Inside the neighborhood patrols watching for Ice: ‘They thought they could scare us – but this is LA'
He awoke before daybreak, taking the day off from his public health job to drive here in the dark. Romero is part of a coalition of trained volunteers called Unión del Barrio, who patrol the barrios, or neighbourhoods, to look for immigration enforcement, 'La Migra'. When they spot Ice activity, they post videos that go viral, alerting people to seek shelter.
Since June, Unión del Barrio volunteers have been patrolling Terminal Island, where they say federal immigration agents have been staging enforcement operations. Agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice), Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and other agencies arrive here early in the morning, Romero said, before being dispatched to conduct raids across southern California. 'They're clocking in to go kidnap people. They see us, they flip us off.'
By arriving early at Terminal Island, the volunteers have a strong vantage point to alert their larger network about which vehicles are leaving the staging area – sending photos that show the make, model, color and plate number. This enables immigrant communities to be on the lookout for these vehicles. For instance, Romero said they had seen the same large white van on Terminal Island that was also involved in a violent raid at a cannabis farm in Ventura county. More than 200 people were arrested and one man died.
The patrol's work is personal for Romero, who is from the farming community of Oxnard in Ventura county. His parents are fieldworkers who are Indigenous people from Mexico – his dad is Tepehuan and his mom is Guachichil. Romero, who wore an army green Unión del Barrio T-shirt on this July morning, joined the group 30 years ago.
The Los Angeles patrols date back to 1992, after the riots that erupted when officers were acquitted of brutally beating Rodney King, and in recent months they have emerged as a beacon of resistance as California becomes a frontline for raids against immigrant communities. The mass arrests reached a violent crescendo in June, when agents in military-style clothing grabbed people with brown skin off the streets of Los Angeles, dragging them into vans and locking them in detention facilities.
On 11 July, a judge issued a temporary restraining order restricting agents from arresting people based on race or occupation anywhere in the central district of California, a federal court that serves over 19 million people in southern and central California. The order slowed arrests in Los Angeles, but didn't stop them. And immigration enforcement received a windfall this month of $75bn from Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act, noted Romero.
'We're tripling down on our patrols,' he said. 'The whole order was to end racial profiling … But the restraining order doesn't say stop the deportation and detention.
'That will never stop,' he added. 'It's a multibillion-dollar industry that needs to keep going.'
'The city is under siege'
Life for immigrants in the US has become more precarious since Donald Trump took office and declared an emergency at the US-Mexico border, paving the way for raids in the 100-mile border zone, including Los Angeles. But few were prepared for just how dire things have become.
In June, federal agents wearing mirrored glasses and ski masks swept through Home Depots, car washes and street vendor stands. They approached people with brown skin in the barrios, demanding to see IDs and asking where they were from. They tackled people and dragged them into unmarked vans. According to a lawsuit filed by the ACLU, agents typically had no warrants or prior information about the people they arrested – they approached them based on skin color or occupation.
Keli Reynolds, a Los Angeles immigration attorney and founding partner of Olmos & Reynolds, has worked immigration cases under five administrations stretching back to George W Bush. 'I've never seen it like this, and I've been practicing for 20 years,' she said. 'The city is under siege. People are terrified.' She noted that none of her clients who were detained since the siege began in June had criminal records.
'They were detaining people, tackling them, and there was absolutely no reasonable suspicion,' she said. 'They were sweeping areas and detaining, I would say, almost 100% Latinos, anybody with brown skin.'
In her 11 July order, the judge agreed with the ACLU that there was 'a mountain of evidence' to support the allegations. But she acknowledged that the federal government is allowed to carry out large-scale immigration enforcement in Los Angeles. The order essentially tells Ice to follow the constitution, Reynolds said.
The White House denies that agents have targeted people based on skin color. On 18 July, in response to a reporter's question, Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary called it a 'false narrative that has been put out there in the media'. She scolded the reporter: 'Don't you dare ever say that again.'
