At 5:45 a.m. on a recent Thursday, 20 people stood in a close circle in the parking lot of a Historic South Central donut shop, puffs of breath hanging in the chill air and phones glowing with the latest updates about Immigration and Customs Enforcement activity.
A Unión del Barrio leader assigned patrol areas across South LA to the volunteers, reminding everyone to move slowly, check in regularly by radio and take photos of key intersections and locations for social media — even if ICE wasn’t present — so the community would know no agents were seen.
“There’s more ICE activity this week than there has been in the last couple of weeks — you should know that,” announced one of the group’s leaders, who asked to remain anonymous for safety reasons. “This morning, we heard they were at La Cienega and Jefferson near the Metro line, about five vehicles. That’s all we have so far. So let’s go out — hopefully we see nothing.”
For years, Unión del Barrio has been patrolling the streets of Los Angeles, keeping an eye out for federal immigration agents. The group ramped up its efforts when President Donald Trump was sworn into his second term, but when immigration raids surged last summer, so did their work. Now, the group’s morning updates on social media have become part of daily life for some LA residents, almost akin to checking the weather.
The patrols are still going, LA chapter founder Ron Gochez said, because ICE has hardly slowed down. Federal agents arrested 1,233 people in the region in September, according to an analysis by The LA Local of the most recent ICE records obtained by the Deportation Data Project. The total is about half the number arrested in June, but three times higher than in previous years. Gochez and other activists believe those numbers would be even higher without the persistent efforts of volunteers to track ICE operations, share legal resources and show solidarity with their immigrant neighbors.
“The raids are continuing, the deportations are continuing, and so we have the responsibility to protect our communities,” said Gochez, who served as a driver during the recent early morning patrol. “We’re happy that a lot more volunteers have been joining our efforts. The work is heavy, but it’s an honor to continue to protect our communities.”
In a region as vast as LA County, your awareness of ICE has a lot to do with your ZIP code — and the immigration status of your friends and family.
“The raids are still happening, but they’re not being reported on as much. ICE is also doing them really quickly, they’ll go into some area and grab somebody within minutes and get back in,” said Ritu Estes, an attorney with Public Counsel. “They’re trying to not make a big show of it anymore because they don’t want the neighbors to know what’s happening to try and stop it.”
Unión del Barrio patrols capture fewer ICE operations than they did in early 2025, Gochez said, when agents favored more targeted arrests. The agency has since shifted tactics to more random stops in businesses and public areas, he said.
In the donut shop parking lot, with briefing complete, Gochez hopped into his SUV along with Clemen Avalos, a school psychologist and Unión del Barrio volunteer.
Gochez drove slowly through the residential blocks of the neighborhood. The pair peered out the SUV windows at the vehicles parked along the roadside.
For a moment, Avalos and Gochez thought they spotted something: a hulking black truck. But the pair agreed it was a false alarm.
“It’s pretty dirty, customized rims,” Gochez said. “It’s probably not going to be them.”
ICE was nowhere to be seen that morning in the South LA areas patrolled, but photos from the routes were later posted to Unión del Barrio’s social media pages and widely shared, letting the community know it was safe to step outside.
Avalos said those posts can make a difference for families like the one she works with at her school — offering a small sense of reassurance that ICE isn’t around. She added that the emotional toll of immigration enforcement is especially visible in schools, where fear and uncertainty follow children into the classroom.
“I’ve seen the impact on my students firsthand. Some refuse to come to school because they don’t want to leave their parents, while others make up excuses to visit the nurse just to get back home,” Avalos said. “Kids are terrified of what’s happening. No child should have to fear coming home and not finding their parents.”
Gochez and the other volunteers are starting to feel the exhaustion from their work.
“This is a marathon,” Gochez said.
“It is tiring, we all have full-time jobs and families, but we’re committed,” he added. “We’re going to continue to fight these people. We’re not going to wait for someone else to do this. If it weren’t for organized resistance, it would be more people that they would have taken.”
Even as Gochez is encouraged by the number of people who have stood up against the raids, he’s shaken by the news of an ICE agent killing 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis. Unión del Barrio trains its volunteers to work in pairs and keep their distance from agents. But even those precautions can’t guarantee that an agent won’t open fire.
“It was a horrific act of murder. It hits us particularly hard, because that could have been any one of us, we’ve had guns pointed at us by the feds, and so it really saddened us, enraged us,” Gochez said. “At the same time, it just continues to motivate us to continue to do the work that we’re doing. We’re not going to stop. We’re going to continue.”
While rapid response groups patrol city streets throughout the region, other groups are stationed at Home Depot.
Over the summer, masked agents repeatedly targeted day laborers and street vendors in and around the big box store.
In December, members of the Boycott Home Depot Coalition distributed care packages and know-your-rights flyers they put together at a Home Depot in Westlake. The boycott movement claims Home Depot is cooperating with the federal government by allowing immigration agents onto store property and sharing information about vulnerable workers.
“They have declared war on the people inside the Home Depots, so we have continued to go out with know your rights cards and care packages,” said Quetzal Ceja, a volunteer with the Boycott Home Depot Coalition. “We want to continue to provide what they need to be safe during the raids.”
Home Depot denies cooperating with ICE. In previous statements, the company has said that it does not participate in immigration enforcement and is not notified about operations in advance.
“We’re required to follow all federal and local rules and regulations in every market where we operate,” Home Depot said in a statement posted on X.
Those know-your-rights fliers that have been handed out by a variety of local organizations have made a significant difference, according to Estes, the immigration attorney. Providing people with information about their rights before they’re facing detention, as well as ensuring they have contact information for rapid response groups, is one of the strategies that immigration attorneys and advocates have found most effective over the last six months.
For those who are currently detained, Estes said that the one legal tool that has seen recent success have been habeas corpus petitions.
“In some cases, you can also file group habeas petitions if multiple people have been detained,” she said. You can argue that these individuals were detained in the same way — for example, that they were randomly targeted based on their appearance, that they’re not a flight risk and that they should be released on bond.”
Marissa Montes, a professor with Loyola Law School’s Immigrant Justice Clinic, told Boyle Heights Beat in July that immigration agents had also been seen detaining, questioning and even arresting U.S. citizens and lawful residents.
Montes told Boyle Heights Beat there are a number of steps people – regardless of immigration status – can do to protect themselves, families and neighbors. Here are her tips:
- U.S. citizens and lawful residents should carry valid proof of status if comfortable. Think U.S. passport, state-issued ID or green card.
- If citizenship or legal status is questioned, remain calm and assert your rights. You can ask agents “Do you have a warrant?” and “What’s your name and badge number?”
- If you choose not to provide identification, you can ask agents if you are being detained. If agents say you are not detained, you are free to walk away.
- If you witness a raid or detention, you have a legal right to document what is happening with photos or videos. Call your local rapid response team.
- Communities and families should make a safety plan, considering who to call for childcare, legal help or other support.
