California mayor on Trump’s immigration raids: ‘It is a campaign of domestic terror’ | California

As a navy of the United States, Arturo Flores served in Afghanistan and Iraq, where he worked as a military police officer and trained dogs to find bombes by the roadside.

It was his experience in the army that has returned what he has seen in the streets of southern California in recent weeks, all the more disturbing for him, said Flores.

Flores is the mayor of Huntington Park, in the county of South la.

As in other parts of Los Angeles, many Huntington residents have been terrified in the midst of the reports of masked federal agents holding immigrants, or those who resemble immigrants, in the street, in parking lots, during exchange competitions or department stores and soldiers deployed in the city against the wishes of local authorities and the governor.

“This is an interior terror campaign that is imposed daily on our residents,” said Flores. “It is a level of psychological warfare that I only saw in war theaters. It is terrifying to see that it is displayed here in my city. ”

A third of all Los Angeles residents were born outside the United States, and almost half of the region’s residents are Latinos. It is estimated that 1 million of the 10 million residents of the county of the are undocumented.

About 97% of Huntington Park residents are Latinos and the city has been the site of many raids by American immigration and the application on customs (ICE) in recent weeks. Kristi Noem, the interior security secretary, attended an operation in the city on June 12.

The repression of the Trump administration has been scary by communities of city immigrants and Latinos, for citizens and non-citizens, said Flores.

The captured video of federal operations in the region this week has shown that apparent immigration agents arresting an American citizen while his family was crying to obtain a nearby help, and officers surrounding a street seller while she was clinging to a tree.

In Huntington Park, said Flores, the federal officers do not communicate with local agencies and do not travel the districts at high speed rates, leap to the edge and the pursuit of people. Residents report that people apparently targeted according to their skin color or perceived ethnicity, he said.

“Any complaint that individuals were” targeted “by the police because of their skin color are disgusting and categorically false,” said DHS assistant secretary, Tricia McLaughlin. “These types of smear are designed to demonize and bad on our brave ice forces.”

McLaughlin also said that “this type of garbage has led to a 500% increase in assaults against ice officers”, although it did not explain the underlying data or on what period the rise was documented.

“DHS application operations are very targeted and officers make their reasonable diligence,” she said. “We know who we target in advance. If and when we meet individuals subject to an arrest, our application of the law is formed to ask a series of well -determined questions to determine the status and the release. ”

The operations had a spectacular impact on the community. Companies have closed, said Flores, because people who are normally shopping remain inside. Only four families came to a recent cinema evening organized by the city in the park.

“It’s a real fear of being physically attacked when you walk on the street, try to make the grocery store or try to pick up your granddaughter,” said Flores.

Flores said the way in which federal officials carry out operations, with agents in unmarked masks and vehicles, is dangerous. This week, Huntington Park police arrested someone who, according to him, usurped the usurpation of a federal agent.

He has been frank on his opposition to the city’s operations and the deployment of soldiers from the National Guard and Marines in Los Angeles in recent weeks. During a press conference with the mayors of the Los Angeles region before the arrival of city soldiers earlier this month, Flores urged the military to defend the Constitution.

“When we raised our hands and we swore the oath to defend the Constitution and defend the country, this oath was to the American people,” he said at the time. “It was not for a dictator. It was not for a tyrant. It was not for a president. It was to the American people. “

The events that have taken place in the region in recent weeks have been surrealist, he said. “You never imagine seeing it at the national level in the areas and streets on which you have grown … but we see that some of these streets turn into battlefields.”

Huntington Park has conversations on the joint of a collective appeal with other cities against the Trump administration, said Flores, and seeks to start emergency funds for the education of constitutional rights, legal aid and the delivery of emergency food. As operations continue to take place, he urges residents to remain united.

“It’s a very dangerous moment,” he said. “”[But] There will be a time when Donald Trump will not be president and the individuals who perpetuated these injustices will be held responsible. »»