Ice agents appear to have shifted their strategy since the order, Reynolds said. They are now picking people up outside their homes while claiming to have warrants, whether or not they actually produce one.
Reynolds said in one case in LA county, her client was detained by agents who did not identify themselves. 'They told her they had a warrant but they didn't show her a warrant. And she even asked to see a warrant, and they said they didn't have to show it to her,' she said.
In another incident reported by LA Taco, agents tried to arrest a woman at her Huntington Park home, but the community confronted them and demanded a warrant.
Federal agents continue to target Home Depots, but now it's happening outside of the central district, Romero said. On 22 July, Unión del Barrio posted a video showing Ice agents detaining two workers at a Home Depot in Encinitas, outside of the zone protected by the order.
'We're not backing down'
Los Angeles has not returned to normal. The barrios remain cautiously quiet. Street vendors have returned to the sidewalks, although in smaller numbers. People check social media for Ice activity before running errands.
'We're treating it like a ceasefire,' said Ron Gochez, founder of Unión del Barrio's Los Angeles chapter. 'During a ceasefire, you have to regroup your forces, because you know it's going to start again.'
The group's patrols are a model for the larger Community Self-Defense Coalition, which holds training sessions to teach people to document Ice activity. Unión del Barrio is using this time to train more volunteers. Gochez estimated they had trained 750 people since the court order.
Gochez is skeptical that the Trump administration, which has routinely defied the courts, will continue respecting the order. 'We don't anticipate the Trump administration respecting this if it doesn't go his way,' Gochez said. 'What we anticipate is three and a half more years of repression against us.'
The raids are part of a 500-year anti-colonial struggle, Gochez said. 'We know we're going to take losses, but in the end, we're going to win.'
Back on Terminal Island at around 7.30am, a black four-by-four truck with a federal plate pulled up and a man stepped out, watching the volunteers. Romero believed they were being surveilled.
In June, Unión del Barrio found itself in the crosshairs of the administration. Josh Hawley, a Trump ally and chair of the Senate subcommittee on crime and counter-terrorism, sent a letter accusing them of 'aiding and abetting criminal conduct' and providing 'logistical and financial resources' in relation to the resistance protests. Unión del Barrio rejected the allegations, noting that protesters were responding to 'a rapidly growing number of intentionally cruel, increasingly violent, militarized immigration operations across the United States'.
'They were asking us to voluntarily cease and desist,' said Romero. 'We were like: 'We're going to voluntarily tell you no.''
As he spoke, Romero was interrupted by the thrumming of an LAPD helicopter overhead – a familiar sound in the Los Angeles barrios. It flew over the group several times.
Romero views the city as a frontline. 'Los Angeles is the most heavily populated urban center of Mexicans north of the border,' he said. 'If they're able to crush the LA resistance, that means they're going to be able to do it anywhere else. That's why LA as a frontline has been a critical space to show that the community is organized, and we're not backing down.'
He feels proud of the city for providing an example of how communities across the country can resist raids. 'They really thought they were going to come in and scare everyone into their corners, but this is LA – and LA is resisting.'
