Hundreds of rally against immigration attacks, budget bills in downtown Los Angeles

Lawrence Herrera began carrying a folded copy of his birth certificate in her wallet last week. He also saved photos of his passport on the camera roll of his phone.

Preventive measures feel stupid for 67-year-old Atwater Village residents who were born and raised here. But he didn’t have any chance.

“I started to hear, ‘He’s taking anyone and everyone.’ “I thought, ‘You know what?” That might be me. ‘”

Herrera was one of hundreds of protesters who spent July 4 in downtown Los Angeles, opposing the raids of immigrants in the area that sparked the area and approved a surge in federal funds this week to keep them moving forward. Many people on the street say they are skipping barbecues and fireworks this year. Instead, they appeared in town hall, some in costume or wrapped in flags. A15-foot President Trump is sitting in a big park wearing a balloon in Russian uniform.

Erica Ortiz, 49, is wearing a bondage goddess of liberty. Herrera, wearing a revolutionary war device covered in anti-Trump pins, said it was suitable for the occasion.

“Guess what? We don’t have independence right now.” “That’s why we’re here.”

They marched through Olvera Street outside the Federal Building, where the immigration court waving signs. Several policemen were monitoring the protests but kept their distance during the party, which lasted for hours.

“No more occupations! No more deportations!” the protesters shouted.

In the Federal Building, military members lined up shoulder to shoulder to guard the property with shields and guns.

Jacob Moreno, an English teacher from Rialto, held a name that called the day a “funeral of pretending to be free” still exists. He said the sentiment was more solemn than last month’s “King-free” demonstration, attributed to the passage of the Trump budget bill. The so-called “large bills” have increased by about $150 billion to carry out large-scale evictions and fund border law enforcement.

“This situation, this profession will only get worse,” Moreno said, saying that some of his high school students and their families were not on record. He and his daughter, a 16-year-old student, are helping to establish a program to provide school supplies and sanitation items to students whose parents may be too afraid to go to work.

“I am here to support my students, my community, and finally stand on the right side of history,” he said.

Cristina Muñoz Brown of North Hollywood has a similar view.

“I long for my people and I want to show up,” she said. She said the fashion district where she works in the clothing industry has been a “ghost town” since the raid began.

Conference raiser D-Los Angeles addressed the crowd outside the city hall, calling the budget expense a “big beauty scam.”

“Now, this country spends more immigration than the military spending in 165 countries around the world. Ice is more than ten times more money than the city of Los Angeles,” he said. “That’s not the tax we want.”

The city is still in the U.S.’s weeks of immigration and customs enforcement attacks, as well as thousands of National Guard troops deployed to respond to subsequent protests.

The local car wash and Home Depot parking lot aim to target day workers’ sweeps.

“There are so many things to protest right now,” said Hunter Dunn of the 50501 movement, which organized the July 4 rally. He said many immigrants were “feared to go to work and to school.”

Since early June, federal agents have frequently masked their identities with masks and sometimes drove unmarked cars, sparking widespread protests.

Trump sent more than 4,000 National Guard and 700 Marines to the Los Angeles area to protect federal buildings and workers during the turmoil, which has brought state and local officials to oppression from state and local officials who complained about the military presence that exacerbated the situation. Earlier this week, about 150 guard members were released from protests.

Immigration enforcement actions in Los Angeles have exacerbated tensions between city and state leaders and the Trump administration. Public quarrels have played a role in social media and in court.

Mayor Karen Bass called her phone to Trump this week to end the ice attack and said in an article on X that his administration “caused so much fear and horror in Los Angeles.”

“They were brought to our neighbors, wearing unmarked vans. Raid workplaces. Tearing families. Even our citizens. It’s not law enforcement, but political theaters at the cost of humans.”

Gov. Gavin Newsom deployed the guards to fight the Trump administration in court without his consent. This week, the Trump administration sued Los Angeles City, Beth and City Council members, saying the city’s asylum laws were illegal. Laws generally prohibit city employees or city property from being used to investigate or detain anyone for immigration enforcement purposes.

Immigration rights groups and public lawyers, including the American Civil Liberties Union in Southern California, sued the Trump administration in federal court on Wednesday in an attempt to prevent the lawsuit from being described as “the ongoing pattern of litigation and the practice of unconstitutional and federal law” during the Los Angeles-area immigrant attacks.