The Los Angeles Schoolteacher Leading the Fight Against ICE

The Trump administration s war on immigrants is expanding Homeland Shield Secretary Kristi Noem on Sunday established its deportation operations would ramp up in Chicago and other major U S cities in the coming weeks When the new fiscal year kicks in October Immigration Customs and Enforcement can begin tapping billions in new funds from President Trump s Big Beautiful Bill With the agency seeking to hire new agents Americans can expect more violent raids snatching their neighbors off the streets The epicenter of America s anti-immigrant campaign has been Los Angeles and its surrounding cities where thousands have been arrested since June Almost every day this summer federal agents from ICE and U S Boundary Patrol have stalked Home Depot parking lots car washes and immigrant communities across Southern California detaining people based on ethnicity or language If they break LA they can break any district in this country But as the Trump administration s war on immigrants expands so does the resistance against it It s essential that they break LA commented Ron Gochez a high school history educator and leading member of the LA-based grassroots group Uni n Del Barrio If they break LA they can break any district in this country Gochez and Uni n Del Barrio are a part of the Group Self-Defense Coalition a infrastructure of dozens of grassroots groups The infrastructure conducts daily street patrols to warn their neighbors of practicable ICE activity Filmmaker Brandon Tauszik embedded with Gochez and other members of Uni n Del Barrio throughout the summer for The Intercept In the documentary film A City Fights Back How LA Defends Itself Against ICE activists show a multifaceted strategy of opposition They drive the streets in search of federal agents monitor highway off-ramps to flag suspicious cars entering their communities organize protests and recruit and train new members willing to combat ICE For Gochez a high school educator and a father the stakes are increasingly personal Ron Gochez at a rally outside a Home Depot in Los Angeles Photo Brandon Tauszik The Intercept On August federal agents snatched up high school trainee Benjamin Marcelo Guerrero-Cruz while he was walking his dog in Van Nuys days before he was set to begin his senior year at Reseda Charter High School He remains in ICE detention at a privately owned facility miles away in Adelanto California Days later agents detained at gunpoint Nathan Mejia outside of Arleta High School before releasing him later that day Both Mejia and Guerrero-Cruz are students in the Los Angeles Unified School District where Gochez teaches In the film he reflects on how his fight is intertwined with that of the next generation It s a constant reminder why we struggle and why we do what we do he says while playing with his son One day when we re no longer here and he ll be here and maybe his children they ll have a better life than what we had and what our parents had so we re fighting for the next seven generations and he s next up This project was supported by the Economic Hardship Reporting Project with funding made attainable by The Puffin Foundation The post The Los Angeles Schoolteacher Leading the Fight Against ICE appeared first on The Intercept