Latest news with #Latino-majority
India.com
a day ago
- Politics
- India.com
Gas, Guns And Gridlock: LA Protest Over Immigration Raids, Trump Mobilises National Guard
New Delhi: Tensions have been running high in Los Angeles as thousands of protesters took to the streets to demonstrate against federal immigration raids that began on Friday. The protests, sparked by sweeping raids resulting in over 118 arrests in the LA area over the past week, quickly spread to Latino-majority areas like Paramount and Compton. Demonstrators gathered outside the downtown federal building, including near a detention center, and additional protests erupted in Compton and Paramount, south of Los Angeles, where crowds assembled near a Home Depot amid ongoing raids. The situation escalated when some protesters threw objects at law enforcement officers, leading the LAPD to declare an unlawful assembly and order the crowd to disperse. Riot police responded with tear gas and flash-bang grenades. In response to the escalatng situation, President Donald Trump deployed 2,000 National Guard troops to Los Angeles, citing the need for additional support to control the protests. This move was met with opposition from California Governor Gavin Newsom, who condemned the deployment, calling it a "serious breach of state sovereignty". Governor Newsom has been at odds with President Trump over the deployment, arguing it would escalate tensions and accusing the federal government of "sowing chaos". Newsom formally requested that the White House withdraw the National Guard deployment and return control of the troops to the state. Meanwhile, Trump defended the deployment, claiming Democratic leaders had failed to control the protests and invoking a legal provision permitting federal troop deployment in response to "rebellion or threat of rebellion". Here's a detailed breakdown of the events: 10 Key Points: 1. Federal Immigration Raids: The protests were triggered by sweeping federal immigration raids that began on Friday, resulting in over 100 arrests in Los Angeles. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) reported 118 arrests in the LA area over the past week. 2. Protests Escalate: Demonstrations began peacefully but turned violent after some protesters threw objects at officers, prompting the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) to declare an unlawful assembly. Riot police responded with tear gas, flash-bang grenades, and crowd-control munitions. 3. National Guard Deployment: President Donald Trump deployed the National Guard to Los Angeles, citing the need for additional support to control the protests. However, Governor Gavin Newsom condemned the deployment, calling it a "serious breach of state sovereignty." 4. Clashes with Authorities: Protesters clashed with National Guard troops and federal agents, who were equipped with riot gear and long guns. Tear gas was fired at protesters gathered outside the federal detention center in LA. 5. Freeway Blockade: Protesters later moved to block the 101 freeway, causing disruptions to traffic. The LAPD and National Guard units worked to secure civic buildings and monitor protests. 6. Governor's Response: Governor Newsom strongly criticized the National Guard deployment, arguing that it was inflaming tensions and accusing the federal government of "sowing chaos" to justify escalation. 7. Trump's Justification: President Trump defended the decision to deploy the National Guard, claiming that Democratic leaders had failed to control the protests against immigration agents. He invoked a legal provision permitting federal troop deployment in response to "rebellion or threat of rebellion." 8. Military Escalation Threat: Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth suggested that if protests worsened, Marines from nearby Camp Pendleton could be deployed. Governor Newsom strongly criticized this idea as "deranged." 9. LAPD Stance: The LAPD reiterated that it is not collaborating with federal agents on civil immigration enforcement and maintains a policy against stopping individuals solely to check their immigration status. 10. Protesters' Demands: The protests were organized by immigration advocates who are demanding an end to the federal immigration raids and the release of detainees. The demonstrations are part of a larger movement against Trump's immigration policies.
