#NoICEinLA

This past weekend saw cruel raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in the Los Angeles area, one of the most immigrant-rich parts of the United States. LA mobilized en masse in a huge show of support and solidarity with their immigrant brothers and sisters against federal law enforcement, prompting President Donald Trump to deploy national guard forces.

Trump has no idea who and what he's taken on. I live in Pasadena, close to the border with Altadena and only five short months ago, tens of thousands of people lost their homes, and several lost their lives, to raging climate-change-fueled fires in Altadena and the Pacific Palisades.

I was on the front lines of the Eaton Fire's destruction, bringing you reports, interviews, photographs, essays, and more, even as I dealt with evacuating my own family from my home (which was thankfully spared). And now, I have a front row seat to LA's massive push back against Trump's masked gestapo, who are literally picking people off the streets and disappearing them. Angelinos are enraged. And they're going to keep fighting. And I'm here for it all.

There's nothing else I'd rather be doing in these trying times than reporting on how ordinary people are intervening in the enactment of fascism. From the Gaza Freedom Flotilla's Madleen - which has reportedly arrived in Gaza only to be kidnapped by Israeli forces - to Southern California's brave defense against Trump's dangerous theatrics, there is resistance, large and small. And, just as the seemingly-disparate issues of the Gaza genocide and the ICE raids are connected by US-taxpayer-funded government authoritarianism, the strength of solidarity we're seeing on both fronts is also deeply connected.

"Solo el puebla, salva al pueblo," is the often-chanted credo of the National Day Laborer's Organizing Network (NDLON): "Only the people can save the people." I've been thinking of this refrain in these trying and powerful times. Governments, it seems, aren't going to save Palestinians, immigrants, and the rest of us. It falls to ordinary people, then to do all we can in defense of one another.

I witnessed such a show of solidarity on Sunday June 8, outside the AC Hotel in Pasadena. There are credible reports that ICE agents are staying at that hotel, and possibly at other Pasadena hotels, while they carry out their LA-area raids. A large multiracial group of people mobilized on the corner of Colorado Blvd and Madison Avenue, holding signs saying "ICE out of Dena," including NDLON's Pablo Alvarado, Pasadena City Council member Rick Cole, and various clergy and others. People honked horns, led chants, and sent a strong message to ICE agents that they are not welcome.

(As of this morning, there are unconfirmed reports the hotel management asked ICE agents to leave).

Here is a photographic preview of the reports I'll be bringing you this week: