Dozens of community members shared personal stories about their everyday fears and encounters with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) during a gathering at Pacoima Charter School with educators, One LA organizers and Congresswoman Luz Rivas.
More than 60 local residents, including parents from Pacoima Charter and nearby Vaughn schools, attended the May 5 meeting. They were encouraged to share their personal feelings and experiences, either in front of the entire group or during smaller roundtable discussions described as “listening sessions.”
To help maintain their privacy, some participants allowed others to share their stories on their behalf, while others discussed their own experiences without disclosing their full names. A common theme that was repeatedly addressed was fear, including fear about leaving home every morning to take their kids to school or to take them to the playground or other places to have fun.
“My older children kind of understand what’s happening and why we’re scared to leave the house. One of them asked me, ‘Mom, why is the president such a bad man?’” recounted one undocumented mother with a sad smile during a small-group discussion at her table. “But the younger ones don’t understand what’s going on; they don’t know why we’re often stuck inside the house – and they shouldn’t be. Children should be outside, playing and having fun.”
The mother, who stays at home with the kids while her husband goes to work in downtown Los Angeles, said her family implemented a few rules to try to remain safe and connected. When her husband goes to work, he calls or texts her multiple times throughout the day to assure her that he’s OK. And when he’s not working, they always go out together as a family, that way, she said, “If anything happens” – specifically, if they encounter ICE agents – “at least we’ll be together.”
Another Pacoima community member shared the personal account of an unnamed employee of Vaughn School, whose husband was deported last August. The man was driving and was one block from home when ICE agents cut him off, pointed their guns at him and pulled him out of his car.
“At no point did they identify themselves as ICE agents or show him an arrest warrant signed by a judge,” she said. The woman’s husband ended up at a detention facility in Bakersfield. His family was allowed to provide authorities with the man’s medications for diabetes and high blood pressure. “[But] they only provided those medications [to him] for the first four months.”
The man soon started losing weight and became very sick with the flu and a cough, but they continued withholding his medicines. He witnessed fellow detainees falling ill as well, but none of them were ever allowed to see a doctor. “For all these reasons, after six months in detention, the family supported him when he decided to sign his voluntary release [to his native country].
“This has greatly affected their family, not just financially, since she no longer has her husband’s income,” she continued. “This family has been affected most of all emotionally, since the wife is now alone and misses [her husband], who is adjusting to living in a new country, very much.”
“Every day, we hear new stories of people who have been abducted on the street, taken away in vans and transported to unknown locations,” said One LA organizer Camila Rios. “Some stories appear in the media, others are posted on social media, [but] many are shared only in private conversations. Immigrant families need spaces where their stories and voices can be heard.
“The two words I’ve heard most often … in conversations within the community, parishes and schools are ‘fear’ and ‘resignation,’” added Rios. If they are ever detained and deported, they are resigned to accept it, she explained. But until or if that happens, many undocumented immigrants across the country are currently living in a near-constant state of fear every day, she explained.
“Like the story of a woman who, while her husband was at the dentist, went to the supermarket, where she found ICE vans and [ran back] to the dentist’s office to hide inside for hours,” said Rios. “Or the family who [hid] among the trees because they had gone swimming in a lake where ICE showed up. Or something as simple as deciding not to go to the park anymore [due to] fear of being found there. This is no way to live.”
The goal of the listening sessions, which One LA started organizing last fall, according to Rios, is to help establish an official record of first-person testimonies related to the impact of existing immigration policies and enforcement efforts, to help distinguish facts from rumors.
Rivas commended the “bravery and resilience” of the community members who showed up to share their stories. The Congresswoman shared her own account of being the child of an undocumented single mother while she was growing up and attending school in Pacoima.
“We were very afraid,” recalled Rivas. “These raids don’t just affect adults and families; they affect children, too. They should be here at school learning, playing, dancing and singing. [Instead], they’re filled with fear, anxiety and dread.”
Rivas said her mother was able to attain legal status under the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986. Now, as a lawmaker, Rivas said she hopes to help make immigration reform a reality in the future, but admitted it’s unlikely to happen under the current administration.
But until Democratic leaders can take control of Congress, Rivas said she and her staff will continue to do whatever they can to help her constituents, including helping people find out which detention facility their relatives are being held in.
“I will always fight for my district,” said Rivas, “and continue to hold the Trump administration accountable for the nightmare they are forcing immigrant communities across the country to live through.”