Hundreds of people were on the streets of Highland Park over the weekend to protest recent immigration operations in Southern California and across the country, according to the organizers of the rally.
“It’s incredible that this continues to happen. It gets worse and worse. I’m going to call on every politician from the governor to our senators to our congressmembers,” said Monica Alcaraz, a Highland Park Strong event organizer.
Joshua Wood, a resident of Highland Park attended the rally with his children.
“Everyone is really frightened because I know people who work on the street and the neighborhood – these are just regular people. We are not frightened by them – we are more frightened by ICE,” Wood said.
LA city councilmember Eunisses Hernandez said “We have seen the fiscal impacts on our city budget, we are seeing the impacts on families that can’t work – that are seeing evictions.”
“I’m here because my daughter is scared – she says because I’m brown, she is afraid ICE is going to take me,” said Angela Vizcaya, who lives in the area.
Sunday’s rally took place amid a recent wave of immigration enforcement operations.
Since the beginning of the year, NBC4 has reported on nearly a dozen operations across Los Angeles including Highland Park where protestors say a food vendor was detained last Monday.
People we spoke with say they will continue to gather and protest operations like these.
“We have to unite as a community because our children are seeing this,” said Maria Lou Calanche, who attended the rally.
“We are just tired of it – we are calling on everybody to come out and support,” Alcaraz said.
NBC4 has reached out to the Department of Homeland Security for more information on the immigration enforcement operation that took place in Highland Park last Monday but has not heard back.
