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LOS ANGELES IS LEADING THE WAY IN RESISTING TRUMP’S MASS
DEPORTATIONS  
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Victoria Valenzuela
February 25, 2025
Waging Nonviolence
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_ Since Trump’s inauguration, Latinos and their allies in LA have
organized walkouts and near daily protests against ICE and in support
of the undocumented community. _

On Feb. 8, thousands marched from Boyle Heights to Downtown Los
Angeles holding Mexican flags and a banner that said “Lucha Contra
Trump,” or fight against Trump, photo: WNV/Luis Sifuentes.

 

On Jan. 20, during President Donald Trump’s inauguration, more than
2,000 people
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20-plus grassroots organizations gathered in Los Angeles to protest
the administration’s immigration policies and promises of mass
deportations. Waving flags of Latin American countries, chanting “Si
Se Puede” and holding signs that denounce ICE and Trump, hundreds
marched from Mariachi Plaza in Boyle Heights, California, to the
federal Metropolitan Detention Center downtown where many detained by
ICE are held. They joined over 60 community organizations
[[link removed]] such
as Black Lives Matter LA and the Palestinian Youth Movement in
protest.

Since Inauguration Day, those in Los Angeles, particularly East L.A.
and Boyle Heights, have held several rallies and protests nearly every
day against ICE and in support of the undocumented community.

“People want an end to the deportations,” said Gabriel Quiroz Jr.,
an organizer with Centro CSO [[link removed]] who
helped organize the Inauguration Day protest. “They’re seeing ICE
in their neighborhoods. They’re hearing reports about ICE activity.
There’s a lot of fear. But then there are a lot of people that are
gonna stand up and fight back against this. They’re not gonna take
this quietly.”

Quiroz said that while Central CSO and other community organizations
in Boyle Heights and East LA have been leading activism efforts, there
have also been a lot of spontaneous protests of people in the
community showing up to gather and wave flags downtown. Quiroz has led
and attended multiple protests since Trump’s inauguration, including
student-led walkouts. As a community organizer, Quiroz has helped
guide the youth protesting. He provided them with a megaphone and a
banner that said “Lucha Contra Trump.”

Following the inauguration, there have been several walkouts of high
school students from their schools in protest of the Trump
administration and ICE raids, particularly in East LA and Boyle
Heights, which are areas that are over 90 percent Latino.

“People are out there for their parents, out there for their
grandparents, or they’re out there for themselves,” Quiroz said.
“Even if we’re documented ourselves, our parents probably
aren’t, our grandparents probably aren’t, so we know that we are
not removed from that struggle. It’s important for us to be out
there.”

Carlos Montes, a member of the Centro CSO, who was also a participant
in the East LA walkouts in 1968
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50 years ago in which thousands of Latinos in the area walked out of
their schools to demand equal treatment — also helped organize the
inauguration protest, attended several others and guided the students
in their walkouts. 

Montes said he is “thrilled and exhilarated that the young
generation has taken the initiative to come out and say no to
deportations and the Trump attacks. I think it’s awesome that the
students are continuing the traditional tactic of the walkouts that we
popularized in ‘68.” 

Leilani Mercardo’s daughter, a sophomore at Garfield High School in
East LA, participated in the student walkouts against ICE. Once
Mercado heard about the walkouts, she joined her daughter and the two
protested in Downtown Los Angeles together.

“I was actually very happy and proud of her,” Mercado said. “It
brings me peace to know that she’s aware of her surroundings.
She’s not going to abide by ignorance and ignore what’s going on
around her, so it was kind of a bittersweet moment, definitely an
opportunity for us to bond.”

Mercado said she has been to three of the protests, one on the
inauguration and two that followed. She said it is important for her
to participate because it helps her feel like she is being part of the
change by being outside and outspoken. 

Having grown up in East LA and raising a daughter there, Mercado feels
strongly for her community. She said that the protests are bittersweet
because “it’s unfortunate that the rights of undocumented people
and our families are being violated, but at the same time, I felt like
we were doing something about it together.”

“It’s very close and dear to my heart,” Mercado said. “I come
from a family of immigrants. I think that almost everybody in this
community does. We’re all affected on some level, and ultimately
this is against the human rights that our people deserve.”

