All Eyes on the Valley Rally Calls for an End to Immigration Raids in the 818

While residents celebrated 818 Day across the San Fernando Valley, a coalition of pro-immigrant organizations took to the streets outside Van Nuys City Hall to demand an end to federal immigration raids in the 818. 

The “All Eyes on the Valley” rally on Aug. 18 brought attention to the predominantly Latino communities in the valley that have been terrorized by United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP). 

“There’s nowhere else I’d rather be on 818 Day than in these streets,” said Carla Orendorff, organizer with Aetna Street Solidarity and the San Fernando Valley Homeless Union. “Because we have so much to fight for, we have so much to live for and our resistance is life.” 

Since the President Donald Trump administration chose to target Los Angeles in early June, the valley has seen increasing instances of unidentified masked men with no federal warrant arresting people off the street. 

In fact, between June 6 and July 20, Panorama City was the most targeted area where the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA) LA Rapid Response Network received calls from.

Many of those being detained are street vendors and day laborers, as federal immigration authorities target areas where they work, notably outside home improvement stores. Dozens have been detained in immigration raids outside the Home Depots in the City of San Fernando, North Hollywood and Van Nuys. 

Megan Ortiz is the executive director of the Instituto de Educación Popular del Sur de California (IDEPSCA), a nonprofit organization that operates five of the seven day laborer centers in LA. Three of those centers are co-located with Home Depots.

“Across those day labor centers, they have been raided 12 times,” said Ortiz. “Six of the 12 raids at the Home Depot co-located day labor centers have happened at the Van Nuys Home Depot.”

These detainments can often be violent and dangerous. In Pacoima, a tamales vendor suffered a heart attack when Border Patrol agents grabbed her from behind; in San Fernando, a day laborer broke his leg when fleeing from ICE agents; and in Van Nuys, CBP agents broke windows and dragged laborers out of their vehicles.

Last week in Monrovia, Roberto Carlos Montoya died while fleeing ICE agents. The day laborer was handcuffed when he was hit by a car.

“Two federal judges have said that this is illegal,” said Cal Soto, workers’ rights director at the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON). “Today they continue to illegally arrest people on the corner based on the color of their skin, the language they’re speaking and the type of work they’re seeking. Shame!”

Raids are still taking place despite a temporary restraining order (TRO) being issued by a federal district judge and upheld by the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals. 

“I’m a lawyer. We’re fighting this case in the courts,” said Soto. “But I can tell you one thing, the lawyers and the judges are not going to enforce our human rights. It’s the people on the streets who are going to enforce it.”

Ortiz questioned why the city hasn’t done more to protect the day laborer centers, when these are spaces funded by the city.

“I would like to know from the office of the city attorney if I can obtain a protective order against my day labor centers,” said Ortiz. 

“Every year, you make us tell you how we help thousands of day laborers get jobs across the city. You make us fill out a thousand reports telling y’all [about] all the money that day laborers are bringing to the city economy,” she continued. “Yet you are allowing, day by day, for these workers to be disappeared and stolen from our neighborhoods, from their families.”

Immigration authorities have also targeted those documenting and witnessing the raids. 

At a raid outside the Lowes in Pacoima, one U.S. citizen was violently pulled out of his vehicle and detained by federal agents while documenting, spending hours in the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) custody before being released. Days later, he still had marks on his wrists from the handcuffs. 

At the Van Nuys Home Depot, one of the day laborers center’s staff members and three volunteers documenting the raid were arrested by federal authorities and held for 50 hours in the Metropolitan Detention Center before being released. 

The immigration raids in the valley have even extended to students and schools.

Last week, outside Arleta High School, nearly a dozen masked Border Patrol agents detained, handcuffed and later released a 15-year-old San Fernando High School Student with mental disabilities who was waiting in a vehicle with his grandmother. 

A CBP spokesperson claimed they were not targeting the school, but were conducting an operation aimed at a “criminal illegal alien,” whom they mistook the child for.

In Van Nuys, an 18-year-old rising senior at Reseda Charter High School was detained while walking his dog. He is still being held in custody while awaiting deportation.

“He is like many students who come here with a dream to do better. He should be starting his senior high school year right now, and instead, he is in detention, where he is afraid,” said Lizette Becerra, LA Unified School District (LAUSD) educator and former teacher of the teen. 

“This is not what students need to be worrying about. All students, all children, regardless of their immigration status, have the right to a free and fair education,” she continued. “We as teachers have the moral and legal obligation to protect our students. We would take bullets for our students. We will protect them from ICE.”

Demonstrators called for the release of illegally detained workers and an end to family separations; for Mayor Karen Bass to take action to protect immigrant Angelenos; protection of day laborers; a stop to the targeting of immigrant rights organizations; a ban on ICE at schools; and a cancellation of rent and mortgage payments for those affected by the raids. 

“We will organize, and we will defend, and we will fight back,” said Orendorff. “We will not accept any more kidnappings or abductions. No more killing of our people.”