Latino leaders in North Texas urge peace amid ICE raids and protests
Latino organizers and city leaders across the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex are speaking out against ongoing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids.
At a press conference Friday at Dallas City Hall, groups including LULAC, the American Business Immigration Coalition, and the Greater Dallas Hispanic Chamber of Commerce urged the community to keep protests peaceful.
The event addressed both Friday's anti-ICE demonstration and the "No Kings" protests planned for the weekend.
Concerns over political climate
Latino organizers and city leaders across the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex are speaking out against ongoing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids.
CBS News Texas
"There is a storm cloud right above us," said Besty Grimaldo, a student at UNT Dallas. "With the ever-changing heavy political climate that we're in right now, America is seeing the highest rate of change, both positive and negative all across the board."
Advocates said the ICE raids are terrorizing Latino communities.
LULAC President Roman Palomares criticized recent moves by President Donald Trump and Gov. Greg Abbott to deploy the National Guard, calling them politically motivated.
Criticism of military presence
"This weaponization of military force is against peaceful dissenters, and it has a very chilling effect on our communities," Palomares said. "We cannot ignore the signs of authoritarians."
LULAC also addressed a separate incident involving U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla, who was forcibly removed and handcuffed Thursday while attempting to question Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem at a press conference.
Calls for investigation into Padilla
"When a Latino lawmaker is physically silenced for asking about ICE raids, it signals that no one—not even Congress or a senator—is safe from this administration's contempt for accountability," Palomares said.
LULAC is calling for a full investigation and congressional review of the incident involving Padilla.
Protest strategy and safety
While organizers support public demonstrations, they are urging participants to remain peaceful. "Go to the march, but know what to do at the marches. Do not go against the police officers," said Hilda Duarte with LULAC.
When asked about Friday's protest, which aims to shut down Interstate 35, organizers said they do not believe blocking streets is the most effective way to deliver their message.
City leaders echo peaceful message
Dallas City Councilmember Jaime Resendez echoed the call for nonviolence.
"Peaceful protest is powerful, but violence and destruction will distract from the important issues that need to be heard," Resendez said.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Times
23 minutes ago
- New York Times
Protest Is Underrated
The first thing to know is that it was all basically willed into being — not by 'paid protesters' or the Mexican government or socialists or union leaders, but by Stephen Miller, the architect of President Trump's xenophobic immigration plan and his deputy chief of staff. In a May meeting at ICE headquarters, Miller reportedly demanded that field agents forget about targeting only those undocumented immigrants with criminal records and instead stage purposefully cruel, attention-getting sweeps in places like the parking lot of a Home Depot. That is precisely where, last Friday, those raids began. The second thing to know is that the unrest was really quite limited: a roughly five-block stretch downtown, in a city of nearly four million people spread over almost 500 square miles; several driverless Waymo robot taxis, lined up on one street and set ablaze. There was some more serious violence, too: some journalists were shot with rubber bullets and other less-lethal munitions, a few cop cars were pelted with rocks, and at least one was set on fire, but no serious law-enforcement injuries were reported. But this was not 1965, with widespread arson and 34 deaths, or 1992, with disorder spreading through whole neighborhoods and more than 60 people killed. None of that means that what began last Friday in Los Angeles — a series of spectacular ICE raids, a direct-action response to block them, large-scale peaceful protests punctuated in places by bursts of familiar violence — is insignificant. To the contrary: Hundreds of migrants and protesters have been arrested over the last week, with many of the raids conducted by ICE officers in the now-familiar uniform of masked anonymity. The National Guard was mobilized over the objection of California's governor, Gavin Newsom, and without the support of the Los Angeles Police Department's leadership, with hundreds of Marines on active duty mobilized to join them in a rare deployment of military personnel to a site of domestic unrest. On Tuesday, Trump disparaged Los Angeles as a 'trash heap' in an incendiary speech that was met with horrifying applause from assembled loyalists in the Army, and on Thursday, Senator Alex Padilla was hauled out of a local news conference being held by the secretary of homeland security, Kristi Noem. When the senator was wrestled to the floor, the secretary had just declared 'we are not going away,' but would instead stay in L.A. to 'liberate the city' from 'socialists' and its democratically elected local government. The political scientists I spoke to throughout the week used phrases like 'competitive authoritarianism,' 'acute democratic backsliding' and 'autocratic power grab.' Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
Fox News
38 minutes ago
- Fox News
Dem senator's viral outburst at DHS presser triggers mixed reactions from lawmakers: 'Disgusting situation'
House lawmakers from both sides of the aisle gave strong reactions shortly after Sen. Alex Padilla's, D-Calif., viral outburst that got him thrown out of a Department of Homeland Security press conference in Los Angeles on Thursday. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries of New York, Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Anna Paulina Luna of Florida and Jim Jordan of Ohio spoke to Fox News Digital after Padilla was escorted out of the hearing. "That was crazy," Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., said. "It's a disgusting situation," Jeffries said. Many Democrats condemned how the Secret Service handcuffed and removed Padilla from the room during the event, with some even calling on Noem to resign. Padilla and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem ended up holding a meeting afterward, which Padilla's office described as "civil," and Noem described as "cordial" despite the strong disagreements between the two. Luna, a Florida Republican, said the viral incident speaks to a larger optics issue with men in the Democratic Party. "I think optics are pretty bad for Democrat men as a whole," Luna said. "I mean, he aggressively was approaching her. Obviously, security saw that as a threat. I know after the fact, she actually was gracious enough after he pulled that to talk with him for a little bit and then exchange numbers. But the fact is that he's a sitting senator, and he's acting like a weirdo. I don't know how else to describe it, other than you should not act like that, period, and especially not show aggression like that towards women," she continued. "I think he was trying to get clickbait, but I don't know about how you were raised, but I was raised that you don't throw temper tantrums, and you certainly don't approach women like that," she continued. Jordan, an Ohio Republican, wondered why Padilla was in Los Angeles instead of Washington, D.C., as the Senate was in session on Thursday. "Well, I mean, the first thing that comes to mind is, why isn't he here voting? I – just like, the Senate's in session. I just did a press conference with senators," he said. "I know they're in session, so why is he here doing that? And then. Second, why not just wait and do your own press conference? Like, the press is there. The cameras are microphones are there. If you wait till Secretary Noem is done, and then you tell them you want to say a few things, you cover him, everyone will cover you, journalists, everyone cover him. So, to me, those are the two takeaways. Why not just do it the common-sense way instead of going in and making a scene," the Republican added. The FBI said that he was let go after he had properly identified himself, as he was not wearing his security pin when he interrupted Noem while trying to ask a question during her remarks. Padilla did state his name and was wearing a shirt that said the U.S. Senate on it. "If this is how this administration responds to a Senator with a question, you can only imagine what they're doing to farmworkers, to cooks, and to day laborers throughout California and throughout the country. We will hold this administration accountable," he said after the incident. Meanwhile, DHS slammed it as "disrespectful political theater." The press conference was focused on anti-ICE civil unrest in Los Angeles as federal immigration authorities continue arrests of illegal immigrants in the region.
Yahoo
44 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Enormous pushback: Nearly two-thirds of Americans oppose funding Trump's military parade
According to a brand new NBC News Decision Desk Poll out this morning, 64% of Americans oppose the use of government funds for the parade. Meanwhile, in very different scenes playing out across the country, organizers are staging protests in hundreds of cities and towns in what they are calling a nationwide day of defiance. The protests come during a week of heightened tensions over President Trump's immigration raids, a week that saw Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla of California forcibly removed f
