Immigration raids continue, sparking more anxiety

Los Angeles Times

9 hours ago

Immigration raids continuted to spark anxiety and anger over the weekend across Southern California.
Armed, masked ICE agents executed a raid Saturday afternoon at a swap meet in the city of Santa Fe Springs hours before a concert was to begin, witnesses said.
The agents arrived at Santa Fe Springs Swap Meet around 3:30 p.m., according to eyewitness Howie Rezendez, who filmed armed agents hop off their vehicles and head into the venue.
'There were around 50 to 80,' Rezendez said. 'They had more than 30 cars and vans packed with agents, and three helicopters up there too.'
A concert featuring musical acts like Los Cadetes De Linares, Los Dinamicos Del Norte and La Nueva Rebelión was scheduled to begin at 5:30 p.m. But online footage from witnesses show a nearly vacant venue, a stark contrast to the large crowds the venue typically attracts.
Rezendez said the agents left around 4:30 p.m. Omar Benjamin Zaldivar, who also recorded the agents, said ICE took 'a bunch of people.'
'If you looked Hispanic in any way, they just took you,' Zaldivar said.
The number of people swept up from the raid remains unclear.
Shortly after the raid, swap meet officials postponed the concert.
'Later we will provide details,' the Instagram post said.
Swap meet officials did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The 17-acre outdoor hub first opened in 1965. Known as a hot spot for música Mexicana, the Santa Fe Springs Swap Meet hosts an outdoor concert every weekend. Other popular Latino swap meets in Los Angeles appeared similarly vacant amid the ongoing ICE raids.
The Whittier Swap Meet closed last week in preparation for possible raids.
The Whittier Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The tensions were also felt at a major soccer game Saturday evening.
Waving Mexican flags and signs criticizing President Trump, about 300 people overtook sidewalks in Inglewood on Saturday afternoon in the hours leading up to the soccer game between the Mexican and Dominican Republic national teams.
Esmeralda Sanchez, who was not attending the game at SoFi Stadium, said she came to the rally to support family members and friends who are not in the country legally.
'We are the voice that our parents and the older generation couldn't be today,' Sanchez said over the sound of horns and cheers.
The parking lot outside the stadium felt relatively subdued, with some fans making carne asada on portable grills and others waving Mexican flags.
Emilio Estrada and Ashley Ruiz from Bakersfield posed for a photo in front of the lake by the stadium, saying their parents had been fretting about their visit to L.A.
'My mom kept calling me as we drove down,' Estrada said.
Jesse Murillo of Orange County said attending the game to support the Mexican national team felt like a clear sign of protest against the federal government.
'We're not afraid to come out here and show our colors,' he said. 'No matter what, our people have always found a way to be here.'
His friend Richard Barrera said many people were afraid because so much information, and misinformation, is ricocheting around social media.
'So many people are living in fear and that seems unfair, because you see so much online and then it turns out ICE isn't there,' Barrera said.
Across the street from the stadium, Inglewood native Jorge Gomez said he had been nervous about attending any protests because of the immigration raids playing out across Southern California.
'I've been trying to be more wary, be more careful,' he said. 'I shouldn't be out here, but I am — because deep down inside is something that keeps telling me that this is wrong and I need to stand up.'
Taqueros, fruteros and other street vendors are emptying the streets of Los Angeles amid widespread immigration sweeps, fearing their own arrest and deportation.
But a Koreatown-based nonprofit recently launched a fundraiser to offset lost wages, donating to cover rent, utilities and other necessities — and allowing vendors to stay home.
'The reason they were out there, even though it's so dangerous to their safety right now,' is because the rent is so high and they have bills,' said Andreina Kniss, an organizer and longtime volunteer at Ktown for All.
'We got together and we said, 'Every day we can keep them off the streets is a day they're safer.''
Ktown for All is sourcing donations through Venmo, with account information posted to Instagram, then discreetly distributing them to dozens of street vendors to cover 30 days of rent and bills. According to Kniss, they've raised more than $50,000 in the last week.
Since its founding in 2018, Ktown for All has focused most of its efforts on advocating for Koreatown's unhoused population and distributing resources such as water, blankets, laundry kits and prepared foods. In the course of feeding this demographic, members of Ktown for All built connections with the neighborhood's street vendors.
In times of economic vendor hardship such as rainy seasons or emergencies like January's fires, the nonprofit launched a 'vendor buy-out' initiative to help sustain them. Donated funds 'buy out' food such as tamales and tacos from the vendors, then Ktown for All's volunteers distribute them to those in need.Now the nonprofit is approaching vendors in Koreatown and asking, 'What would it take to get you off the street?'
Many vendors are simply being paid without supplying food.'We're street vendors,' one donation recipient told Ktown for All. Their name was withheld to maintain anonymity.
'We're afraid to go out, and all we want is to work for our families.'
'A lot of them are in hiding with no financial support right now,' said Kniss. 'It's really nauseating having to pick [between] paying your bills or being kidnapped.'
For Kniss, the cause is personal. She was raised in a family of immigrants and farm workers on the Central Coast, and became a U.S. citizen herself five years ago. 'Having been one of those families that had lived in fear, seeing the way that our street vendors were living in terror, really struck my heart,' she said.
The nonprofit plans to fundraise for the 'vendor buy-out' until ICE leaves Los Angeles or until the money runs out, and is regularly finding new street vendors to support through its network.
The program's reach is already expanding beyond Koreatown, aiding a frutero in Echo Park, a hot dog seller in downtown and beyond.The response from the community, Kniss said, is overwhelming.
She hopes other mutual-aid organizations will 'copy' the method.'I thought the extreme 'fears' of having my family ripped apart from me as a little boy were just exaggerations,' another anonymous vendor wrote to Ktown for All.
'But now this administration [has] resurfaced those same fears and have terrorized the most genuine, kind and hard-working immigrants I've known for my entire life.'