{"id":83249,"date":"2025-07-22T13:14:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-22T13:14:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/83249\/"},"modified":"2025-07-22T13:14:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-22T13:14:10","slug":"ice-raids-put-a-chill-on-l-a-high-school-football-teams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/83249\/","title":{"rendered":"ICE raids put a chill on L.A. high school football teams"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

On the day immigration agents swooped through MacArthur Park<\/a> in armored vehicles, wearing tactical gear and riding on horseback, Contreras Learning Center football coach Manuel Guevara said more than 20 of his players skipped summer practice.<\/p>\n

\u201cKids were messaging me their parents don\u2019t want them to leave their house,\u201d Guevara said.<\/p>\n

The fear among families with students attending three downtown Los Angeles high schools minutes apart \u2014 Contreras, Roybal and Belmont\u2014 is real.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverybody\u2019s on edge,\u201d Guevara said.<\/p>\n

Players don\u2019t know if their parents will feel safe enough to watch games from the school bleachers this fall.<\/p>\n

As official football practice begins on Monday, three downtown Los Angeles head coaches \u2014 Guevara, Roybal\u2019s Michael Galvan and Belmont\u2019s Kenneth Daniels \u2014 have been in constant communication and united to help their players and parents deal with ICE raids. No one knows when the raids might subside or how the ongoing anxiety might affect teams this fall.<\/p>\n

One of the first raids happened outside an elementary school across the street from Contreras. A 17-year-old Contreras cross country and track athlete, Nory Santoy Ramos, was detained and later deported <\/a>to Guatemala with her mother after showing up for an immigration appointment. Families in the area rely on afterschool programs that are facing budget cuts. Students continue to deal with issues involving homelessness, gangs and drug use at nearby MacArthur Park. <\/p>\n

Even though all three coaches said players feel safe on campus, with Los Angeles Unified School District Supt. Alberto Carvalho vowing to make schools \u201csafe havens,\u201d<\/a> coaches are most concerned about students\u2019 commutes to and from school. <\/p>\n

\"Federal <\/p>\n

Federal immigration agents near MacArthur Park in the Westlake area on July 7.<\/p>\n

(Carlin Stiehl\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

\u201cA piece of me worries about them getting home safe,\u201d Roybal\u2019s Galvan said.<\/p>\n

Guevara said one Contreras player told him he\u2019s 80% certain his mother is going to leave and take him with her because of ICE fears. He\u2019s had kids message him this summer that they couldn\u2019t come to practices because their parents feared for their safety. <\/p>\n

The Times has confirmed U.S. citizens are among those who have been detained during immigration raids in Southern California that have continued for more than six weeks. More than 2,700 people have been arrested during the raids and more than two-thirds of those detained had never previously been convicted of a crime. <\/p>\n

\u201cI understand their plight,\u201d Guevara said. \u201cI was brought here when I was 1. I became a citizen when I was 17. It\u2019s not like you can tell anyone in this situation, \u2018Suck it up.\u2019 It\u2019s a completely different animal. Our area is targeted.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Students <\/p>\n

Students at Miguel Contreras Learning Complex in downtown Los Angeles continue to be affected by ICE raids.<\/p>\n

(Eric Sondheimer \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

Belmont is struggling to field a football team this fall. School enrollment is down to less than 700 after once being a school of more than 6,000 \u2014 the largest in the county \u2014 until Contreras and Roybal were built. Athletic director Carlos Calderon said four sports that have been practicing on the Belmont campus this summer \u2014 cheer, girls volleyball, cross-country and football \u2014 have been affected by parental safety concerns.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve seen a deduction in kids coming to practices and increase communication with parents and having them call us [to say,] \u2018We don\u2019t feel comfortable in kids coming to practice,\u2019\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Calderon, who helps coach cross-country, has had athletes train on the school track instead of running the hills at Elysian Park to assuage parental fears. <\/p>\n

Daniels said after one summer practice, when he learned an ICE raid was unfolding nearby, he instructed players to leave school from the back entrance instead of the front entrance. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really affecting us,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re not getting the numbers we need to get the workouts in.\u201d<\/p>\n

Belmont has 20 football players signed up, but only about half have been showing up for workouts. The team usually adds players once classes begin Aug. 14. Daniels, a walk-on coach, is already consumed by the challenge of building a new house in Altadena after his burned down during the Eaton fire. <\/p>\n

\u201cNothing has been easy in 2025,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Galvan said he\u2019s had players miss practices to go shopping for family members who feel they have to stay home. Others had medical appointments delayed because parents didn\u2019t want to leave their homes.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn all of my 25 years of teaching in the area, I\u2019ve never experienced anything like this,\u201d he said. \u201cYou just don\u2019t know. It\u2019s hard to explain. How do we get through one day? … We\u2019re taking it day by day.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Garfield-Roosevelt game, known as the East L.A. Classic, draws the largest L.A. high school football attendance each year. It\u2019s scheduled for Oct. 24 at a site to be determined and officials want to make sure fans attending feel safe, so a decision on the site and security arrangements in light of continuing ICE raids are being taken into consideration along with budget.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will continue to follow district guidelines to ensure the well-being of our entire school community,\u201d Garfield athletic director Lorenzo Hernandez said in a text message. \u201cOur priority is \u2014 and will always be \u2014 to keep students and families safe, informed and supported.\u201d<\/p>\n

Said Galvan: \u201cWe definitely have to approach this season differently and see who we can accommodate and support the kids and balance understanding the situation and keeping them safe. It\u2019s going to be on a weekly basis how we approach each game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Skipping summer practices won\u2019t prevent a team from going forward. But if players start missing practices this fall, that will cause problems, because practices are needed to help prevent injuries and get athletes into the proper physical condition to participate. <\/p>\n

Guevara still remembers July 7, the day of the MacArthur Park show of force. He addressed players who showed up to practice and were going home.<\/p>\n

\u201cBe vigilant, be careful,\u201d he told them.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a message likely to be repeated again and again this fall.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On the day immigration agents swooped through MacArthur Park in armored vehicles, wearing tactical gear and riding on…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":83250,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[56659,1582,276,55056,56660,16949,246,56658,2449,56662,18996,2961,224,5337,6976,9323,56661,15689,56657,56663],"class_list":{"0":"post-83249","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-belmont","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-california","11":"tag-contreras","12":"tag-elementary-school","13":"tag-fall","14":"tag-family","15":"tag-guevara","16":"tag-ice-raid","17":"tag-kenneth-daniels","18":"tag-kid","19":"tag-la","20":"tag-los-angeles","21":"tag-losangeles","22":"tag-parent","23":"tag-player","24":"tag-roybal","25":"tag-student","26":"tag-summer-practice","27":"tag-track-athlete"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83249","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=83249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/83249\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/83250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=83249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=83249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=83249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}