<\/p>\n
Screenshot from a video of officers running, captured by a witness filming what he characterized as an immigration raid at the Wilshire\/Union Home Depot in Los Angeles on June 6.<\/p>\n
(Mario Rodas)<\/p>\n
An up-close view of immigration raids<\/p>\n
Consider some scene from just the last few days:<\/p>\n
- \n
- \u201cBitches,\u201d<\/a> one woman whispers as she records agents making arrests at a La Puente Home Depot.<\/li>\n
- \u201cWhat\u2019s wrong with you?!\u201d<\/a> a woman screams while filming the ICE arrest of a street vendor selling tacos in Ladera Heights.<\/li>\n
- \u201cYou don\u2019t have to talk! You don\u2019t have to talk! Tell me your name and I will get you help,\u201d someone tells an elderly man as he is escorted in handcuffs into an unmarked SUV.<\/li>\n
- \u201cYou can\u2019t treat him like this,\u201d a woman screams as agents surround and tackle a man in Cypress Park. <\/li>\n
- A symphony of horns rings out<\/a> as a warning when<\/a> Border Patrol trucks roll into a Pico Rivera parking lot.<\/li>\n
- A construction worker several stories above Figueroa Street calmly explains how many Mexican and Guatemalan members of his crew fled the job site when Border Patrol trucks drove by<\/a>.<\/li>\n
- A Border Patrol truck, siren blaring, gives chase through a foggy strawberry farm in the city of Oxnard.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
This looks familiar, but …<\/p>\n
These images hold such power because they are both familiar and foreign. I know that corner in Koreatown. I\u2019ve bought groceries at that Walmart. I used to drive by that shopping center in Santa Ana every morning.<\/p>\n
The locations are recognizable, even comforting, yet the vibes are anything but. A row of camouflage Humvees on the 105 Freeway. Abandoned work sites, food trucks, fruit vending carts, and even lawn mowers left running after the gardeners were arrested.<\/p>\n
The images are so incongruous they bring to mind those early pandemic views of L.A.\u2019s empty freeways. Or the CGI-generated destruction of the downtown skyline in the final act of a disaster movie. Or the disoriented expressions on the faces of people after the shaking of an earthquake finally subsides.<\/p>\n
I know this place, but what has happened to it?<\/p>\n
\u201cTortilla Curtain\u201d was published in 1995 during one of California\u2019s anti-immigrant waves. The year before, voters had approved Proposition 187, which barred undocumented immigrants in California from receiving many public services.<\/p>\n
Boyle\u2019s novel captured those times and won acclaim for its uncomfortably biting satire of white fear and brown exploitation in one of those \u201cperfect\u201d L.A. suburbs that those with means regard as an escape hatch. The undocumented workers in his book are treated with unrelenting, almost comic cruelty. They have no allies.<\/p>\n
And that is where 2025 is different from 1995, at least according to my algorithm.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s remarkable how often strangers come to the defense of those swept up, even risking arrest by getting into it with agents. Consider:<\/p>\n
I was scrolling my phone Monday night when I stopped on one reel. I know that intersection! That\u2019s 7th Street right around Cal State Long Beach. A traffic nightmare. In the median, one man is selling fruit and another is selling flowers. The person holding the camera screams from across the street \u201cLa Migra!\u201d and urges them to leave. After a bit of confusion, they take his advice and pack their things.<\/p>\n
Another video starts with the sounds of a woman wailing behind a truck in West L.A.<\/a> \u201cMy father was on his way to work. They must have pulled him out by force,\u201d she is heard crying in Spanish. \u201cOh, Father, he\u2019s an elderly man \u2026 He couldn\u2019t do anything to them.\u201d The camera finally reveals her on the ground. But she is not alone. Four seeming strangers are at her side, comforting her.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s more from our coverage of the ICE raids and arrests:<\/b><\/p>\n
The week\u2019s biggest stories
<\/a> <\/p>\n
(Carlin Stiehl \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n
Inside the L.A. Zoo\u2019s messy $50-million breakup<\/p>\n
- \n
- The city\u2019s contract with the Greater Los Angeles Zoo Assn., which governs fundraising, special events and more, ended on Tuesday, leaving the zoo in a precarious place, with no firm plan for how to proceed.<\/li>\n
- At stake in the messy divorce is a nearly $50-million endowment<\/a> that each side claims is theirs and that funds much of the zoo\u2019s special projects, capital improvements and exhibit construction.<\/li>\n
- The 59-year-old zoo, which occupies 133 acres in the northeast corner of Griffith Park, has become increasingly dilapidated and is struggling to maintain its national accreditation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Why a Central Valley legislator voted for Trump\u2019s megabill<\/p>\n
- \n
- Central Valley Rep. David Valadao put his political future in deeper peril<\/a> this week by voting in favor of legislation that slashes Medicaid coverage<\/a> essential to more than a half-million of his constituents \u2014 the most of any district in the state.<\/li>\n
- Valadao said he voted to support the bill because of concessions he helped negotiate that will help his district, including funds for rural hospitals and water infrastructure.<\/li>\n
- Democrats have vowed to use Valadao\u2019s vote to oust him from office in the 2026 election.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Paramount agrees to pay $16 million to settle Trump\u2019s CBS \u201860 Minutes\u2019 lawsuitMore big storiesThis week\u2019s must-readsMore great readsFor your weekend
<\/a> <\/p>\n
The strawberry matcha latte from Ondo Coffee Co. <\/p>\n
(Shelby Moore \/ For The Times)<\/p>\n
Going outStaying inL.A. Timeless<\/p>\n
A selection of the very best reads from The Times\u2019 143-year archive.<\/p>\n
Have a great day, from the Essential California team<\/p>\n
Kevinisha Walker, multiplatform editor
Andrew Campa, Sunday writer
Karim Doumar, head of newsletters<\/p>\nHow can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to essentialcalifornia@latimes.com<\/a>. Check our top stories<\/a>, topics<\/a> and the latest articles<\/a> on latimes.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Nearly a month into the ICE sweeps that have upended immigrant life in Southern California, I found myself…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":40872,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[1582,276,11791,7823,4140,4238,11789,99,6276,2961,224,2444,5337,11395,7825,5996,11792,11790,3549,290,6620,7827],"class_list":{"0":"post-40871","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-california","10":"tag-civic-revolt","11":"tag-covid","12":"tag-covid-19","13":"tag-days","14":"tag-essential-california","15":"tag-israel","16":"tag-l-a","17":"tag-la","18":"tag-los-angeles","19":"tag-los-angeles-times","20":"tag-losangeles","21":"tag-may","22":"tag-pandemic","23":"tag-part","24":"tag-president-biden","25":"tag-red-county","26":"tag-san-diego","27":"tag-state","28":"tag-time","29":"tag-years"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/114800913550963576","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40871","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40871"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40871\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40872"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40871"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40871"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40871"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
- The 59-year-old zoo, which occupies 133 acres in the northeast corner of Griffith Park, has become increasingly dilapidated and is struggling to maintain its national accreditation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
- \u201cWhat\u2019s wrong with you?!\u201d<\/a> a woman screams while filming the ICE arrest of a street vendor selling tacos in Ladera Heights.<\/li>\n