ICE Targets Families in South Central:

We Need a Sanctuary City in Los Angeles !!!



At 6:00 am this morning (9/6/07) the Los Angeles County Sheriffs Department came to the neighborhood at 93rd and Western in South Los Angeles . They were accompanied by federal ICE agents. According to residents in the neighborhood, the ICE agents went into at least 3 apartment complexes through the front gates, knocked on doors, tried to enter some apartments through windows, and hid in various locations around the neighborhood. At least two people were detained, according to eyewitnesses. The sheriffs claimed to have an arrest warrant for a man in one apartment. The sheriffs and ICE agents left at about 9:00 am this morning.



Activists from the Emergency Response Network say that this illustrates the need for a Sanctuary City declaration in Los Angeles . ICE agents should not be using the sheriffs as a pretext to enter whole apartment complexes. Special Order 40 prohibits LAPD from this type of cooperation with ICE because of community opposition to these practices.



Residents of the neighborhood made a sign that said ICE OUT!?and stood on the street. Some took pictures of what the ICE agents were doing and collected badge numbers. The ICE agents harassed these citizens. First, they were told to hand over their camera. Then ICE agents asked for their identifications and wrote down their information. Then the agents told them that they were not allowed to be on the street. But we stood our ground,?said Cristina, a resident of the neighborhood. Finally, they backed down. We had hidden our camera, and they finally admitted that we had the righ t to take pictures and to be on the street with our protest signs. They couldn't stop us.



With the stepped up use of social security No-Match letters tied up in the courts, Department of Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff has promised to step up raids and deportations. He says, "And we have taken significant steps in order to control this decades-long problem. We've added more boots on the ground at the border. But we've also done some things in the interior, and that revolves around our efforts to substantially increase what we do with respect to worksite enforcement in the United States." These raids are the sign of more to come. Activists have vowed to respond to raids with protests.