This piece reflects on Ezequiel Andrade’s experience as a community activist during an ICE raid that occurred at the Home Depot on Slauson and Western in South Central Los Angeles on 10/27/25. It captures the timeline of events of how an ICE raid is executed and the impact on the working-class immigrant families.
The working-class people of Los Angeles have every right to defend themselves against masked, unidentified gunmen in ICE uniforms. We have a right to collective self-defense against terrorism, discrimination and human rights violations carried out by a fascist, tyrannical government that seeks to keep its working poor in unjust economic conditions. It is a right we must continually remind our communities of if we want our organizing efforts to grow in reach and impact.
With the passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBB) in July 2025, a staggering $170 billion of our tax dollars are being placed into the hands of DHS and ICE, funding racist immigration enforcement policies on a scale that surpasses most countries’ military budgets. A bulk of these funds became available on October 1st, 2025, and are now being used to increase the amount of indiscriminate racial profiling raids, tear children from their families and operate mass detention centers controlled by capitalist oligarchs who profit from the suffering of the working poor…