tiled floor.
ICE’s spokespeople will tell us that their actions like this one– tasing an unarmed man in a shopping center– occur for our protection. They will tell us about non-citizens who are drug traffickers or, worse, sex traffickers. They will say some non-citizens are members of gangs like Tren de Aragua. They will tell us that any immigrant’s existence in our community is the real threat and that we are safer from drugs and sexual exploitation and gangs only if every last non-citizen is punished. We are meant to shrug and see a violent tasing in a public market as important collateral damage for the mission of Making America Safe Again.
