L.A. organizers demand moratorium on racist ICE raids

On May 13, pro-immigrant organizations held a press conference and emergency rally to protest the ongoing raids and deportations targeting undocumented workers across the United States.

Juan José Gutiérrez, one of the speakers at the press conference, at a 2007 action.

Community leaders and organizers demanded that the raids and deportations be stopped and called for immediate and comprehensive immigration reform.

The federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid on May 12 in Postville, Iowa, at Agriprocessors Inc., the nation’s largest kosher slaughterhouse, is a prime example of these racist attacks against the working community. About 700 workers, more than half of the plant’s workforce, were arrested in the raid. As a result of this racist action by the federal government, more innocent families have been divided.

The latest raid on the undocumented community is what sparked the Los Angeles call to action.

Speakers at the press conference and rally included Juan José Gutiérrez, Latino Movement U.S.A.; Angelina Corona, Executive Director of Hermandad Mexicana Nacional; Raúl Murillo, president of Federación de Clubes de Chihuahua; Ian Thompson, ANSWER Coalition (Act Now to Stop War and End Racism) organizer and former Iowa resident; and Cecilia Rodríguez, director of Alianza Hondureña de Los Angeles.

“The situation where the immigrant communities are under siege by ICE and other local police agencies has become intolerable,” stated Gutiérrez.

Thompson gave a statement of solidarity with the immigrant community: “These racist raids are crimes against the immigrant communities from small-town Iowa to Los Angeles. There shouldn’t be any second-class citizens. All people who labor should be recognized and treated as equal under the law. We won’t stop organizing until we achieve full rights for all undocumented people and ICE is shut down completely.”

Party for Socialism and Liberation members distributed dozens of candidate statements from Marylou Cabral and Stephen Hinze, PSL candidates for Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, Districts 4 and 5. Both candidates demand that ICE be thrown out of Los Angeles County and that Southern California be designated a sanctuary for undocumented workers.

The action was covered by all the major Spanish-language media stations. ANSWER’s Los Angeles office received dozens of calls of support in the hours following the event.