Latest news with #CoalitionforHumaneImmigrantRights
Epoch Times
4 days ago
- Politics
- Epoch Times
ICE Officers in LA Barred From Impersonating Local Police in Home Arrests
Federal immigration officers in Southern California are now barred from posing as local police or using other deceptive tactics to conduct home arrests, under a court settlement approved this week in a class-action lawsuit challenging U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE's) practices. U.S. District Judge Otis Wright on Aug. 4 granted final approval of a settlement agreement in a case filed in 2020 by a Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) status recipient and two advocacy groups—the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA) and the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice (ICIJ).
Los Angeles Times
01-08-2025
- Politics
- Los Angeles Times
Know your rights: An immigration resource guide for L.A.
Organizations across Los Angeles County are available to help immigrants and allies in the community. The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA) is a nonprofit organization that advocates for immigrant rights in Los Angeles County and throughout the nation. It holds in-person and virtual weekly workshops. For more information, visit the organization's website or call (213) 353-1333. Long Beach Forward is a local nonprofit organization that offers community outreach sessions and educational workshops. You can learn about the next session by checking the organization's calendar, calling (562) 436-4800 or following its Instagram account. The East Los Angeles Occupational Center has prerecorded immigration rights and resources webinars on its website from Los Angeles Unified School District officials. The recordings are in English and in Spanish. RepresentLA is a public-private partnership that provides legal representation to immigrants in custody or in the community, as well as those who face deportation or are seeking relief. The organization hosts an immigrant workshop on the last Wednesday of every month from noon to 2 p.m. at the South Whittier Community Resource Center, 10750 Laurel Ave. The workshop covers topics such as avoiding scams, understanding your rights in immigration court and determining eligibility for family-based immigration and citizenship. The L.A. County Office of Immigrant Affairs has an online calendar of 'know your rights' and legal assistance workshops. The office's website also serves as a hub of information and immigration resources. Catholic Charities of Los Angeles conducts regular workshops as well as informational sessions on citizenship and applications related to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, or DACA, program. The organization has an online calendar that lists its monthly events. Los Angeles City Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez's office is collaborating with Mijente, CHIRLA, the Central American Resource Center and other advocacy groups to facilitate regular training as well as provide free red resource cards at local field offices. The office has partnered with Mijente and deployed a community defense organizer to train local leaders and build rapid response networks specifically in Council District 1. You can reach the council member's City Hall office at (213) 473-7001, the Glassell Park field office at (323) 709-1800, or the Westlake district office at (213) 314-6290. Children's Institute has an in-person 'Keeping Our Communities Safe' workshop in English and Spanish every Thursday from 3 to 5:30 p.m. During the sessions, the staff reviews constitutional rights, how to identify different law enforcement agencies and how to respond safely during different types of encounters with these agencies. The institute is at 2121 W. Temple St., Los Angeles. You can call your local rapid response network to report ICE activity and enforcement actions. Participating organizations document immigration enforcement and can send trained individuals to assist anyone who is being stopped or questioned by agents. These networks can also provide you were referrals, information, resources (such as food and financial assistance) and, in some cases, direct support if your loved one was detained by immigration enforcement agents. Here is a list of local rapid response contacts compiled by the ACLU of Southern California and California Collaborative for Immigrant Justice. There are several organizations and law offices who are offering their services, in some case at a low-cost, to those affected by immigration enforcement operations. Your options for legal help include: You can also search for an immigration lawyer through the American Immigration Lawyers Association online locator tool. How to spot a fake immigration attorney: Scammers try to confuse immigrants into thinking they're an attorney by calling themselves a notario, notary public, accountant or consultant, according to the Federal Trade Commission. In Latin American countries, a notario or notary public is an attorney or has legal training, but that's not the case in the United States. How to protect yourself from the scam: You can verify whether a lawyer is legitimate by searching for them on the State Bar of California website and determining if they have an active law license.
