A year after the massive raids by masked ICE and Border Patrol agents in Los Angeles, a group of civil and human rights experts dedicated themselves to documenting in a public record the stories of horror and pain experienced by numerous families of detained, arrested, beaten, and deported immigrants.

The document, which will be prepared by experts from the California Community Foundation, Hispanic Federation, Latino Victory Foundation, Texas Civil Rights Project and CHIRLA, will contain the experiences of individuals, families and communities affected by mass immigration raids.

In the final report of the so-called People's Hearing on Immigration Enforcement, they would highlight the need for accountability and respect for constitutional guarantees by the administration of President Donald Trump.

Similar hearings have already been held in Minnesota and Illinois, and last month “The People’s Record” was published, a report on the impact of Operation ‘Metro Surge’ in Minnesota, where Americans Alex Pretti and Renee Good were murdered in January of this year.

Audience in a climate of uncertainty

“They treated me like an animal,” recalled Brian Gavidia, who was beaten by hooded ICE agents in his old auto shop in the city of Montebello.

“No one should be treated cruelly,” he added. “We are all human beings and we have rights.”

The hearing in a California Community Foundation room came a year after the ICE raids in Los Angeles, during National Immigrant Heritage Month and as the city prepares to host the World Cup.

With Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna recently confirming that ICE will play a role in securing the tournament, Monday's event took place amid growing questions about immigration enforcement in the city.

“Without warning, a year ago our city was attacked,” lamented Mayor Karen Bass. "It was not a foreign nation that sent troops to our city; it was our own administration."

Bass stated that he always tells people that he wants them to remember June 6, 2025, because it will be a historic moment that the children of all Angelenos, their grandchildren and great-grandchildren will never forget, when the persecution of people began.

"The ICE raids tested us, but they also revealed who we are as a city. They spread fear and terror, but they failed to break us," Bass said. "Our city stayed united. There was not a single corner of the city that considered it something positive, that approved of it or that thought it was a good idea. We stayed united and collaborated with organizations defending immigrant rights."

Bass acknowledged that from the beginning of the persecution of immigrants he knew that Los Angeles would serve as an experiment in barbarism and that the situation would spread nationwide.

“The month of June [2025] served as a testing ground for the [Trump] administration's plans, but they failed,” he stressed. "They thought they were going to break us, but they actually strengthened our resolve, because we know that Los Angeles is a city of immigrants. We welcome the entire world, and no one can change that."

Take responsibility

Rochelle Garza, chair of the United States Commission on Civil Rights, stated that the agency, since 1957, has had the mission of investigating and informing the president and Congress about the federal application of civil rights laws and violations thereof.

Today, this commission remains the only independent and bipartisan federal agency in charge of investigating facts and assuming this responsibility.

“We have a mandate to take civil rights violations very seriously,” he said before listening to several hours of testimonies from people attacked by ICE, and later asking the Congressional Hispanic Caucus to conduct an independent investigation into the racial profiling of Latinos during immigration enforcement operations.

Garza, a resident of the Texas-Mexico border area, described how immigration enforcement has been part of his daily life.

However, he highlighted that the changes observed in the region and throughout the country during the last year and a half have raised serious concerns regarding civil rights and individual freedoms; Racial profiling, excessive use of force, undermining the right to protest, and digital surveillance are just some of those concerns.

He emphasized that, since the beginning of the Trump administration, an estimated 400,000 immigrants have been detained, leaving more than 145,000 US citizen children without a parent at home; Among them, 22,000 US citizen children have been left without either of their parents.

“This is family separation,” he said, but clarified that these figures do not include those American citizen children who have been exiled from their own country because they cannot live without their parents.

The memory of Roberto Carlos Montoya

In a video presented by the Coalition for Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA), the testimony of relatives of Guatemalan day laborer Roberto Carlos Montoya Valdés, 52 years old, originally from Jutiapa, could be heard.

He was run over and killed on August 15, 2025 after running onto Highway 210 in Monrovia, in an attempt to flee an ICE operation carried out at a Home Depot store.

"He communicated every day with us, with his grandchildren. He worked to help them; he told me that I needed to work a little more," said a woman from the Montoya family. "I didn't deserve to die like that. I just wanted to fight and work."

Angélica Salas, executive director of CHIRLA, appreciated the opportunity to create the citizen hearing as a space “where the truth can be told with courage.”

Bearing witness to the suffering that communities have had to endure in a year and a half of the Trump administration, Salas stated that in the face of fear over the “militarized” raids by ICE and the Border Patrol, “our people continue to resist, organize and demand that their humanity be recognized.”

“Their protest is not just an act of desperation, it is an act of courage,” acknowledged the activist, who has spoken with families whose loved ones are now languishing in immigration prisons in California, including those in Adelanto and California City.

“The majority had never had prior contact with ICE or CBP, and never saw a warrant at the time of their arrest,” he said.

Currently, there are more than 60,000 people in ICE detention in the United States.