Solve the daily Crossword
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Forbes
30 minutes ago
- Forbes
When A Middle America City Goes Dark From A Cyberattack
On the morning of August 19, 2025, residents of Middletown, Ohio, a quiet Midwestern city of 50,000 people, arrived at City Hall expecting business as usual. Instead they walked into a surreal and almost dystopian scene. A father hoping to secure a birth certificate for his newborn son was turned away at the health department window. Citizens lining up to pay taxes or utility bills were told the systems were down. Even the police department's non-emergency line went silent. 'Man, everything closed down,' one resident said. In that moment the routines of Middle America collided with the dark reality of modern cybercrime. This was not a global capital or a Wall Street bank. It was a community in the heartland suddenly brought to its knees by a cyberattack that crippled essential municipal services, a scenario more fitting for a thriller like Leave the World Behind than for an Ohio city on a summer morning. City leaders called it a 'cybersecurity incident.' Residents called it chaos. A City Crippled Overnight The disruption was sweeping. In-person services at the City Building were suspended indefinitely. That included the police records division, the utility billing office, the income tax department, and the health department. Parents seeking birth certificates were redirected to other counties. Taxpayers could not settle bills in person. Residents were left wondering whether their personal information such as tax records, utility accounts, or court files had been stolen. Emergency dispatch and court proceedings continued but the outage was glaring. Routine communication with city offices collapsed as phone lines and email systems went down. In a press release officials confirmed a cybersecurity breach but offered little more, citing the sensitivity of the investigation. 'Please be patient as the city navigates this unfortunate situation,' they wrote. For ordinary citizens patience was hard to come by. As one resident warned, 'That means that a lot of people's information is gone. Somebody's got their hands on it.' Anatomy Of The Attack Though officials have not confirmed the details, all signs point to ransomware. The sudden blackout of city systems, the suspension of services, and the cautious statements from officials are consistent with the pattern. These attacks typically begin with a breach through phishing emails, weak passwords, or unpatched vulnerabilities. Once inside, attackers encrypt servers and demand payment for the keys to unlock them. Increasingly they also steal sensitive data first and threaten to release it unless their demands are met. Whether Middletown has received such a ransom demand is still unclear. Officials have not acknowledged one and law enforcement is almost certainly advising silence while investigators work. The motive is predictable. This bears all the hallmarks of a likely cash grab. Why Cities Are Soft Targets Municipalities across the United States have become prime prey for ransomware gangs. In 2024 Bucks County, Pennsylvania saw its 911 dispatch crippled by ransomware. Schools, hospitals, and county offices across Ohio have been taken offline by similar incidents. Liberty Township, just miles from Middletown, endured weeks of disruption when a ransomware attack took down its systems. The reasons are structural. City governments often run on outdated IT infrastructure. Cybersecurity budgets are thin, staffing is limited, and retaining expert talent is difficult. Cybersecurity spending rarely ranks as a political priority until disaster strikes. Criminals know this. They also know that municipalities manage highly sensitive citizen data while providing services that people depend on daily. That combination creates enormous leverage for attackers. To Pay Or Not To Pay The great dilemma for every city under attack is whether to pay the ransom. The Federal Bureau of Investigation has long urged victims not to pay, warning that it funds criminal operations and encourages further attacks. Moreover there is no guarantee that hackers will honor their word even if paid. Many victims have handed over millions only to see their stolen data leaked anyway. In past cases some cities have refused outright, instead restoring from backups even at great cost. Baltimore and Atlanta for example spent tens of millions of dollars rebuilding systems after refusing to pay. Others under extreme duress have quietly paid and hoped to move on. Middletown has given no indication it will pay. Officials are working with state and federal agencies to restore systems. But every day that services remain offline magnifies the costs both financial and reputational. Could This Have Been Prevented Yes, in many ways. This attack is part of a familiar playbook and the defenses against it are well known. Offline backups tested regularly could allow a city to restore data without paying ransom. Strong password policies and multi-factor authentication could prevent attackers from entering through compromised credentials. Patching software regularly could close known vulnerabilities before criminals exploit them. Training employees to spot phishing emails and suspicious activity can close one of the most common entry points. Municipalities must assume that someone will click on the wrong link and they must design defenses to contain the damage when it happens. The Role Of Federal Guidance The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has been sounding the alarm for