Immigration coverage: What to know
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The pews were packed.
Dozens of people, mostly in their 20s and 30s, sat inside Dolores Mission Church eager to learn—not about Scripture readings or the sacraments, but about how to keep their neighbors and families safe.
In recent weeks, ICE raids had been terrorizing their communities, swarming over worksites and neighborhoods across the Los Angeles region.
“We have seen raids but not like this. This is unprecedented,” Enrique Vélazquez, a director with Proyecto Pastoral, told the group on a recent Tuesday evening. People had gathered to join neighborhood patrols organized by the Boyle Heights Immigrant Rights Network and Unión del Barrio.
“Our operation is going to improve with your help,” Vélazquez added.
Images of masked immigration officers carrying military assault rifles and detaining day laborers and street vendors have pushed ordinary Angelenos, from software engineers and charter school managers, into action. Many had never been politically active before but now they’re patrolling streets, keeping watch for ICE activity and dispatching to enforcement operations in defense of their neighbors.
They’re heeding the call from groups like the pro-immigrant and political organization Unión del Barrio, which began forming their community patrols program more than three decades ago, and are launching community defense centers in different neighborhoods with the help of the Los Angeles Tenants Union.
For 30-year-old Brandon, an engineer and father, it’s been shocking to see federal agents in military fatigues raid carwashes and other work sites.
Feeling the need to do something, he attended the meeting at Dolores Mission on that Tuesday. Two days later, he was driving around town before work, looking for any vehicles that appeared to be occupied by immigration agents. He now skips freeways to keep an extra set of eyes on residential streets.
Brandon, who did not want his last name published for safety reasons, now belongs to the Boyle Heights Immigrant Rights Network, where volunteers communicate through Signal to alert each other to ICE sightings. He’s available to respond to tips after work and during the weekend, ready to observe and shoot video.
On June 20, his volunteerism took him to an immigration raid at a car wash in Maywood, where he and others were tear-gassed by federal agents.
“It was intense,” he said, recalling the roar of helicopters, the wail of sirens, and the screams of people. “This is here, in our city, in my home. It was definitely surreal,” he said.
“I have never been involved in this type of community action. This feels like an unprecedented moment. This is a time to act. There’s no choice,” Brandon continued. “These are our people, and this feels like violence against us.”
In mid-June, the Tenants Union Koreatown Local launched a community defense station at the MacArthur Park Home Depot to “help protect and patrol locations where people are likely to be targeted,” according to their Instagram.
“Our local and state leaders have failed to protect us,” the Tenants Union said on Instagram. “It’s time to take matters into our own hands.”
Since the major raids began on June 6, tens of thousands have taken to protests in downtown L.A., Hollywood, Pasadena and other regional locales. But Unión del Barrio’s Francisco “Chavo” Romero has advised volunteers to respond in a different way.
“Retreat back to the barrios,” he said. “This is where we need to hold the line.”
That message resonated at the meeting inside Dolores Mission Church.
Residents learned how to identify undercover vehicles used by federal agents — typically Ford Explorers, Dodge Durangos and Chevy Impalas, according to the organization. They also got a breakdown of different federal immigration agencies that operate under ICE, including Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), its investigative arm, and Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO), which focuses on immigration enforcement and removals.
Several signed up to be part of the network’s Signal chat that day after leaders with Proyecto Pastoral, who spearheaded the Boyle Heights Immigrant Rights Network, stressed a need for volunteers to respond to alerts beyond Boyle Heights.
Prisma Alvarez, 38, of Boyle Heights, attended the meeting at Dolores Mission and signed up to be part of the Signal network. As a parent community schools manager for KIPP SoCal, a public school charter network, Alvarez isn’t available to patrol the city, but she’s ready to respond and dispatch to incidents reported on the network’s chat once she’s off work.
In her school role, Alvarez builds relationships with community partners and provides resources for families, but outside of that work, she said, “This is the first time that I’ve ever involved myself in something of this magnitude.”
“I would attend the yearly protest for whatever the cause may be, whether that’s Occupy Wall Street, which happened [more than] 10 years ago, or the protest on No Kings Day … but beyond that, that was as far as I would go,” Alvarez said.
“The everyday individual who’s not working in any formal [advocacy] organization, who probably has a 9 to 5 job in some sector, they now feel the need to go out and really patrol their own streets,” she added.
Alvarez, a U.S. citizen born to immigrant parents from Mexico, believes it’s her duty to do so.
“I am using that privilege that I was born with, at least a limited amount of privilege that I have, to protect my neighborhood,” she said.
For Laura Espinoza, a college student who was born and raised in East L.A., the social media footage of federal agents raiding the Home Depot in Hollywood on June 19 shook her enough to answer a call to stand guard at the location. She spends some mornings before class standing outside the store to accompany immigrant street vendors who line the sidewalk.
“Since I’m a student, I don’t have gas money to roam around town. What I’ve been doing is, I just show up to the Home Depot near me, and I talk to the vendors. I ask them how they’re doing, and at the same time, I keep watch,” said Espinoza, 41, who keeps track of ICE sightings through Unión del Barrio and other local tenant unions on Instagram.
Espinoza has stood guard at other Home Depots like the Westlake location that was raided last month. She’s encountered others like her, who aren’t linked to any advocacy organization but “just show up because they live in the area and they know the vendors, and they just care.”
To Espinoza, it’s clear there are risks involved in doing this work, but she plans to maintain 10 feet of distance between her and federal agents if they show up.
“I’m a very peaceful person, so if anything happens to me, it’s going to be because they came at me, and in that case, I’m going to be recording.”
“When I was very young, I read about Anne Frank and her situation during the Second World War,” Espinoza added. “At that time, I told myself that if ever a situation like the one Anne Frank was in came about, I would do my part in helping the most vulnerable people.”
Since the raids began, Gerardo Gonzalez, a software engineer who lives in Boyle Heights, has canvassed the community with the social justice group Centro CSO to inform business owners about their rights if immigration agents attempt to enter their spaces.
Gonzalez, who was previously unaware of how rapid response operated, is now part of those efforts with the Boyle Heights Immigrant Rights network. He helps respond to any tips and potential sightings of immigration agents.
“The key is being local and available. You can be out and about doing your daily thing and if you see something, and if you’re already in the area, you can check it out,” said Gonzalez, 29.
The son of Mexican immigrants, Gonzalez doesn’t see himself as an activist.
“It’s more of just seeing the intensity of it all. I felt like a call to action,” he said. “We’re dealing with an opposition that is heavily resourced, and all we have is us.”
Our approach to immigration coverage
At Boyle Heights Beat, we believe local journalism is a public service rooted in care, truth and accountability. In moments like these—when immigration enforcement brings fear, uncertainty and urgency—our mission is to inform, uplift and protect our community through accurate reporting, ethical storytelling and deep listening.
We know we can’t cover everything, but we remain committed to ongoing immigration coverage that reflects the needs and values of our community. We’ll be working closely with community organizations and residents on the ground to help verify information, respond to unfolding events, and ensure our reporting is responsible and informed by those most impacted.
Read more about those efforts here.
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