In the Daily Memo, we break down immigration raids in Southern California and share relevant news from around the nation. Below, you’ll find links and references to topics discussed in our video and more, allowing you to take a closer look at each topic. If you appreciate reporting like this, please consider becoming a member of L.A. TACO, buying some merch, or dropping a dime in our fundraiser so we can continue bringing you this vital information.
We now need to talk about the unintended consequences of using the red “know your rights” cards. I’m also updating you on the ongoing hunger strikes and raids.
Let’s first talk about these red cards. These are the fantastic little red cards created by the Immigrant Legal Resource Center (ILRC), printed in about 59 languages, informing immigrants about their rights.
But there’s a downside. On the ground, responders have been reporting that folks being questioned by ICE are being immediately detained after pulling these red cards out. It appears that ICE sees them and makes the immediate assumption that people trying to use the cards are undocumented. They have essentially become little red targets.
If you or someone you know has one of these red “know your rights” cards, do not show it to the agents, as they will likely automatically arrest you. You should learn them, memorize the valuable information and rights written on them, but don’t try to use them as a shield. I’ve personally seen videos of these red cards lying on the floor after someone gets taken, a grim token left behind. So please tell your folks to be careful.
The detainee hunger strikes continue across the U.S., and the brutality continues at New Jersey’s Delaney Hall, where around 300 people are currently on a hunger strike. Protesters have been there for days since the strike began, trying to stop ICE from disrupting the hunger strikers by transferring them to other prisons. Protesters and medics have been beaten, gassed, pushed into oncoming traffic, and had their legs crushed by semi-trucks.
A detainee from inside alleges that guards are beating people unconscious, have broken a boy’s face, and are gassing detainees in retaliation. Protesters have been at it almost 24/7; they’re tired and need more bodies.
Meanwhile, Izzy and I followed a caravan out to the Adelanto ICE processing center yesterday, which went to support the hunger strikers there. There were just over a dozen protesters, and they eventually chose to leave after the detention center closed the gates and denied families and lawyers access to detainees in retaliation. The guards have been threatening to take away detainees’ commissary items that families pay abhorrent amounts for.
Meanwhile, the DHS has denied the hunger strikes, while their head, Markway Mullin, is racistly characterizing the strikers as brats who just want ethnic food, and border czar Tom Homan says he will force feed them if he has to. Which is a form of torture, by the way. Former Border Patrol chief and tiny terrorist, Gregory Bovino, is headed to Newark now and is teasing a visit to Delaney Hall to help ICE quell the protests.
As a personal observation, through many conversations with folks as I’m out and about, Southern Californians have become tired of the raids. We have been dealing with ICE the longest, and I’ve heard from many that they willfully ignore the topic because it’s become too much.
Major media outlets have moved on to cover many of Trump’s other distractions, and because of this, the most common question I get now is, “The raids stopped, right?” That has been the goal, as stated by Trump and Markwayne Mullin, to quiet down the raids and get those headlines off the front page, at least until midterms.
But mothers, fathers, and children are still being kidnapped, separated, and sent to suffer torturous conditions at these privately-run detention centers, where hunger strikes are happening.
In these last few days, ICE took three men headed to work in Riverside. Their families insist they have no criminal history. They grabbed someone in Poway as well. In El Monte, ICE followed a mother driving to the mall and apprehended her after she parked.
ICE also grabbed someone from their work truck in San Bernardino and a woman outside of a coin laundry. In Santa Paula, neighbors heard a man screaming in distress as he was taken by ICE.
ICE has been present at the ISAP offices in Newbury Park, making Kavanaugh stops in Fullerton, Vista, Paramount, and in Corona, in front of students walking to school, boxing in cars in San Diego. The full report and list as always, is below.
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Stay safe, and stay vigilant. ~ Memo Torres
[Tuesday, May 26, Day 355.]
[Wednesday, May 27, Day 356.]
[Thursday, May 28, Day 357.]
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