LOS ANGELES — Immigration officers have been repeatedly noticed exterior a Hollywood homeless shelter since Might, main workers to accompany residents from war-torn nations to work, errands and courtroom.
An government on the shelter that serves individuals ages 18 to 24 stated she noticed two Venezuelan males handcuffed and arrested by ICE brokers after they returned to the shelter from work.
“There was no dialog,” stated the worker, Lailanie, who requested that her final identify not be used as a result of she feared retribution from Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
She stated about half a dozen immigration officers went as much as the residents “and put their fingers behind their backs instantly.”
Homeless shelters look like one other goal within the Trump administration’s ongoing immigration crackdown, which has resulted in almost 3,000 arrests within the Los Angeles space. They now be a part of House Depots, 7-Elevens and hashish farms as areas the place the federal authorities is finishing up its mass deportation effort.
Along with the Hollywood shelter, service suppliers have reported seeing immigration enforcement at shelters in North Hollywood and San Diego, based on native media.
Immigration officers didn’t reply to an e-mail asking if homeless shelters are being focused as a part of enforcement efforts.
With greater than than 72,300 unhoused individuals, Los Angeles County is the epicenter of the nation’s homelessness disaster. What number of of them are immigrants is unknown as a result of the federally mandated annual rely doesn’t embody citizenship questions.
The encounter on the Hollywood shelter occurred just a few weeks earlier than President Donald Trump ordered the Nationwide Guard and U.S. Marines to the area in response to large-scale protests in opposition to his deportation efforts.
Service suppliers in Los Angeles stated the stepped-up enforcement effort has made their work harder as a result of their shoppers are consumed by fears of deportation.
Donald Whitehead Jr., government director of the Nationwide Coalition for the Homeless, stated the aggressive operation “places a goal” on the backs of homeless immigrants.
“It villainizes them,” he stated.
At one other shelter, The Individuals Concern in downtown Los Angeles, fewer shoppers are stopping by to make use of showers and different public services as a result of they’re afraid ICE brokers will present up, stated CEO John Maceri.
He stated even U.S. residents at its everlasting housing facility within the San Fernando Valley are hesitant to go exterior as a result of they’re afraid they are going to be stopped and questioned by ICE.
“Frankly, anyone who’s dark-skinned, Black and brown individuals, however significantly dark-skinned brown individuals, don’t wish to exit,” Maceri stated. “They don’t wish to go to the grocery retailer. A couple of of them are lacking work. They’re actually scared. This worry issue is admittedly taking impact.”
The best concentrations of ICE arrests in Los Angeles have occurred within the predominantly Latino neighborhoods of the San Fernando Valley, based on the nonprofit Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, or CHIRLA.
U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla, who’s from the San Fernando Valley and was himself handcuffed by federal brokers final month at a information convention by Homeland Safety Secretary Kristi Noem, stated the numbers mirror a technique by the Trump administration to focus on weak communities, not simply the violent criminals he promised to arrest throughout his marketing campaign.
“That is an administration who proudly modified coverage to pursue these enforcement actions in workplaces, in colleges, together with elementary colleges, and homes of worship,” he stated. “In the event that they have been solely specializing in harmful, violent criminals, you’re not going to seek out them at colleges and church buildings and homeless camps.”
A map launched Tuesday by CHIRLA confirmed that 471 of the two,800 arrests made by the Division of Homeland Safety from June 6 to July 20 occurred in predominantly Latino neighborhoods within the San Fernando Valley. It didn’t specify how most of the arrestees have been homeless individuals.
CHIRLA President Angelica Salas stated the information highlighted “racial profiling” by federal officers, who’ve denied concentrating on individuals based mostly on their pores and skin colour.
“What makes somebody a goal of ICE is that if they’re illegally within the U.S. — NOT their pores and skin colour, race, or ethnicity,” DHS stated in a latest assertion.
On Thursday, Trump signed an government order that encourages cities to take away homeless individuals from their streets. Whitehead stated the order might set off extra arrests of homeless individuals and additional heighten their fears.
On the homeless shelter the place the 2 Venezuelan males have been arrested, residents stay on excessive alert, Lailanie stated. Immigrants at the moment are accompanied to work, errands and courtroom appointments by workers in unmarked automobiles with out the group’s brand.
Officers on the shelter requested that its identify not be used out of worry of retribution by the Trump administration.
The Venezuelans, who’re 20 and 22 years previous, barely communicate English and had been residing on the shelter for just a few weeks earlier than they have been arrested, she stated.
That they had not been there lengthy sufficient to be paired with immigration legal professionals, she stated. The 22-year-old was deported, and workers have been unable to find the youthful man, she stated.
Because the arrests, workers members have witnessed not less than three immigration stakeouts across the facility, two shelter workers stated.
On one event, a uniformed officer requested to make use of a rest room inside the middle. A upkeep employee allowed him to enter as a result of he didn’t know what else to do, the 2 workers stated.
Staffers have additionally seen unmarked black SUVs parked close to the middle and within the car parking zone.
Most not too long ago, an asylum-seeker from the Democratic Republic of Congo who had been residing on the shelter was arrested after reporting to immigration courtroom, based on two individuals who work on the shelter.
The staff stated that earlier than his arrest, he had issue making use of for jobs as a result of he wore an ankle monitor, which was given to him when he introduced himself to immigration officers.
Confused, he went to immigration courtroom and requested officers to take away the monitor, the 2 workers stated, however he was arrested as an alternative. He was taken to the Excessive Desert Detention Heart in Adelanto, California, whereas his lawyer pleaded his asylum case, which continues to be pending, based on Lailanie.
He fears being returned to central Africa, the place his father was killed, she stated.
“Persons are scared and individuals are hurting, however individuals are additionally compelled to proceed to do the work and do the precise factor and attempt to struggle for the precise factor,” she stated.
