One year after Massive raids by masked ICE and Border Patrol agents in Los Angelesa group of civil and human rights defense experts dedicated themselves to documenting in a public record the stories of dread and pain experienced by numerous families of detained, arrested, beaten, and deported immigrants.
The document, which will be prepared by experts from California Community Foundation, Hispanic Federation, Latino Victory Foundation, Texas Civil Rights Challenge and CHIRLAwill contain the experiences of individuals, families and communities affected by the mass immigration raids.
In the final report of the so-called Citizen Hearing on the Application of Immigration Laws (Of us’s Listening to on Immigration Enforcement), they would highlight the need for accountability and respect for constitutional guarantees by the administration of President Donald Trump.
Similar hearings have already been held in Minnesota and Illinois, and last month “The Of us’s Represent,” a report on the impact of Operation ‘Metro Surge’ in Minnesota, where they were killed January of this year the Americans Alex Pretti and Renee Correct.
Audience in a climate of uncertainty
“They treated me like an animal,” he recalled. Brian Gavidia, who was beaten by hooded ICE agents in his old mechanical workshop that he had in the city of Montebello.
“No one should be treated cruelly,” he added. “We are all human beings and we have rights.”
The hearing in a California Community Foundation room was held a year after the ICE raids in Los Angelesduring National Immigrant Heritage Month and as the city prepares to host the World Cup.
With Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna recently confirming that ICE will play a role in securing the tournament, Monday’s event took place amid growing questions about immigration enforcement in the city.
“Without prior notice, A year ago our city was attacked,” lamented Mayor Karen Bass. “It was not a foreign nation that sent troops to our city; it was our own administration.”
Bass stated that he always tells people that he wants them to remember June 6, 2025, because it will be a historic moment that the children of all Angelenos, their grandchildren and great-grandchildren will never forget, when the persecution of people began.
“The ICE raids tested us, but they also revealed who we are as a city. They spread fear and wretchedness, but they failed to break us,” Bass said. “Our city stood together. There was not a single corner of the city that considered it a positive thing, that approved of it or that thought it was a good idea. “We remained united and collaborating with organizations defending immigrant rights.”
Bass acknowledged that from the beginning of the persecution of immigrants he knew that Los Angeles would serve as an experiment in barbarism and that the situation would spread nationwide.
“The month of June [de 2025] served as a testing ground for the administration’s plans [Trump]but they failed,” he stressed. “They believed they were going to break us, but in reality they strengthened our determination, because we know that Los Angeles is a city of immigrants. We welcome the whole world, and no one can change that.”
Take responsibility
Rochelle Garza, chair of the United States Commission on Civil Rights, stated that the agency, since 1957, has had the mission of investigating and informing the president and Congress about the federal application of civil rights laws and violations thereof.
Today, this commission remains the only independent and bipartisan federal agency in charge of investigating facts and assuming this responsibility.
“We have the mandate to take civil rights violations very seriously,” he said before listening to the testimonies of people attacked by ICE for several hours, and later call on the Congressional Hispanic Caucus to conduct an independent investigation into the racial profiling of Latinos during immigration management operations.
Garza, a resident of the Texas-Mexico border area, described how immigration enforcement has been part of his daily life.
However, he highlighted that the changes observed in the region and throughout the country during the last year and a half have raised serious concerns regarding civil rights and individual freedoms; Racial profiling, excessive use of force, undermining the right to protest, and digital surveillance are just some of those concerns.
He emphasized that, since the beginning of the Trump administration, it is estimated that 400,000 immigrants have been detained, leaving more than 145,000 citizen children Americans without a parent at home; Among them, 22,000 US citizen children have been left without either of their parents.
“This is family separation,” he said, but clarified that these figures do not include those American citizen children who have been exiled from their own country because they cannot live without their parents.
The memory of Roberto Carlos Montoya
In a video presented by the Coalition for Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA), the testimony of relatives of Guatemalan day laborer Roberto Carlos Montoya Valdés could be heard52 years old, originally from Jutiapa.
He was struck and killed on August 15, 2025 after running onto Highway 210 in Monrovia, in an attempt to flee from an ICE operation carried out at a The Dwelling Depot establishment.
“He communicated every day with us, with his grandchildren. He worked to help them; he told me that I needed to work a little more,” said a woman from the Montoya family. “I didn’t deserve to die like that. I just wanted to fight and work.”
Angélica Salas, executive director of CHIRLA, thanked the opportunity for the citizen audience to be created as a space “where the truth can be told with courage.”
Bearing witness to the suffering that communities have had to endure in a year and a half of the Trump administration, Salas stated that in the face of fear over the “militarized” raids by ICE and the Border Patrol, “our people continue to resist, organize and demand that their humanity be recognized.”
“Their protest is not just an act of desperation, it is an act of courage,” acknowledged the activist, who has spoken with families whose loved ones are now languishing in immigration prisons in California, including those in Adelanto and California Metropolis.
“The majority had never had prior contact with ICE or CBP, and never saw a warrant at the time of their arrest,” he said.
Currently, there are more than 60,000 people in ICE detention in the United States.
