Priests, pastors, rabbis, union members, and activists defending the community will launch the so-called "Operation Freedom" on Saturday, September 20, framed by the immigrant contribution of more than 75 organizations that seek to confront the repression unleashed against immigrants and American citizens by the administration of President Donald Trump.

A Through the Save America Movement (SAM), coalition leaders announced the introduction of the “Freedom Vans.” These specialized rapid-response vehicles will be equipped with video cameras and staffed by trained volunteers to document the activity of masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in real time and support affected communities. “The raids would be broadcast instantly to the country, on highway screens and all over social media,” said Juan Jose Gutierrez, executive director of the Full Immigrant Rights Coalition. “These vans will serve to document the abuses of authority and repression against immigrants before they are handed over to immigration authorities.”

The vehicles will be a support tool for organizations in Los Angeles and Southern California that have been monitoring immigration authorities to ensure that immigrants are not alone during raids.

The recordings would “potentially” be used as a legal weapon in immigration courts, as evidence of human and civil rights violations.

“[The immigration agents] haven't arrived here,” said Cristobal Merida, owner of a car wash business in East Los Angeles. “And if they do, what can we do? Nothing!”

Car washes and Home Depot parking lots have been the epicenter of immigration raids in Los Angeles.

Against discrimination

The response of Latino communities, The decision in Vasquez Perdomo v. Noem involved an emergency request by the Trump administration to halt a lower court's injunction allowing immigration authorities to continue questioning people based on their race or language. Critics argued that the decision paved the way for racial profiling. “We want to empower Angelenos to get involved in community advocacy,” said Juan Jose Gutierrez “Since June 6,President Donald Trump has unleashed a repression unprecedented in modern United States political history.”

He emphasized that they want to push citizens toward a new moral politics where interests, civil, human, and constitutional rights are put first in this country of immigrants.

“We cannot allow modern to be treated as if they were not human beings who deserve constitutional guarantees that also apply to them,” the activist stated.

The MAGA Threat

Mary Corcoran, who considers herself an “ordinary person,” founder of the Save America Movement (SAM), said at a press conference in front of an image of the Virgin of Guadalupe at Our Lady Queen of Angels Church that the nonpartisan organization was created in response to the growing authoritarian threat posed by the MAGA movement in the United States and the lack of a coordinated and effective opposition.

“SAM's mission is to lead an expansive, legal, moral, and nonviolent opposition to MAGA policies in all spheres, at all times and in all places," she emphasized. “Our activities are designed to educate and mobilize the American public, protect American values, and ultimately defend the Constitution and democracy in the United States." Liberty Vans will be unveiled and will feature the influential African-American Reverend William J. Barber, II, president and senior lecturer of Breach Repairers and architect of the Moral Monday Movement.

“We are committed to raising a generation of morally fused leaders who will repair the gaps we see in the religious traditions of our society,” said Madison Ashley, national justice organizer for The Breach Repairers. “In Los Angeles, we are witnessing one of the greatest gaps imaginable right now: the immoral. and unlawful detention of so many of our immigrant brothers and sisters. the stories of the first Reconstruction of the United States and the second during the Civil Rights era, to point to these moments in which we have come together, overcoming historical divisions such as the race,religion and class, to build something different, a new democracy. making. And to reverse all the damage, it's going to take a decentralized movement,” said Pablo Alvarado, co-president of NDLON. “People are going to have to decide which side they're on eventually: whether they want the country to go in an authoritarian direction or whether they want the United States to remain a democracy.” Meanwhile, Pastor William D. Smart, executive director of the Southern California Christian Leadership Conference, acknowledged that what is happening in the United States right now is terrible. “It's terrible because we have terrible leadership, and it's time for us, the people, to stand up and say, 'We're not going to take it anymore.'” He emphasized that one of those actions will take place on Saturday, where the people will say, 'There has to be another way to treat our immigrant brothers and sisters, who are being treated cruelly. ICE comes in and separates families like that." 8,500 DACA applications and renewals so far, completely free of charge.

Beltran, an immigrant from El Salvador who fled the violence of the Civil War with his family, recalled that they had the privilege of obtaining documents to live in the United States, which is not the case for most people.

“Those young men and women, who are now professionals and work hard to contribute to this country, are proof of that,” I explained. “That is why we work hard to protect the dream that this country represents for us or for the families.”