Immigrant attacks continued over the Southern California weekend to spark anxiety and anger.
Armed US immigration and customs enforcement agents carried out the assault on Saturday afternoon at a swap meet in Santa Fe Springs just hours before the concert began, witnesses said.
Agents have arrived at Santa Fe Springs Swap and are having a meeting around 3:30pm.
“We had about 50-80 agents,” Rezendez said. “They had over 30 cars and vans packed with agents.
The concert, featuring musical performances such as Los Cadetes de Linares, Los Dinamicos Del Norte and La Nueva Rebelión, was scheduled to start at 5:30pm, but online footage from witnesses shows the mostly vacant venue.
Rezendes said he left Omar Benjamin Zardibar around 4:30pm when the agent recorded the agent.
“If you look somehow Hispanic, they just took you,” Zardivar said.
The number of people wiped out from the attack remains unknown.
Shortly after the attack, Swap Meet staff postponed the concert.
“We’ll provide more details later,” the Instagram post said.
Swap Meet officials did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The 17-acre outdoor hub first opened in 1965. Known as the Música Mexicana hotspot, Santa Fe Springs Swap Meat hosts outdoor concerts every weekend. Other popular Latino swap events in Los Angeles appeared to be equally vacant amid ongoing ice raids.
The Whittier Swap Convention was closed last week in preparation for the possibility of an attack.
The Whittier Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Tension was also felt at a major soccer match on Saturday evening at Sophie Stadium.
Around 300 people overtake Inglewood’s sidewalk on Saturday afternoon, waving Mexican flags and signs criticizing President Trump, taking the time to reach a Mexican and Dominican Republic national team match.
Esmeralda Sanchez, who has not participated in the game, said he came to the rally to support family and friends who are not legally in the country.
“We’re a voice that parents and older generations didn’t have today,” Sanchez said of the sound of horns and cheers.
The parking lot outside the stadium feels relatively calm, with some fans making Carne Asadas with portable grills and others waving Mexican flags.
Emilio Estrada and Ashley Lewis of Bakersfield posed for a photo in front of the stadium lake.
“My mother kept calling me while we drove,” Estrada said.
Orange County’s Jesse Murillo said attending the game to support the Mexican national team felt like a clear sign of protest against the federal government.
“We’re not afraid to come out here and show you the colour,” he said. “No matter what, our people have always found a way to be here.”
His friend Richard Barrera said many people are afraid as many people are bouncing around social media.
“So many people are terrified, and that seems unfair because you’ve seen a lot online and it turns out that the ice isn’t there,” Barrera said.
Jorge Gomez, a native of Inglewood, across from the stadium, said he was nervous about attending protests due to immigrant raids across Southern California.
“I’ve been trying to be more vigilant. Be more careful,” he said. “I shouldn’t be here, but I am, because the deep inside keeps telling me that this is wrong and I need to stand up.”
Taqueros, Fruteros and other street vendors have empty Los Angeles streets amid a wide range of sweeps of immigrants, fearing their own arrest and deportation.
However, the Koreatown-based nonprofit recently launched a fundraiser to offset wage losses and cover rent, utilities and other essentials, allowing vendors to stay home.
“The reason they were there despite being so dangerous to their safety now is because the rent is so high and they have bills,” says Andreina Kniss, a Ktown organizer and longtime volunteer.
“We got together and said, ‘It’s a safer day for them to be able to leave the streets every day.’ ”
Ktown for All raises donations through Venmo, account information posted on Instagram and carefully distributes it to dozens of street vendors to cover 30 days of rent and billing. According to Kniss, they raised over $50,000 last week.
Since its founding in 2018, Ktown for All has advocated the unpopulated population of Koreatown and focuses on the distribution of resources such as water, blankets, laundry kits, and prepared foods. Members of Ktown to build all connections with nearby street vendors in the process of being fed into this demographic.
In times of economic vendor difficulties, such as the rainy season and the fires in January, nonprofits have launched a “bunder acquisition” initiative to keep them. The donated funds “buy” foods such as tamares and tacos from vendors, and then Ktown was provided for all volunteers to distribute to those in need. The nonprofit is now approaching a vendor in Koreatown, asking, “What do you need to get off the street?”
Many vendors are simply paid without supplying food. “We are street vendors,” the recipient of one donation told Ktown everyone, whose names were withheld to maintain anonymity.
“We are afraid to go out and all we want is to work for our families.”
“Many of them are hiding without financial support for now,” Kniss said. “It really has to make you nauseous [between] You have been invited to pay your bill. ”
In the case of Kniss, the cause is personal. She grew up in a family of immigrants and farm workers on the Central Coast, and became a US citizen five years ago.
“I was one of those terrified families to see how our street vendors live in fear and really struck me,” she said.
The nonprofit is planning to raise funds for a “business of vendors” until Ice leaves Los Angeles or until the money runs out, and regularly finds new street vendors to support through its network.
The program’s reach has already expanded beyond Koreatown, supporting the full terrorist attacks at downtown Los Angeles and hot dog seller Echo Park. Kniss said the response from the community has been overwhelming.
She hopes other mutual aid organizations will “copy” this method.
“I thought the extreme fear of tearing my family as a little boy was just an exaggeration,” another anonymous vendor wrote to Ktown to everyone.
“But now, this government [has] It resurfaced those same horrors and terrified the most authentic, kind and hardworking immigrants I have ever known for my life. ”
