As a United States marine, Arturo Flores served in Afghanistan and Iraq, where he worked as a military police officer and trained dogs to find roadside bombs.
It’s his experience in the military that has made what he’s seen on the streets of southernCaliforniain recent weeks all the more disturbing to him, Flores said.
Flores is the mayor of Huntington Park, in south LA county.
Like in other parts of LA, many Huntington residents have been terrified amid reports of masked federal agents detaining immigrants, or those that look like immigrants, on the street, in parking lots, at swap meets or large stores and soldiers deployed into the city against the wishes of local officials and the governor.
“It is a campaign of domestic terror that is being imposed on our residents on a daily basis,” Flores said. “It is a level of psychological warfare that I’ve only seen in theaters of war. It’s terrifying seeing it being displayed here in my city.”
A third of all LA residents was born outside of the United States, and nearly half of the region’s residents are Latino. An estimated 1 million of LA county’s 10 million residents are undocumented.
About 97% of residents in Huntington Park are Latino, and the cityhas been the site of numerous raids by US Immigration and Custom Enforcement (Ice) in recent weeks. Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, attended an operation in the city on 12 June.
The Trump administration’s crackdown has sent fear through immigrant and Latino communities in the city, for citizens and non-citizens alike, Flores said.
Video captured of federal operations in the region this week showed apparent immigration agentsarresting a US citizenwhile her family cried for help nearby, and officers surrounding a street vendor as sheclung to a tree.
In Huntington Park, Flores said, federal officers are not communicating with local agencies and driving through neighborhoods at high rates of speed, jumping curbs, and chasing people. Residents report people seemingly being targeted based on their skin color or perceived ethnicity, he said.
“Any claims that individuals have been ‘targeted’ by law enforcement because of their skin color are disgusting and categorically false,” the DHS assistant secretary, Tricia McLaughlin, said. “These types of smears are designed to demonize and villainize our brave Ice law enforcement.”
McLaughlin also said “this kind of garbage has led to a 500% increase in the assaults on Ice officers”, though she did not explain the underlying data or what period the rise was documented in.
“DHS enforcement operations are highly targeted, and officers do their due diligence” she said. “We know who we are targeting ahead of time. If and when we do encounter individuals subject to arrest, our law enforcement is trained to ask a series of well-determined questions to determine status and removability.”
The operations have had a dramatic impact on the community. Businesses have closed, Flores said, as people who would normally be out shopping stay indoors. Only four families came to a recent city-organized movie night in the park.
“It’s a very real fear of being physically assaulted when you’re just walking on the street, trying to grocery shop or trying to pick up your granddaughter,” Flores said.
Flores has said the way federal officials are conducting operations, with agents in masks and unmarked vehicles, is dangerous. This week, Huntington Park policearrestedsomeone they believed was impersonating a federal agent.
He has been outspoken about his opposition to the operations in the city, and to the deployment of national guard soldiers and marines toLos Angelesin recent weeks. During a press conference with LA area mayors ahead of the arrival of soldiers in the city earlier this month, Flores urged servicemembers to defend the constitution.
“When we lifted our hands and we swore the oath to defend the constitution and to defend the country, that oath was to the American people,” he said at the time. “It was not to a dictator. It was not to a tyrant. It was not to a president. It was to the American people.”
The events that have unfolded in the area in recent weeks have been surreal, he said. “You never imagine seeing this domestically in areas and streets that you grew up on … but we’re seeing as some of these streets are being transformed into battlegrounds.”
Huntington Park is having conversations about joining a class-action lawsuit with other cities against the Trump administration, Flores said, and is looking to start emergency funds for constitutional rights education, legal aid and emergency food delivery. As operations continue to unfold, he’s urging residents to stay united.
“It is very dangerous time,” he said. “[But] there’s gonna come a time where Donald Trump will not be president and the individuals that were perpetrating these injustices are going to be held accountable.”