A young undocumented man stood outside of the Hollywood Home Depot looking for work on a recent hot Wednesday afternoon. Since the store was raided by federal immigration agents in June, he’s been on high alert, fearing detainment and deportation. But he relies on being in public spaces for his livelihood, like many other laborers and street vendors, and he has four kids to support.
“There’s no freedom living in this fear,” said the man, who asked to remain anonymous due to fear of being deported.
That’s why community groups like Union del Barrio and Los Angeles Tenants Union are using their volunteer networks to provide warnings of potential raids so laborers and vendors can continue to find work despite the risks.
At 6 a.m. on a Thursday, Union del Barrio volunteer Francisco Romero and around 20 others are already out patrolling the region, documenting potential immigration enforcement activity or vehicles that could belong to federal officers. Two volunteers patrolled the MacArthur Park area with Romero, while others scoured areas across the county, including in South Central and Vernon.
In the last month, the group has trained hundreds of volunteers to check on reports of immigration activity and warn community members of potential raids before they occur.
Volunteers were greeted at MacArthur Park and later at a nearby Home Depot by friendly waves as Union del Barrio vehicles pulled through, marked with magnets that read “Protecting communities from ICE & police terror.”
Romero and other volunteers talked with day laborers, passing out fliers with information about Union del Barrio, a group that first implemented community patrols across California amid the civil unrest that followed the 1991 beating of Rodney King.
When a vehicle seems suspicious — often a large, American-made pick-up truck or van, sometimes missing tags or registration stickers — volunteers log a voice note with identifying information in case they see the vehicle again at an immigration enforcement action.
Romero said he and other community advocates can’t stop federal immigration authorities from enforcement activity, but they can push for greater transparency and warn communities when there are ongoing or impending immigration raids.
“Right now they have free reign,” Romero said. “They’re out of control.”
The Trump administration has pledged to run the largest deportation effort in American history, claiming the country is overrun with illegal immigrants. As a result, the federal government has aggressively pursued daily raids across Southern California and the nation targeting day laborers, street vendors, gardeners, farmworkers and others. While the administration has touted a priority for targeting violent criminals, many picked up in raids have no criminal records, immigration experts say.
“U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers and agents are highly trained and dedicated professionals who are sworn to uphold the law, protect the American people and support U.S. national security interests,” ICE said in an emailed statement.
The administration has defended its aggressive tactics including masked immigration officers who are often in plainclothes and use unmarked vehicles during raids and detainments.
President Trump’s border czar Tom Homan said individuals who interfere with ICE operations will face charges.
“When you annoyingly impede an ICE officer, when you put hands on ICE officer, you will be prosecuted,” Homan said on Fox News.
In Hollywood, community organizers with the Los Angeles Tenants Union, a local organization demanding affordable housing and universal rent control, responded to the June 19 Home Depot raid by maintaining a regular presence at the home improvement store. The organization also sets up a red canopy across the street with a set of tables filled with “know your rights” cards and tenants’ rights fliers.
Every week day, at least one LATU activist stands near each of the three entrances while looking at each vehicle that drives in, like Union del Barrio does, for signs that it might be a federal agent.
If they do see a suspicious vehicle, a message is sent to their network of organizers. When a sighting of a federal immigration agent is confirmed, organizers alert laborers and vendors over a megaphone.
On a recent Wednesday afternoon, three men looking for work stood in the shade of a tree outside the Hollywood store. They all wore baseball caps and two had backpacks. The recent raid left many of them fearful of being taken by masked immigration agents, but they needed the work.
Next to the group stood a volunteer with LATU who was holding up a sign that said “ICE Out of LA!” Some drivers honked in support as they drove by.
Ren Marquez, an organizer with LATU, said the community organizing at the Hollywood Home Depot is a microcosm of how communities across the region have responded to the widespread raids.
“What we’ve been doing here is a little bit of a template for how other cities and organizers can create these mutual aid systems of care,” Marquez said.
Alida Garcia, a volunteer in a San Fernando Valley community patrol, was one of more than 500 people to attend an Adopt a Corner training through the National Day Laborers Organizing Network last month that connected volunteers and taught them ways to earn the trust of day laborers in their community. The Valley group, she said, is made up of a few dozen volunteers, including working mothers like Garcia.
“Everybody is just like everyday people all across the Valley who just know that what we’re experiencing right now is wrong,” she said, “and that we need to show up for each other.”
She and other volunteers have passed out conchas, coffee and resources to day laborers and vendors at Home Depots in San Fernando, North Hollywood and other locations around the area. When sightings are reported, the patrol warns day laborers in the area.
After one of the patrols, Garcia said, immigration officers raided a San Fernando Home Depot, and activists believe around 10 workers were detained. Once the community patrol got the report, they returned to gather witness reports and contact local elected officials.
Emma de Paz, one of the people taken by masked federal immigration agents on June 19 had been vending outside of the Hollywood store for nearly 25 years, according to a woman who sold food next to her. Though the woman is authorized to be in the U.S., she asked to remain anonymous for fear of being taken by agents.
Despite being terrified, the woman who knew de Paz returned to vending four days after the raid. She needed to work. She said she used to make enough money to pay rent and support her children, but business has gone down since the June 19 raid.
“If we can’t pay, we’ll live on the streets,” she said.
“Everything changed after they showed up the first time,” said the man looking for work to support his four children.
Before the raid, he said he felt comfortable being friendly and engaging with people while looking for work. Now, he’s on constant alert. He said less people are showing up looking for work and that some of his friends don’t leave their homes because they’re scared they’ll be taken by masked men.
The amount of work the man gets on a daily basis has also dwindled. He used to get three jobs a day, now he’s lucky if he gets one. He also said the amount of money people have been paying per job has gone down.
“They’re grabbing all these good average people looking for work,” he said. “Why are they going after us?”
On Tuesday, federal officers arrested four people, including community organizer Jenaro-Ernesto Ayala, on suspicion of interfering with law enforcement while they patrolled a Home Depot in Van Nuys. The four are accused of laying down homemade tire spikes to disrupt officers’ vehicles, officials said.
Ayala has years of organizing experience and took part in Union del Barrio trainings, Romero said, and he doesn’t believe the accusations against Ayala.
Last month, Sen. Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican and chair of the Senate Subcommittee on Crime and Counterterrorism, also launched an investigation into Union del Barrio and multiple other organizations. A letter from Hawley claimed the groups provided logistical and monetary support to protests in Los Angeles that he said “escalated into lawless mob actions.”
ICE officials claim assaults on officers are up significantly and agents face doxing when their identities are known.
“ICE strongly condemns the persecution, assault and doxing of its employees who are accomplishing their congressionally mandated mission to protect the homeland,” ICE said in an emailed statement.
Activists are doing everything they can to work within the law and not be arrested, Romero said, but there are no guarantees they won’t be.
“History teaches us that if you’re doing something that is impacting the system,” Romero said, “you’re going to eventually end up behind bars. We understand that. We’re fully prepared, like I’m mentally, physically, spiritually prepared to go to jail right now. We have to be.”