Yahoo
12-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
‘Reality TV spectacle': outrage as federal agents raid LA neighborhood with horses and armored cars
Dozens of federal officers in tactical gear and about 90 California national guard troops descended on a historic immigrant neighborhood in Los Angeles on Monday – mounting a sweeping show that local leaders denounced as a 'reality TV spectacle' and intimidation tactic. The troops were deployed to a mostly empty MacArthur Park in the neighborhood of the same name for about an hour, some on horseback and others in armored military vehicles. Agents were also operating an armored vehicle with a mounted rifle. Related: Karen Bass in hot seat as Trump targets Los Angeles – but it's not her first crisis It wasn't immediately clear that any arrests were made. But the operation on Monday morning has drawn widespread criticism from city leaders, who have characterized the militarized immigration raid as an intimidation tactic. 'What I saw in the park today looked like a city under siege, under armed occupation,' said Karen Bass, the mayor of Los Angeles, who called it a 'political stunt'. Bass said that children who were attending a nearby daycare center had to be quickly ushered inside as agents swept through the neighborhood, including through its namesake park. The agents arrived at about 10.30am, and left the neighborhood after Bass spoke to a Department of Homeland Security representative, according to reporters at the scene. LA city council member Eunisses Hernandez's office also sent constituents a warning on Monday morning that federal forces had been deployed in the neighborhood, urging: 'Please be careful and let your neighbors know.' Activists and locals – who have for weeks been documenting the ramped-up immigration raids in LA and across southern California – had also come out to witness the scene, and were prepared to call in legal support if needed. 'I definitely think it's a source of intimidation,' Jeannette Zanipatin, a lawyer with the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (Chirla), told the Associated Press. 'We know that the Trump administration is trying to make an example of Los Angeles.' Chris Newman, legal director for the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, said he received a credible tip about the operation on Monday. 'It was a demonstration of escalation,' he told the Associated Press. 'This was a reality TV spectacle much more so than an actual enforcement operation.' MacArthur Park has long been an immigrant neighborhood, with a history of political activism. In 2007, it was the center of the May Day rallies demanding amnesty for undocumented people, which were met with exceptional brutality by the Los Angeles police department. The neighborhood was also where the Trump administration kicked off its ramped-up raids in LA, sending agents to arrest undocumented day laborers at the local Home Depot store and street vendors along bustling commercial corridors. Since the raids kicked off, the normally bustling neighborhood had emptied out – fewer street vendors had been selling food and wares along the sidewalk. Many undocumented workers were avoiding reporting to their jobs at restaurants and shops, and parks and public spaces were eerily empty. Related: At Home Depot, Ice raids terrorize the workers who helped build LA: 'They just come and grab you' A defense official told reporters that the action on Monday was not a military operation, but said that the size and scope of the guard's participation could make it appear as one to the public, according to the Associated Press. 'It's just going to be more overt and larger than we usually participate in,' one of the officials said before the raid ended abruptly with no explanation. The primary role of the military service members would be to protect the immigration enforcement officers in case a hostile crowd gathered, that official said. They are not participating in any law enforcement activities such as arrests, but service members can temporarily detain citizens if necessary before handing them over to law enforcement, the official said. 'This morning looked like a staging for a TikTok video,' said Marqueece Harris-Dawson, president of the Los Angeles city council, adding if the border patrol wants to film in LA, 'you should apply for a film permit like everybody else. And stop trying to scare the bejesus out of everybody who lives in this great city and disrupt our economy every day.'
Los Angeles Times
16-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Los Angeles Times
Rage Against the Machine's Tom Morello headlines immigrant rights benefit at Echoplex
After a weekend of raucous 'No Kings' protests across the country — especially throughout Los Angeles — immigrant activists in music have a new benefit show planned for tonight in Echo Park. Tom Morello, the guitarist of Rage Against the Machine and a longtime leftist and human rights advocate, will headline a sold-out show called 'Defend L.A.' set at the Echoplex on Monday in support of the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA). The show will feature like-minded peers including B-Real of Cypress Hill, Pussy Riot, and visual artist Shepard Fairey. The Neighborhood Kids, a rising young San Diego hip-hop group whose songs document the on-the-ground reality of communities under threat from immigration raids, will play its most prominent L.A. set to date there. Comedian George Lopez will host. Morello joined the recent anti-ICE marches in Los Angeles, where protest signs and slogans often echoed his band's radical-resistance lyrics and imagery. The singer-songwriter wore a guitar emblazoned with anti-ICE messaging onstage at the Boston Calling festival last month. While downtown L.A., a site of many heated protests, had been placed under a nighttime curfew, Saturday's 'No Kings' marches were broadly peaceful, with only 38 arrests in Los Angeles, mostly for curfew violations. After the marches, the Trump administration recently announced efforts to expand immigration raids in sanctuary cities like Los Angeles.
Sky News AU
12-06-2025
- Politics
- Sky News AU
Gavin Newsom ‘siding with the cartels' as investigation launched into LA riots funding
US Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard has agreed with claims that California Governor Gavin Newsom is 'siding with the cartels" over the LA riots. "Whether he knows it or not he is (siding with the cartels) – certainly," Gabbard told Fox News on Wednesday. Her remarks come as an investigation is being launched into the funding behind LA's anti-ICE protests. Republican Senator Josh Hawley has launched an investigation into a California-based left-wing group he claims may be funding the violent protests in Los Angeles. Senator Hawley sent a letter Wednesday to the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA), accusing the group of potentially 'financially and materially supporting' what he called 'coordinated' protests and riots in Los Angeles. It comes as Los Angeles has endured a sixth day of demonstrations against targeted Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in the city.
