by Suyapa Portillo | Special to the Courier
We are living in a military occupation of Los Angeles orchestrated by the Trump regime. Let that sink in. Read it again. For most of the summer we have endured federal agents of different sorts (ICE, CBP, DHS, FBI) and paramilitaries (or “empowered bounty hunters,” as the media is calling them) roaming the streets of Los Angeles with ski masks and loaded high-caliber weapons as if they are in a war zone. Their target: defenseless and unarmed Angelenos.
It doesn’t matter if their number is reducing now; they are still here. The damage has been done. They have picked up immigrants, both citizens and non-citizens, by racially profiling Mestizo Latinés, Asian, Black, and Indigenous communities. Still, we wait for real action in response, and the longer we wait, the more I am concerned, especially now that another American city, Washington, D.C., is being subjected to the same treatment.
The current U.S. administration is looking more and more like authoritarian countries in Central America during the 1980s: We are seeing similar racial and ethnic cleansing tactics, kidnappings, disappearances, unlawful detentions, persecution of media and NGOs and student activists. The administration’s minions are taking people at work, while vending fruits and tamales, at Home Depots throughout the southland, in their homes, in their neighborhoods, and in the streets, all at random and with no discernible strategy or tact. These officials perform wartime maneuvers as they grab anyone without asking for an ID or even identifying themselves. The process seems to be simple: kidnap now, ask questions later, Constitution and due process be damned.
The irony is the reign of terror visible now on our streets is what the U.S. State Department specialized in and provided training for Central American dictators and their killer militaries. We shouldn’t be surprised.
The lawlessness and blatant disregard for the courts by the administration is garnering no support across the nation for them and the Republican Party. Many are asking questions about what happens next, what counter measures can be taken, and very few answers are forthcoming.
Where is the plan to stop them? Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and California Governor Gavin Newsom have come out with strong statements and social media posts, but no plans. Now, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser is speaking out, but it is unclear if her strategy will be any different from Bass and Newsom’s. The fact is, the majority of the Democratic Party is laying low, silently sulking under these extreme violations to civil, political and human rights for all of us.
What will it take to stop the Trump administration from continuing to attack our immigrant communities or the homeless? Are Angelenos and D.C. citizens alone on the political map of this country, and does the Democratic Party only seek votes and dollars from us and ignore our needs? This seems to be true, and it doesn’t just apply to the current situation; in two Obama administrations, in fact, they barely moved a finger to defend and protect immigrants.
We want to know what the plan is to stop Trump and these raids. How do states defend themselves from a rabid and deranged president who has brought chaos and destruction to our communities? Why is it that our local and state governments cannot do anything to defend us?
Angelenos, many of whom are immigrants, are taking it upon themselves to defend their neighbors, putting their unarmed bodies against masked vigilantes. Must immigrants do all the labor in this city and state and still do the work of defending themselves, too? (We will see what D.C. citizens decide to do.)
Who will be first to act against and separate themselves from state-sponsored terror beyond press conferences and social media posts?
We want to know. We have so many questions. We are still waiting for answers.
Suyapa Portillo is a professor of Chicano/a–Latino/a transnational studies at Pitzer College.