Los Angeles: Manifestations against ICE methods

In the twilight of Los Angeles, around fifty people generate an unusual din using metal pans and mist horns, in front of a hotel supposed to house American immigration police officers.

For years, this force called “ICE” (immigration and customs, which has been inserted) remained unknown to the general public. But since Donald Trump transformed this federal agency into an armed wing of his anti-immigration policy, the acronym has returned to everyday language.

The demonstration thus sports for slogan: “No sleep for Ice”. They terrorize our community all day. Why can they sleep quietly at night? ”Said a protester by hitting a frying pan.

Like many Californians, this graduate in psychology is indignant by the wave of muscular arrests of immigrants in an irregular situation ordered in Los Angeles by the Trump administration since early June.

The images of ICE agents, often masked and sometimes provided with assault rifles, riding migrants and handcuffing them in courts, farms or car washing, fear and cause anger.

The controversy swells all the more since the immigration police challenge American citizens from time to time, accusing them of having obstructed their action. This happened in Los Angeles, but also a candidate for New York town hall this week. “If they do not sleep, they will not be able to do their job effectively. They will catch fewer people, ”hopes the graduate.

Around him, dozens of people dance in a deafening cacophony in front of the hotel. A woman screams in a megaphone, while a man, with an anti-noise helmet, diffuses thoroughly grirts on an enclosure.

On the crossroads, the demonstrators agitate signs “no rest for Ice” and “Ice out of Los Angeles”. Many cars hide as a sign of support.

“They tear out families, and it’s horrible to see in my community. They can’t sleep if they do this here, ”plagues another manifestrier.

Donald Trump was re-elected by hammering his promise to expel millions of immigrants in an irregular situation in the United States. But its anti-migrant offensive is far from being unanimous, in a country where whole sections of the economy are based on cheap labor offered by undocumented migrants.

The muscular style promoted by its administration is also debated. ICE agents thus wore the mask a habit, to hide their identity. Legal, practice is nonetheless unusual.

“When will our nation be found with a secret police force?” Asked Walter Olson, a researcher at the Cato Institute last month, a libertarian reflection group usually marked on the right.

“For the Trump administration, making mask descents, a common practice, is part of a broader effort aimed at escaping any responsibility for potentially illegal and unconstitutional actions,” he denounced.

In California, a bill under the watchword “no secret police” has just been introduced to parliament and proposes to ban the port of the mask by the police, including the federal agents.

A project denounced by the Trump administration, which ensures that masks are necessary to protect the ICE agents from possible reprisals. The agency benefits from unwavering support from the republican billionaire, which praised a few days ago “the incredible strength, determination and courage” of its agents.

But in Los Angeles, some residents promise not to give in to Ice. “I think it’s a modern Gestapo here in America,” insists a dance teacher. “We will not let it happen. We are not tired. “