'Community Stoppage' Planned In Response To Immigration Raids

LOS ANGELES, CA — Immigrants rights advocates and labor organizations Thursday announced plans for a "community stoppage" scheduled for Tuesday with a 24-hour boycott of some businesses, and rallies against federal immigration enforcement.

During a news conference at MacArthur Park, the Coalition of Humane Immigrant Rights Los Angeles encouraged residents to participate in several activities and support individuals and families impacted by immigration raids. The announcement came one day after U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security conducted a raid at a Home Depot on Wilshire Boulevard, where agents hid in a Penske truck and descended on day laborers at the site. ICE arrested approximately 16 individuals as a result of the raid.

"On Tuesday, August 12, 2025, for 24 hours we are reclaiming our power to stop the Trump terror. For 24 hours, we are going to boycott companies. We are going to rally, and we are going to support local businesses and street vendors that support our people," Felipe Caceres, a member of Service Employees International Union Local 721, said.

Organizers of the "Paro Communidad/Community Stoppage" called for a boycott of Home Depot, Target, Walmart, McDonalds and Penske.

"Boycott Home Depot, McDonald's and other companies. They are not respecting our rights. They are complicit in these activities. They don't support immigrant workers," Martha Arevalo, executive director of Central American Resource Center of Los Angeles, said. "They're not giving them fair wages and fair contracts. They're not saying anything about the people that are their customers, their clients, their workers."

They will also host rallies at various times and locations throughout the day. Organizers encouraged residents to join the following rally points with addresses to be announced:

• Midnight Fast Food Workers Strike;
• 6 a.m. Community Takeover of MacArthur Park with Coffee Served by "Skid Row Coffee;"
• 10 a.m. MacArthur Park Rally and car caravan to the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors Hall of Administration led by SEIU 2015; and
• 3:30 p.m. rally at Placita Olvera (Olvera Street) and march to the federal detention center.

Aggressive and mass ICE raids began June 6, resulting in the arrest of 2,792 undocumented immigrants in seven counties in and around L.A. Homeland Security announced Wednesday that fewer than 1,400 immigrants were arrested in the region last month.

Some immigration experts suggested that decrease was due to a federal court order limiting the scope of immigration-enforcement operations in the area.

A federal judge last month issued a temporary restraining order preventing the government from stopping individuals in violation of the Fourth Amendment and requiring the government to provide detained individuals with access to counsel.

The federal government appealed the ruling, but last week, a three- judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declined to put a stay on the ruling. The federal government is likely to appeal to the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court.

The restraining order, however, did not prevent Wednesday's operation. On X, U.S. Attorney for Los Angeles Bill Essayli acknowledged the operation, writing, "For those who thought immigration enforcement had stopped in Southern California, think again. The enforcement of federal law is not negotiable, and there are no sanctuaries from the reach of the federal government."

Essayli defended the raid as being within the scope of reasonable suspicion.

CHIRLA was among groups who sued the federal government for their "roving patrols" and enforcement tactics.

"We're so proud of the work we did to document all of the abuses that led our courts to say you do need a temporary restraining from the federal agents as they are conducting immigration enforcement throughout the Los Angeles region," Angelica Salas, executive director for CHIRLA, said.

"We believe in the courts, and we believe in the Constitution, and we're going to continue to fight in the courts because we have rights, and we're going to affirm those rights in every way possible," she added.

She criticized the federal government's actions Wednesday, adding "they once again attacked our community."

"Your eyes do not lie, and I need you to understand that what you saw, we saw and our community lived," Salas said. "They lived through that and it was in this one — the same Home Depot — where we had our first raid on June 6."

Salas reiterated that it will take using every power they have such as economic and legal.

"We're going to the courts, but we also need to mobilize in the streets and move public opinion and the court to stand strong against all of these attacks," Salas said. "We're also asking for corporate accountability because it is not a coincidence that over and over again, we have these raids on Home Depot."

Additionally, participants are encouraged to purchase from local street vendors and if possible buy them out.

"There's so many street vendors who feel terrorized, so if you can go to your local street vendor to buy their flowers, buy their food and buy the things that they're selling because they deserve to have an opportunity in this moment that they are suffering," Salas said.

The scheduled day of action is part of the organizations' "Summer of Resistance" against federal immigration enforcement.

City News Service