Raquel Roman remembers the lingering feeling of tension in Boyle Heights at the beginning of President Trump’s first term during a heightened threat of deportations.
A flood of panicked messages hit group chats as people shared photos of white U.S. Homeland Security trucks parked in Boyle Heights.
“Who are they? Where are they going?” Roman recalls reading in some of the messages.
At times, the federal agents were just stopping for lunch.
Roman, the executive director of Proyecto Pastoral, a community-building and social justice nonprofit, said she and her team saw the immediate need for a local rapid response team, a network of people to prove or disprove immigration enforcement activity.
“In this neighborhood, we were all shocked,” Roman recalled. “And I think there was a sense of mourning for quite some time. And then it was like, ‘Okay, what are we gonna do?’”
In the months following Trump’s inauguration in 2017, leaders at Proyecto Pastoral quickly formed the Boyle Heights Immigrant Rights Network – a coalition of school leaders, lawyers, faith groups and community organizations dedicated to educating, mobilizing and protecting immigrants in Boyle Heights.
Eight years later, as immigration raids and deportations are reported nationwide and as false alarms circulate on social media, Roman and her team have reactivated the network to help defend immigrant families and verify rumors of Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) activity in Boyle Heights.
“What we want is for people to feel safe in their community. And what tended to happen in the past was a lot of false reports of ICE being in the neighborhood. We just want to reassure people, if something’s happening, that we’re out there looking at it firsthand, and we’re a trusted source,” Roman said.
The network remained mostly dormant during the Biden administration, but now, Roman says, it’s a critical time to provide resources and security to the largely immigrant community.
Mobilizing the network
The Boyle Heights Immigrant Rights Network will work in collaboration with the Los Angeles Rapid Response Network, a group of volunteers and immigration lawyers who work to report and verify ICE activity in the greater Los Angeles area.
Proyecto Pastoral serves as the central hub of the network in Boyle Heights, and a cell of the greater immigrant advocacy coalition in Los Angeles. If a community member suspects immigration enforcement agents are making arrests or are present in Boyle Heights or East L.A., Roman advises calling the rapid response hotline at (323) 805-1049.
How the Boyle Heights Immigrant Rights Network operates
- Call (323) 805-1049 to make a report of suspected immigration enforcement activity
- Dispatchers send out volunteers to confirm activity
- If no ICE or CBP agents are present, the network will be notified
- If an arrest is taking place, volunteers work to identify agents involved and get contact info of those being detained
- Network attorneys will contact families of those being threatened with deportation and offer legal support
Roman says the Boyle Heights Immigrant Rights Network is intended to strengthen the trust of community organizations in the neighborhoods they serve.
If immigration enforcement agent activity in East L.A. or Boyle Heights is confirmed, the network will report their findings to social media to inform the community. A special account to announce ICE activity is forthcoming, Roman says.
Offering legal advice
As part of the network’s efforts, leaders will organize free “Know Your Rights” workshops to give community members the tools necessary to advocate for themselves during a deportation threat.
At a workshop planned this month at Dolores Mission Church, nonprofit law firms Bet Tzedek, Immigrant Defenders Law Center and the Loyola Immigrant Justice Clinic, will offer legal advice and other resources.
Renee Garcia, a spokesperson of the Immigrant Defenders Law Center said that the group had been preparing for a shift in immigration policy and wanted to be ready to support vulnerable communities across Los Angeles.
“We knew ahead of time what the [Trump] administration was going to try to put forth. We’ve been preparing for the last six months to a year, so we feel ready to take on what is going to come,” Garcia said.
A political ally
California State Sen. Maria Elena Durazo of District 26, a longtime ally of Proyecto Pastoral, offered her office’s support during the network reactivation presentation in mid-January.
A staunch advocate for immigrant communities, Durazo has committed to defending California’s immigrants and refugees.
“…now more than ever, we need to educate and uplift our communities as the new federal administration has threatened them,” Durazo said in a written statement to Boyle Heights Beat.
“Immigrants are being unjustly targeted and we know that these violent and aggressive tactics violate civil rights and put everyone in our communities in danger.”
Maria Elena Durazo, California State Senator
The senator called the Trump administration’s proposed deportation plans “immoral, illegal and unconstitutional,” vowing to secure additional funding for communities like Boyle Heights and East L.A. — areas within her district — through the State Legislature.
Roman admits that reassuring immigrant families in her community is easier said than done but remains hopeful that the vulnerable in Boyle Heights can rely on the network’s services to strengthen community bonds.
“We do want people to feel like we have their back, like we do care,” Roman said. “We’re going to try and we’re going to get through this.”