Time of India
2 days ago
- Politics
- Time of India
A Song of ICE and Fire: How Donald Trump's immigration raids sparked the LA riots
A demonstrator waves an American and Mexican flag during a protest in Compton, Calif., Saturday, June 7, 2025, after federal immigration authorities conducted operations. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope) Protesters clashed with federal immigration agents in Los Angeles County for a second consecutive day on Saturday, after raids at a Home Depot and a nearby meatpacking plant sparked renewed unrest in the Latino-majority suburb of Paramount. The clashes came just 24 hours after ICE detained over 121 people across the city, prompting protests outside a federal processing centre where agents used flash-bang grenades and what advocates said was tear gas. The Trump administration accused city officials of failing to support enforcement efforts, with White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller calling the protests an 'insurrection.' Meanwhile, California leaders, including Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and Governor Gavin Newsom, condemned the federal crackdown as provocative and politically motivated, even as the National Guard prepared for deployment under a rarely used rebellion clause. ICE, Rubber Bullets, and a Home Depot Cart Ablaze Over 121 immigrants were detained in a single day. Protesters hurled glass bottles and fireworks. Law enforcement responded with pepper balls and flash-bangs. At one point, a Home Depot shopping cart was set on fire and melted into a barricade. In Paramount, one of the epicentres of resistance, federal officers used rubber bullets to disperse a growing crowd—many of whom were chanting in Spanish and waving phones in one hand and makeshift placards in the other. Down the street, motorbikes revved between police and protesters like a surreal video game gone wrong. Music blasted, tear gas lingered, and the tension was palpable. Newsom vs. Trump: A Constitutional Showdown Governor Gavin Newsom called the deployment 'a spectacle,' arguing that it was not about maintaining order but staging political theatre. 'There is no shortage of law enforcement,' he said. 'There is a shortage of federal restraint.' The state had not requested troops. It didn't want them. And yet, by nightfall, they were en route. Trump's memo referred to the protests as a 'form of rebellion.' By invoking the same clause Lyndon B. Johnson once used in 1965 to protect civil rights protesters in Alabama, Trump flipped the script: this time, troops weren't defending dissent—they were suppressing it. A Warning Shot—or a Political War? According to White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, the country faced an 'insurrection.' He posted online, 'Deport the invaders, or surrender to insurrection. These are the choices.' Meanwhile, Trump's border czar Thomas Homan doubled down, promising the ICE raids would not stop. 'They're not going to shut us down,' he said. If that sounds familiar, it should. The Trump administration attempted similar tactics during the George Floyd protests of 2020, but ultimately held back on federalizing National Guard forces. This time, there was no hesitation. Marines on Alert, a City on Edge In a move not seen since the Rodney King riots in 1992, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced that active-duty Marines at Camp Pendleton were on high alert—ready to be deployed into a major US city. The last time this happened without a governor's request was nearly 60 years ago. The legal justification? 'To protect ICE and federal property.' The political context? Midwestern rallies. Red-state donor pressure. And a GOP base increasingly radicalised by apocalyptic narratives about immigration. Why the Workplaces? Los Angeles County Sheriffs stand during a protest in Compton, Calif., Saturday, June 7, 2025, after federal immigration authorities conducted operations. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope) Trump's ICE playbook has evolved. Where once the administration focused on 'criminal aliens,' it now targets workforces wholesale—garment factories, construction sites, fast-food chains. In just one week, over 2,000 immigrants were arrested per day, many in dawn raids backed by FBI logistics and IRS intel. The strategy is simple: scale. You can goose arrest numbers faster by raiding a warehouse than by sending agents after individual overstayers. Plus, it sends a chilling message to undocumented workers: no place is safe—not even a laundromat. Collateral Damage: An Economic Shock The raids don't just affect undocumented migrants. They hit American businesses, too. In industries like construction and landscaping, undocumented workers make up up to 20% of the labour force. One Cleveland builder, Gus Hoyas, put it bluntly: 'You get rid of these folks, and it's going to kill us.' Even hospitality is feeling the pinch. Greg Casten, who runs several D.C. restaurants, warned that losing even 10% of his staff would cripple operations. He's received annual letters from the IRS about mismatched Social Security numbers. But in today's climate, those letters now feel like warning shots. The Legal Abyss: Employers Damned Either Way Employers walk a tightrope. If they suspect a worker is undocumented and act, they risk discrimination suits. If they don't, they could be next on the ICE radar. It's a paradox by design—one that ensures maximum fear with minimal due process. As one immigration lawyer put it: 'You're damned if you do and damned if you don't.' The Politics of Spectacle In the end, this isn't just about law enforcement—it's about optics. Trump knows that workplace raids filmed on mobile phones, protests with burning carts, and National Guard convoys on CNN aren't liabilities. They're campaign material. It's a spectacle that energises the base, demoralises the opposition, and distracts from more complex questions—like why America's immigration system has remained broken through Reagan, Clinton, Bush, Obama, Biden, and two rounds of Trump. The End of Sanctuary? What's happening in Los Angeles isn't just about California. It's a test case for the limits of federal authority over states—and the future of sanctuary jurisdictions. Trump's memo, laced with legalese about rebellion and insurrection, effectively criminalises protest when it clashes with immigration enforcement. That should alarm anyone who remembers what the First Amendment stands for. Or what 'checks and balances' used to mean. As the dust settles and the tear gas fades, one question lingers: Is this the beginning of a new federal playbook—or the end of state sovereignty? Either way, America just entered a dangerous new chapter. And Los Angeles is its ground zero. With inputs from agencies
Boston Globe
17-05-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
‘Whom shall I fear?' In South Texas, two bakers face Trump's immigration wrath.
