Just before midnight on June 13, 2025, a small group of activists gathered quietly outside the Residence Inn by Marriott in Long Beach, California. A few blocks away, the scene was louder and more charged: demonstrators with megaphones chanted outside the Holiday Inn near the Long Beach airport, while police officers stood guard near the front of the establishment.
Word had spread through social media that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents had reportedly checked into both hotels. Within the hour, a small contingent of local residents had arrived at both establishments. They were there to make sure ICE agents didn’t sleep.
This was one of several “No Sleep for ICE” events that popped up during the month of June. In a time when large-scale protests often dominate headlines, a different kind of resistance is taking root across Southern California. Small, decentralized networks of community members are using stealthy tactics and real-time coordination to monitor, disrupt, and expose the movements of federal immigration officers…