FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MEDIA CONTACT:
contact@elacc.org
June 9, 2025
The East LA Community Corporation (ELACC) is a non-profit working on the Eastside of Los Angeles, in a community that is over 70% immigrants. Immigrants are the backbone of our Eastside community. This is a community of workers, parents, children and neighbors who live and work together.
What we witnessed this weekend was terrifying. We feel that we are being invaded by the federal government. They are conducting raids in our community, with no warning, with officials in military garb, wearing face masks and carrying weapons. They are picking up people, at gun point and taking them away in front of their children.
ICE has gone to two schools in the community – are they looking for students? Do we have no standards in America? There should be NO ICE activity in any schools.
The undocumented people who live in the United States are here because there is work here. They grow our food, provide childcare and elder care as well as many essential jobs. Why are we eating this U.S.-grown food without respect for the people who provided it for us? Why is there no prayer for the people who brought the food to our tables?
During the COVID-19 pandemic, many undocumented people went to work in essential jobs while others stayed home.
For decades, our legislative and executive branches have failed to come up with a policy that provides a fair path to citizenship for people who come here to work. The Democrats and Republicans are so politicized, and fight with so much anger, that they have not been able to pass real immigration solutions for decades. In the meantime, we need labor, and we have people who came here for the jobs that we rely on. In the meantime, human beings built their lives here, serving the U.S. economy.
We ALL work with and know and benefit from undocumented people. I know this because 30% of the labor involved in food production is from undocumented people. They serve our food. They clean our offices. They wash dishes and serve our economy in so many ways. You benefit from their work. It is irrational and hypocrisy to rely on their work while also advocating for deportation.
The immigrants who work and live here are human beings who deserve our respect. ICE, DHS, or National Guard raids are not the answer. We need a path to citizenship for immigrants, reasonable immigration reform, and an administration that has a PLAN for immigration and the labor we need in America.
For many years, ELACC has worked with immigrants to help them obtain individual taxpayer identification number (ITINs) so they can pay their taxes. Now, under the current administration, people with ITINs are a target. We demand respect for our community; we demand a reasonable approach to immigration which treats people with dignity.
ELACC works with all people regardless of creed or origin – our housing, our services are for all people who come to us, who ask for help. We do not stand for anyone to divide our community or to terrorize us.
In Solidarity,