As their July trial nears, many in this Latino-majority community of 8,500 close to Brownsville, Texas, are learning what life will be like under President Donald Trump and his immigration crackdown. More than 52% of Los Fresnos' once-bright-blue Cameron County voted for Trump in November, but his aggressive policies are dividing families and rattling local businesses where people in this country without legal permission are indistinguishable from the larger border population. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up If found guilty of the most serious charge, conspiring to transport and harbor undocumented migrants, both Baez, 56, and Avila, 46, face sentences of up to 10 years in prison. Advertisement The Justice Department has framed the case as open-and-shut: Law enforcement officers found a room in the shopping plaza that includes the bakery with six mattresses on the floor housing employees unauthorized to work in the country. The raid, the government said, found two migrants 'unlawfully present in the United States' and six visa holders 'who did not have the right to work.' The Baez family agreed to discuss their lives, but at the suggestion of their lawyers, they would not talk about the case. But one of those lawyers, Jaime Diez, did speak on the case and said the federal indictment is a break from how 'harboring' charges are typically used. Advertisement 'Harboring charges used to be saved for cases where criminal groups would help smuggle undocumented people into the U.S. illegally,' he said. Migrants would 'then be stashed in houses until they could be picked in cars where they would be hidden so that they could be taken up north,' he added. A recent wave of high-profile immigration actions, such as visits this month to Washington, D.C., restaurants owned by celebrity chef Peter Chang and the husband of CBS News correspondent Norah O'Donnell, may have left the impression that the reach of Immigration and Customs Enforcement is long and targeted at liberal urban redoubts and establishments that grab headlines. But in Los Fresnos, the arrests of Baez and Avila -- immigrants from Mexico who are pillars of the community and decidedly not celebrities -- feel personal, local residents said. Chang and Geoff Tracy, O'Donnell's husband, were not arrested, nor were any of their employees detained. Baez and Avila face potential prison terms, loss of their legal status and deportation if they are found guilty of harboring immigrants who are in the country without legal permission. 'What we are witnessing is the federal government targeting smaller minority-owned businesses, which aligns with the current administration's views on immigrants and immigration,' said Sylvia Gonzalez-Gorman, a professor at the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley who specializes in immigration. Angela Dodge, a spokesperson for the U.S. attorney's office in the Southern District of Texas, said each case is prosecuted on its merit. Advertisement 'We consider each such case based on the evidence and what can be proven beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law,' Dodge said. On Feb. 12, as Trump's second term got underway, a team from Homeland Security Investigations conducted what it described as a worksite enforcement action at Abby's Bakery next to a busy road. Videos posted on Facebook showed armed officers escorting despondent handcuffed workers out of the property. A woman recording the video can be heard saying: 'They took all of the workers here, Abby's. Look how they take them.' A criminal complaint said agents found eight workers without legal documentation, whom court documents paint as knowingly hired and sheltered by the couple. Baez and Avila, legal U.S. residents with green cards who have owned the bakery for nearly 15 years, 'admitted they knew the aliens were unlawfully present in the United States in violation of the law, and they harbored aliens in their personally owned property,' according to prosecutors' court filings. A week after the raid, the couple reopened the bakery doors with about seven legal workers, including family members. Avila operates an adjoining restaurant that opened last year, and Baez said they try to focus on work, not their possible legal peril. 'The community never stopped supporting us,' Baez said. As it turned out, the raid on Abby's was just the beginning. In recent days, the Trump administration has directed about 2,000 agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the U.S. Marshals Service and the FBI to aid ICE agents in finding and arresting immigrants in the country without legal permission, a sharp escalation in the administration's effort to fulfill a campaign promise to enact mass deportations. Advertisement But in Los Fresnos, that larger picture is less important than the local ordeal at hand. Jessica Castro, 46, this past week scanned the freshly baked goods, such as conchas, a pastry in the shape of a seashell, empanadas and Mexican cake, her husband's favorite. She explained why it was important to buy the Baezes' bread instead of the supermarket's. 