LOS ANGELES — Federal immigration enforcement agents have conducted 471 operations in the Los Angeles area and focused on neighborhoods with a high population of Latinos and communities of color, according to results of an analysis released today by an immigrant-rights group.
The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights Los Angeles, one of the largest-based immigrant rights organizations in the county, released an analysis of recent U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement activities in Los Angeles County.
Using a heat map, the group was able to break down confirmed accounts of ICE operations reported to the LA Rapid Response Network between June 6 and July 20.
“The blatant racial profiling by the Trump administration is clearly visible in this map,” Angelica Salas, executive director for CHIRLA, said in a statement.
“Areas where people of color live and work, which also include major Latino hubs, were racially profiled and targeted,” she said. “This military federal immigration enforcement operation was a surgical attack meant to provide panic and confusion, and unleash terror in our neighborhoods.”
The map, called Areas of Focus for Federal Enforcement Activity, identified the top 10 ZIP codes with the highest number of immigration enforcement actions reported to the Response Network. Those ZIP codes are:
— 91402 with 22 ICE actions in the San Fernando Valley;
— 90660 with 18 actions in Pico Rivera;
— 90026 with 15 actions in the Silver Lake-Echo Park area;
— 90201 with 14 actions in Bell Gardens;
— 90028 with nine actions in Hollywood;
— 90011 with eight actions in Vernon-South Los Angeles;
— 90015 with eight actions in Pico/Union downtown Los Angeles; and
— 90012, 90065 and 90280 with a total of 21 actions, seven each, in Little Tokyo, Glassell Park and South Gate.
The map showed that the communities of Pacoima and North Hills in the San Fernando Valley; Norwalk, Bellflower, Downey and South Gate in Southeast L.A.; and the Pomona area had the highest amount of ICE activity.
In the span of time between June 6 and July 20, CHIRLA received a total of 1,677 calls reporting ICE activity throughout the region. Nearly 1,500 of those reports mention armed agents being present during an enforcement action.
Of these reports, about 389 detail what was described as random arrests of community members.
Additionally, reports from trained first responders noted many ICE agents wore plain clothes, drove unmarked vans and made identification difficult.
ICE activity also occurred near schools, parks, and residential intersections, according to CHIRLA.
The organization noted that in nearly nine out of 10 reports, witnesses could not confirm which federal agency was involved, highlighting what it called a lack of transparency in immigration enforcement efforts.
- Also see: Nearly 2,800 undocumented immigrants have been detained in LA area since early June, DHS says
CHIRLA is one of several organizations suing the Trump administration alleging ICE agents have been detaining people without reasonable suspicion beyond their race, ethnicity or occupation, effectively racially profiling.
Last week, federal officials were pushing to reverse a Los Angeles judge’s ruling that barred immigration agents from such action.
Government lawyers contend the judge’s order halting so-called “roving patrols” of federal immigration agents in the Los Angeles area is a “straight-jacket” that prevents President Donald Trump “from ensuring that immigration laws are enforced.”
The lawsuit against the federal government further alleged federal agencies, including DHS, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and U.S. Customs and Border Protection, engaged in unconstitutional and unlawful immigration enforcement raids by targeting Angelenos based on their perceived race and ethnicity and denying detainees constitutionally mandated due process.
White House border czar Tom Homan previously criticized the order.
“Look, we’re going to litigate that order, because I think the order’s wrong. I mean, (the judge is) assuming that the officers don’t have reasonable suspicion. They don’t need probable cause to briefly detain and question somebody. They just need reasonable suspicion. And that’s based on many articulable facts,” Homan told CNN’s “State of the Union.”