years. Through its StopRansomware campaign it has provided guidance, free tools, and threat intelligence to municipalities. Agencies such as the Multi-State Information Sharing and Analysis Center allow local governments to share best practices and receive early warnings. Yet the agency itself is currently leaderless, with nominee Sean Plankey still mired in confirmation red tape. At a time when cyberattacks are escalating, that delay leaves a dangerous vacuum and underscores the urgent need to speed up leadership decisions in Washington. But guidance only works if cities act on it. Too often small municipalities dismiss the threat, believing they are too obscure to be targeted. Middletown's experience proves otherwise. Criminals are not looking for headlines. They are looking for victims they can exploit quickly and profitably. Raising The Bar With Standards There is a growing movement to set enforceable cybersecurity standards across critical infrastructure sectors. The Department of Transportation has already called for standardized security levels. The Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification, originally created for defense contractors, is now being discussed as a template for other industries. Expanding such standards to cover all 16 critical infrastructure sectors including municipal governments would create a baseline of security that could deter opportunistic attacks. Without standards every city is left to its own devices. That means most will remain vulnerable. With standards there is accountability, consistency, and measurable progress. Cybersecurity cannot be left to chance. The Psychology Of Cybercriminals Understanding the attackers is critical. These are not masterminds seeking global domination. They are criminals exploiting the path of least resistance. They do not attack where defenses are strongest. They attack where defenses are weakest. They hide in the shadows using anonymity as their shield. Their psychology is simple. They go where the payoff is easiest. For too long that has been small towns, school districts, hospitals, and municipalities like Middletown. The only way to change that psychology is to raise the cost of attack and harden targets so thoroughly that criminals look elsewhere. A Warning For Middle America Middletown's ordeal should be a turning point. It is a reminder that no city is immune. Cybersecurity is not just for large corporations or federal agencies. It is for every community, every local government, every school, and every hospital. When a city like Middletown goes dark, it is not an inconvenience. It is a threat to public safety, to trust in government, and to the daily lives of citizens. Residents cannot wait weeks for services to return. They cannot live with uncertainty about whether their identities have been stolen. The time for action is now. Local governments must invest in cybersecurity as essential infrastructure, on par with roads, bridges, and water systems. Federal agencies must push harder for standards and support municipalities in meeting them. And citizens must demand accountability because their data and their safety are on the line. The Cost Of Complacency Middletown, Ohio, will eventually recover. Services will come back online. Residents will resume their routines. But the lesson cannot fade with the headlines. This incident is a warning shot to every city in America. Cybersecurity is no longer optional. It is as fundamental as locks on doors and alarms in schools. The cost of prevention is high but the cost of complacency is far higher. If we fail to learn from Middletown other communities will suffer the same fate. The criminals are watching and waiting for the next soft target. It is up to us to ensure there are none left.
CBS News
30 minutes ago
- CBS News
Fire destroys home in Lemont, Illinois
A fire destroyed a house in suburban Lemont, Illinois, on Wednesday. Firefighters battled heavy flames and smoke at a house south of downtown Lemont, just off of Archer Avenue. Video from the scene shows the heavily damaged house. The flames spread to a car parked in the driveway. The cause of the fire is under investigation. Fire officials have not released further details. This is a developing story. CBS News Chicago will continue to provide updates.
CBS News
30 minutes ago
- CBS News
Michigan State Police investigating overnight shooting on I-275 in Wayne County
Two people were injured during a drive-by shooting Tuesday night on Interstate 275 near Interstate 94, the Michigan State Police reported. The Detroit Regional Communication Center got a 911 call about 11:20 p.m. from a motorist who reported two people in their car had been shot. Troopers located the driver and passengers in the emergency department at a nearby hospital and spoke to them about what happened. The vehicle was southbound on I-275 from I-94, in Wayne County, when someone from another vehicle fired gunshots toward them. After the shooting, the driver crossed through the median, headed northbound on I-275, and drove to the hospital. The 35-year-old man who was driving, and his 23-year-old front seat passenger, both had gunshot wounds that were described as non life-threatening. There were two back seat passengers in the vehicle who were not injured. Southbound I-275 was closed near Eureka Road until about 4:30 a.m. while an evidence search took place, according to state police and Michigan Department of Transportation traffic reports. The investigation is continuing. Troopers ask that anyone who was a witness or has information about the shooting call Michigan State Police at 855-MICH-TIP.