'They need us,' she said. The rightward shift in the Rio Grande Valley was driven, in part, by the toll that inflation had taken on a region where the median income has remained stubbornly low, at around $33,000, residents say. Since then, immigration raids have shaken local shops, like tortillerias and used clothing shops, leaving many worried they could be next. Family members with mixed immigration statuses -- citizens, green card holders and migrants without legal documentation -- often live and work under one roof. 'As soon as I heard what happened, my heart broke for them,' Castro said as she loaded a tray with baked goods. 'I want them to know that locals are here for them, and we want them to be OK.' Edward Padron, 67, a longtime Republican and Army veteran who voted for Trump, scoffed at the sentiment. 'Sympathy has nothing to do with it,' he said. 'The law is the law.' Baez said that he was leaving his and his wife's fate up to God. Symbols of his faith are evident throughout the shop, with religious phrases and pamphlets greeting customers. He finds solace in Bible passages he has memorized. On this day, while on a break, Baez cleared sweat from his forehead and recited a verse that speaks to him from Psalm 27. Advertisement 'The Lord is my light and my salvation -- whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life -- of whom shall I be afraid?' he said in Spanish. Baez said achieving the American dream seemed like an impossible goal growing up in Ciudad Victoria, Tamaulipas, a Mexican state bordering Texas. He sold bread on the streets, learned how to make it from a mentor and married his wife when she was 18 and he was 28. Soon after, the couple decided to try their luck in the United States. 'I asked her, 'let's go work on the other side,'' he recalled. They moved with his mother-in-law to a small brick home with a metal roof and an outhouse in Los Fresnos, where he made bread and sold it on the streets with his children. A few years later, the Baezes bought a wooden home with a working bathroom. In 2011, Baez stopped by a mechanic and saw that the building next door was up for rent. He borrowed money from members of his church and purchased basic bread making equipment to start his bakery. 'From the moment we opened, the customers never stopped coming,' Baez said. 'God has blessed us that way.' The business has expanded since. Today, the Baezes own the entire shopping center that includes the bakery, the size of half a block. This article originally appeared in
New York Times
21-04-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
El Paso Gunman in Walmart Shooting Sentenced Again to Life in Prison
A state judge sentenced Patrick Crusius, a self-described white nationalist with a history of mental illness, to life in prison on Monday for killing 23 people and injuring 22 others in 2019 at a Walmart store in El Paso, one of the deadliest attacks on Hispanic civilians in American history. Judge Sam Medrano Jr. handed down the sentence before hearing impact statements from family members and survivors, which were scheduled to be delivered Monday afternoon. 'You traveled nine hours to a city that would have welcomed you with open arms,' Judge Medrano told the gunman. 'You brought not peace but hate. You came to inflict terror, to take innocent lives.' 'Your mission failed,' the judge continued. 'You did not divide this city. You strengthened it.' Mr. Crusius, looking disheveled in a white and orange prison jumpsuit, did not betray any emotions as the judge read his sentence, other than to say that he pleaded guilty to capital murder, with its automatic life sentence, and to 22 counts of aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. He has no chance of parole. He replied, 'Yes, your honor' when asked if he accepted his fate. The sentence was handed down in a large room, usually used by the county commission, that was converted to a courtroom to accommodate a large crowd. Some relatives of victims could be heard quietly crying. James Montoya, the El Paso district attorney, read the names of the victims aloud as the gunman looked in his direction. Mr. Crusius had already been sentenced by a federal judge last year to 90 consecutive life terms after he pleaded guilty to federal hate crimes charges. Then in late March, a newly elected district attorney in El Paso announced, after consulting with families of the victims, that he would not seek the death penalty for the state charges that were still pending. That answered the last remaining question about Mr. Crusius's fate. Still, the survivors and victims' families are expected to finally have a chance to address the killer on Monday. The gunman has been in a detention facility since the rampage on Aug. 3, 2019. As part of the plea agreement that spared his life, Mr. Crusius has waived his right to any potential appeals. The sentencing in a courtroom in downtown El Paso, a Latino-majority city that long has been seen as the Ellis Island of the southwest, brought the dark saga to an end, after years of legal setbacks and red tape. The case had passed through the hands of four different prosecutors. Mr. Crusius returned to court just as the anti-immigrant hatred that inspired him nearly six years ago was rising once again. President Trump's aggressive campaign to deport millions of undocumented immigrants has amplified the word 'invasion,' echoed in Mr. Crusius's manifesto at the time of the massacre — now as a legal pretext for deportations and foreign incarceration with little to no due process, critics say. Mr. Montoya said he hoped the hearings, which are expected to last a few days, will focus on the victims and not on the current political climate that has given new life to anti-immigration rhetoric. 