I’m Just One Person, But I Can’t Unsee This: The Heartbreaking Truth About ICE in Los Angeles

I’m just one person. But I’ve seen enough to know something is deeply wrong.

In the heart of Los Angeles—one of the most diverse cities in the world, built on dreams and struggle—ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) is tearing families apart with calculated cruelty. Their tactics feel like war against the peaceful. I’ve seen it. You may have too, if you’ve looked past the headlines. But the truth is more disturbing than most people know.

Let me drop some facts on you—not to scare, but to awaken.

🔹 ICE has no legal obligation to notify families or lawyers before detaining someone. That means your neighbor, your coworker, your classmate can vanish in the morning without a single call or warning. It's not just theoretical—this is happening every single day in our neighborhoods.

🔹 In Los Angeles County alone, nearly 400,000 undocumented people live under constant threat of detention. Many of them have lived here longer than most homeowners. They pay taxes. They raise kids. Some even own businesses and homes—but none of that matters to ICE.

🔹 Deportation doesn't target just criminals. In fact, the majority of people deported from LA have no criminal record at all. Their only “crime” is crossing an invisible line—sometimes decades ago—often as children.

🔹 Children are being left at school with no one to pick them up. ICE doesn't care. A mother detained on the way to work might leave behind a crying toddler in daycare. No notice, no regard. Just gone.

That’s not justice. That’s psychological warfare.

And before someone says, “They should’ve come legally,” let’s take a breath and get real: Most people have no legal path to come. The U.S. immigration system is a maze with no exits. If your country is collapsing from violence or climate disaster, and you seek refuge, the system is built to say no—not because you're a danger, but because the paperwork is designed to fail you.

It’s important to remember: Borders are human-made. The Earth didn’t draw lines on itself. Those boundaries were carved by conquest, blood, colonization, and politics—not by nature, not by justice, and certainly not by love. So how dare we weaponize them?

Imagine telling a butterfly it can’t migrate because of a fence. That’s how absurd this all is.

The Tactics ICE Is Using Are Not Just Wrong—They’re Dystopian

Let me tell you what’s really happening on the streets right now.

🚨 Unmarked vehicles are being used for snatch-and-grab arrests. ICE agents are disguising themselves as local police, delivery drivers, or even job recruiters—anything to catch someone off guard.

🚨 People are being surveilled using facial recognition and license plate readers. There’s no warrant, no oversight, and often, no recourse. One wrong move, one misclick, and you’re a target.

🚨 ICE has been known to set traps at hospitals, courthouses, and DMV offices. They wait outside places of healing, justice, and survival. Why? Because they know that’s where people have to go.

This isn’t law enforcement. This is fear enforcement. And in Los Angeles—a city of immigrants, refugees, and dreamers—it’s soul-crushing.


---

We Need to Wake Up: The System Is Built to Dehumanize

Here’s what hurts most: Many of the people ICE is deporting are deeply embedded in our communities. They are caregivers, teachers, grocery clerks, artists, volunteers. They are the people who helped keep this city running during the pandemic, when everyone else hid indoors.

Yet they’re treated like fugitives.

Imagine living with the knowledge that one wrong turn, one routine traffic stop, or one hateful neighbor’s phone call could destroy everything you’ve built. That’s life under ICE surveillance. It’s not freedom. It’s a modern-day witch hunt.

And let’s talk about detention centers, briefly—though my heart aches to even go there.

Privately run immigration detention centers profit from every body they cage. They’re often run by the same corporations that manage prisons. They get paid per bed, per night, so they lobby for tougher immigration enforcement. It’s a cash-for-captivity system. Human suffering, for profit.

So, What Can One Person Do?

A lot, actually.

🕊️ Speak out. Tell others what’s happening. Share stories—not just stats. Put faces to the numbers.

🕊️ Show up. Join community watch groups that track ICE activity. There are apps and text alerts to help protect your neighbors in real-time.

🕊️ Donate or volunteer with immigrant rights organizations in LA, like CHIRLA, ImmDef, or the National Day Laborer Organizing Network.

🕊️ Vote with your soul. Elect leaders who believe in humanity over handcuffs. Push for policies that dismantle ICE’s unchecked power.

🕊️ Love your neighbor. Fiercely. Publicly. Loudly. Sometimes, being seen is protection in itself.

One Earth, One People

At the end of the day, the Earth doesn’t recognize borders. Trees don’t need passports. Oceans don’t stop at fences. And the sun doesn’t choose sides.

The idea that we can “own” land and deny people access to life, liberty, and love because they were born on the wrong side of a line—it’s the ultimate illusion.

I’m just one person. But if you’re reading this, then maybe now we’re two. Maybe more. And maybe together, we can start chipping away at the walls—physical and invisible—that separate us.

Because no human being is illegal. And no soul should be torn from home just for existing.