{"id":163898,"date":"2025-08-21T13:47:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-21T13:47:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/163898\/"},"modified":"2025-08-21T13:47:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-21T13:47:09","slug":"la-ice-protests-spurred-us-military-to-identify-hotels-to-avoid-due-to-harassment-los-angeles-ice-protests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/163898\/","title":{"rendered":"LA Ice protests spurred US military to identify \u2018hotels to avoid\u2019 due to \u2018harassment\u2019 | Los Angeles Ice protests"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Donald Trump<\/a>\u2019s administration escalated<\/a> immigration raids in Los Angeles<\/a> earlier this summer, protest organizers responded with actions staged in an unusual setting: the hotels where immigration officers were staying.<\/p>\n

Protests took place at several southern California hotels where Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents had been spotted. Some activists launched \u201cNo sleep for Ice\u201d rallies<\/a>, with chants and music blaring through the night, in hopes of pressuring the hotels to kick agents out<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Now, public records shared with the Guardian show that the protests indeed sent federal agencies scrambling to find hotels for their officers in LA where they would not be \u201charassed\u201d.<\/p>\n

A 16 June email from the US marines shows that military officials made a list of \u201cLA Hotels to Avoid\u201d. The information came from multiple law enforcement agencies who were tracking the community backlash to Ice and the border patrol, the marines said. The list was written by Army North, the domestic defense command deployed on the ground during the protests<\/a>, and reviewed by the navy\u2019s south-west division.<\/p>\n

The documents, obtained by Property of the People<\/a>, a government transparency non-profit, suggest protesters successfully disrupted Trump\u2019s immigration crackdown by targeting hotels, though the extent of their impact is not clear from the records.<\/p>\n

An email thread shows a Marine Corps analyst in San Diego sent the list of LA hotels to the San Diego Law Enforcement Coordination Center (SD-LECC) seeking a similar list of properties to avoid in San Diego. The analyst\u2019s duties include \u201ccritical infrastructure protection\u201d and their name was redacted. The SD-LECC is a fusion center where local, state and federal agencies share intelligence.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have operations in the area and are looking to avoid issues wherever possible,\u201d the analyst wrote, saying the LA list was based on reports of \u201charassment of Ice and CBP personnel\u201d.<\/p>\n

People protest outside a hotel in Pasadena, California, on 12 June. Photograph: Jason Armond\/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images<\/p>\n

Authorities did not disclose the hotel names or further communications to Property of the People, so it is also unclear how widely hotel demonstrations erupted and were tracked.<\/p>\n

Spokespeople for the marines and the navy declined to comment, deferring to the army, which did not respond to inquiries. Ice and CBP also did not respond to inquiries.<\/p>\n

Kristi Laughlin, SD-LECC\u2019s deputy director, told the Guardian that SD-LECC was not aware of protests taking place at hotels in the San Diego region and did not provide a list in response to the military\u2019s request.<\/p>\n

The military\u2019s apparent efforts to help federal personnel avoid demonstrators at hotels came after Trump took the extraordinary step of deploying the national guard and marines<\/a> to respond to LA protests. The move polled<\/a> poorly among US residents and led to reports of low morale among troops<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Ryan Shapiro, executive director of Property of the People, which filed a series of records requests on the LA immigration raids, said it was remarkable that US armed forces apparently had to search for accommodations where they would not be protested, an unusual predicament he attributed to the widespread outrage at the administration.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe document reveals that Trump\u2019s nativist crusade, carried out by masked Ice thugs, is so widely detested that now the US military feels the need to hide from Americans on American soil,\u201d Shapiro said in an email.<\/p>\n

Advocates involved in the protests said the emails seemed to affirm the effectiveness of the demonstrations, some of which were organized spontaneously by nearby residents. News reports in June chronicled hotel demonstrations across LA county municipalities, including Pasadena<\/a>, Glendale<\/a>, Long Beach<\/a>, Whittier<\/a>, Downey<\/a>, Monrovia<\/a> and Montebello<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\u201cWorking-class people saw this as a way to participate in the struggle against Ice,\u201d said Ron Gochez, a leading member of Uni\u00f3n del Barrio, a group that documents Ice actions<\/a> in LA. At the height of the June raids, his group received five to 10 calls a day from people who had spotted immigration officers at hotels, Gochez said. Once the reports were verified through photos or hotel employees, Uni\u00f3n del Barrio alerted other community groups in their networks.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of hotel workers were not only mad about officers staying there, but were in fear because they were undocumented,\u201d he said. \u201cPeople want to make life difficult for these agents as they are kidnapping and separating families. And for the agents to constantly hear that they are unwanted, that people in society hate what they\u2019re doing, that they will go down in history as kidnappers and collaborators, I think that gets to them psychologically.\u201d<\/p>\n

One of the first hotel demonstrations took place on 8 June at the AC Hotel in Pasadena, a Marriott property, where, according to a state senator, immigration officers were lodging and had questioned staff<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted to alert the community that Ice was staying at the hotel and let Ice know they were not welcome in Pasadena,\u201d said Jose Madera, director of the Pasadena Community Job Center, a day laborer center.<\/p>\n

Widely shared footage showed protesters cheering as federal vehicles left the AC Hotel, with agents seen exiting with their bags stacked on a cart, the LA Times reported<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was effective because the community organically organized itself, and people did not leave until they physically saw the agents leave,\u201d Madera said. \u201cIt\u2019s a source of pride for the people who live and work in Pasadena that we started this and sparked other communities to organize to get Ice out of their hotels \u2026 It\u2019s going to take many strategies to slow down and stop Ice raids.\u201d<\/p>\n

At the Glendale Hilton on 12 June, protesters posted footage<\/a> of a woman who identified herself as hotel management greeting protesters<\/a> and saying officers had left and would no longer be staying there.<\/p>\n

Representatives of the Glendale and Pasadena hotels did not respond to inquiries.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt helped combat this feeling of hopelessness,\u201d said Teto Huezo, who was involved in the Glendale protests and is part of an LA community self-defense coalition that monitors Ice. He said he hoped more protests would pressure hotels to publicly commit to keeping Ice out. \u201cCommunity members should be proud of these wins. The lesson is, we can be so much more organized and smarter than these agencies, and when we don\u2019t want them in our neighborhoods, we can actually take actions to force them out.\u201d<\/p>\n