Mercado said that she saw a lot of signs during these protests, but
one that resonated with her the most was one that said “Don’t bite
the hands that feed you.” She said her grandfather, uncle and
cousins were farm workers, so that sign meant a lot to her. Another
sign she said was memorable to her was one that read “Education, not
deportation” because she has many close friends that are
on Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals
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or DACA, which allows children brought to the U.S. to go to school and
work without threat of deportation.

She said that immigrants and undocumented people are often
misrepresented and dehumanized in the media, and she hopes the
protests will change the perception of the false narratives that are
against them.

“They’re good people,” Mercado said. “They’re good humans,
and aside from them having a significant contribution in the community
and family values and respect for the land, they also do contribute
financially with their work, their labor and good morals.”

Quiroz said that the protests were filled with youth, families and
community members in Los Angeles, many waving flags from Latin
American countries and dancing to traditional Mexican songs like “La
Chona [[link removed]],” and supporting
street vendors selling candies and ice cream.

“You got young kids, everybody dancing to music, waving flags, using
the ‘Si Se Puede’ chants, ‘Pueblo Unido’ chants,” Quiroz
said. “It’s pretty cool, because these are chants their parents
… and their grandparents were probably using decades ago. It is
beautiful — that Latino resistance.”

At protests organized by Centro CSO, they have had community members,
advocates and elected officials speak out about why it is important to
fight Trump and support the undocumented community. They also had a
“know your rights” workshop built into a play put on for the
community, which ended in ICE agents being defeated because the
community knew their rights.

Quiroz said that he has noticed an increase in police and ICE presence
in the community since Trump’s inauguration. He said that he has
heard reports of unmarked cars passing by residential areas and
markets. Even at the protests, Quiroz said they faced a lot of police
repression. At one of the protests, police showed up in riot gear
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broke up the crowds with their batons and fired projectile weapons.
Some people were detained at the protests, though no one was charged.
As someone who is experienced with protests, Quiroz was able to help
manage.

“In that situation, I think that having been organizing and being
activists for a couple years now, our leadership is very needed,”
Quiroz said. “So I think it was great for us to be there in that
situation, because we kept people from getting arrested, getting
themselves hurt, because you can’t be protesting here if you’re in
jail and you’re hurt.”

Quiroz said that grassroots organizations will continue to take the
lead and work alongside the community to push the protests forward. He
said the protests are building on Los Angeles’ rich history of
Chicano activism, which includes the East LA walkouts for equal
education and the March 2006 student walkouts
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support of immigrant rights.

In mid-February, over 60 community organizations in Los Angeles formed
the Community Self-Defense Coalition, which is committed to patrolling
neighborhoods and spotting ICE. Quiroz said that they have been
informed on how to spot ICE, verify reports of ICE activity and inform
the community of their activity. He said they are also careful not to
spread fear, but to spread knowledge. 

Mercado said that there have been people creating platforms
[[link removed]] for others who
want to participate and want to help. She said many in the community
are also continuing to promote events and donating their time, money
or supplies in support of the protests to ensure a safe environment.

“If people don’t actually step foot on the ground, go outside,
hold a sign and get the attention of bystanders or the media, nothing
gets done,” Mercado said. “Attention is attracted by holding signs
and being vocal about what it is we want, and it encourages other
people to do the same. Then they come to realize that we’re all
affected by this. It just unifies everyone.”

_Victoria Valenzuela is an independent journalist in California
covering social justice and criminal justice issues. In the past, she
has been published in The Guardian, BuzzFeed News, LAist, Bolts, and
more. She is also a staffer at ScheerPost and has previously worked
with the National Association of Hispanic Journalists, The Marshall
Project, and was part of ProPublica's emerging reporter cohort. She is
currently finishing graduate studies at the University of Southern
California._

_Waging Nonviolence is a nonprofit media organization dedicated to
providing original reporting and expert analysis of social movements
around the world. With a commitment to accuracy, transparency and
editorial independence, we examine today’s most crucial issues by
shining a light on those who are organizing for just and peaceful
solutions._

* deportations
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* immigrant rights
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* Los Angeles
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* Popular Resistance
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