'I have a lot to say about the defendant and the hateful ideology that motivated him,' the district attorney said. Without naming names, he said, 'there are other public figures and elected officials that espouse and promote this ideology.' Even so, he continued, 'my sincere hope is that for the rest of this proceeding, this afternoon and the next few days and moving forward, that the focus can remain on the 23 lives that were taken from us far too soon, their family members and the survivors.' Mr. Crusius's lawyer, Joe Spencer, told The New York Times before the court hearing that Mr. Crusius drove 600 miles from the Dallas area to target Hispanics after being exposed to racist conspiracy theories and comments from Mr. Trump that immigrants coming to the United States were invaders. Mr. Spencer echoed those words during the hearing. 'He has accepted responsibility for this horrific actions,' the lawyer told the judge. 'He will never again walk free. Patrick will leave prison only in a coffin on God's time.' He settled on a Walmart near a major highway as the site of his attack after he heard everyone around him there speaking in Spanish. During the shooting, the gunman stalked shoppers and employees in the aisles and behind the cash registers with a military-style rifle. The victims included a couple who had been married for 70 years, a 15-year-old boy who had told his family he dreamed of joining the Border Patrol, and a young couple who were shielding their infant son. The gunman told police after his arrest that he had wanted to kill Latinos because 'they were immigrating to the United States,' and that El Paso was his target because it was a Latino-majority city with strong cultural ties to the Mexican city of Ciudad Juárez, just across the border.
New York Times
26-03-2025
- Politics
- New York Times
Texas Prosecutors Will No Longer Pursue Death Penalty in El Paso Shooting
Texas prosecutors will no longer seek the death penalty against the gunman who killed 23 people in a mass shooting at an El Paso Walmart six years ago, the local district attorney announced on Tuesday. The gunman, a self-described white nationalist, had previously been sentenced to 90 consecutive life terms after pleading guilty to federal hate crimes in the attack, one of the deadliest on Latinos in U.S. history. At the time, federal prosecutors also said they would not seek the death penalty. On Tuesday, the El Paso district attorney said his office had changed course after speaking with the families of the victims. 'It was very clear as we met with the families, one by one, that there is a strong and overwhelming consensus that just wanted this case over with, that wanted finality in the court process,' said the district attorney, James Montoya, a Democrat. In exchange, the shooter, Patrick Crusius, is expected to plead guilty to capital murder and serve a life sentence without the possibility of parole, Mr. Montoya said. Mr. Crusius will also waive his right to any potential appeals as part of the plea agreement. Mr. Montoya is the fourth prosecutor to have been assigned to the case. He promised during his campaign last year to seek the death penalty, and said on Tuesday that he still believed the shooter deserved it. But the families' wishes combined with Mr. Montoya's lack of 'great confidence' that the state's trial would have remained in El Paso — because of the unlikelihood of finding impartial jurors, thus prolonging the case — led him to instead pursue a life sentence, he said. The shooting occurred on Aug. 3, 2019. Prosecutors say the gunman traveled to El Paso from Allen, a city near Dallas. He attacked the Walmart store in a popular commercial district near the Cielo Vista Mall, a retail complex with dozens of restaurants and stores that is usually busy on weekends. During the shooting, the gunman stalked shoppers and employees in the aisles and behind the cash registers with an AK-47-style rifle. The victims included a couple who had been married for 70 years, a 15-year-old boy who had dreamed of joining the Border Patrol and a young mother who was shielding her infant son. Twenty-two people were also injured. After his arrest, the gunman told the police that he had wanted to kill Latinos because 'they were immigrating to the United States,' and that El Paso was his target because it was a Latino-majority city with strong cultural ties to the Mexican city of Ciudad Juárez, just across the border. 'Patrick acted with his broken brain centered in delusions,' the gunman's lawyer, Joe Spencer, said during his federal trial. 'We hope that we have provided some answers to what feels uncomprehensible.' At a separate news conference on Tuesday, Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, told reporters that he believed the gunman deserved the death penalty. 'A heinous shooting like that is what capital punishment is for,' he said. The gunman is scheduled to be back in court for his state sentencing on April 21.
