They Saw Their Neighbors Taken Away by ICE. Then They Made a Plan.
They Saw Their Neighbors Taken Away by ICE. Then They Made a Plan.
nytimes.com
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/33893336
By Michelle Goldberg
July 30, 2025, 5:01 a.m. ETThe widespread raids that have upended life in Los Angeles may soon spread to other cities, especially now that Republicans in Congress have increased ICE’s budget to $27.7 billion, up from about $8 billion. (That’s more than that of most militaries.) “We are a petri dish,” Mayor Karen Bass of Los Angeles told me. “They’re experimenting with us. If they come and make this stand in Los Angeles, then they can scare all the other cities, just like the universities have been scared, just like the legal firms have been scared.”
Yet if Los Angeles is a testing ground for mass deportation, it’s also a place to see how the resistance is evolving. Though there have been some big anti-Trump marches this year, many of those most horrified by this administration are looking for more immediate, tangible ways to thwart it. The movement against ICE in Los Angeles — one that is starting to take root, in different forms, in cities like New York — is part of a growing shift from symbolic protest to direct action.
On the one hand I'm glad to see this kind of community response getting covered in places where a lot of people will see it, because it shows the harms of this xenophobic bullshit, how many people are opposed to it, and that fighting back against it is possible
But on the other hand, given their extensive history of contemptible bootlicking, I'm pretty sure the NYT editorial board only greenlit this because they want these people's names and faces documented so they can be harassed by right wing assholes. Author/photographer did a good job of keeping immigration court attendees and day laborers' faces out of her shots at least, but you know if she had presented them with a story where community members who wished to remain anonymous were organizing against ICE the people in charge of NYT would've said it needed to be reported out more, even though they're constantly rubber stamping news articles where anonymous government officials "confirm" straight up lies.