After days of raids, Los Angeles Day workers put their fear aside to support their families

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In most days, Edwin Siara puts himself on a broker at the entrance to the home parking lot along the Welshire Street in Los Angeles and is waiting for a contractor who may give him a few hours of work.

Over time, he will move to another place in the city – sliding into a new employment swimming pool because he does not want to stay in the same place for a long time.

“Everyone who comes here, they come here to survive,” said Siara, 57, who has a white -collars, who is tending to a parking lamp center.

“We are not making any mistake for anyone here. We are looking for a job.”

Today’s workers returned to domestic warehouses in the Los Angeles area after the migration and customs enforcement officers (ICE) targeted during the raids last Friday. They are waiting for sidewalks and mediators to be appointed by homeowners and contractors who depend on the undocumented workforce.

The chain of store stores found the same in the center of the raids throughout the city, which was criticized by the city’s and state officials. The raids also prompted many protests that led to what some say is a great response from US President Donald Trump, who deployed the National Guard and Marine Corps.

Officials have raided a number of Home Depot sites since Friday, including Westlake, Paramount, Whitter and Huntington Park.

“People who do not have papers, we feel panic. People are working hard to come to Los Angeles or the United States of America and take us to return to our country,” said Siara, who immigrated to the United States from Guatemala nearly 35 years ago.

Watch | Los Angeles worker says that workers are only trying to feed families:

Standing in front of the home warehouse to work to feed our family? Is this our crime?

Edbine Rios Perez, an illegal day worker in Santa Anna, California, said he did nothing for Los Angeles workers.

“These men are soldiers, a man”

At Westlake on Wednesday, special security guards who were appointed to carry out patrols in the car parking are gathering workers with gestures and handshake.

One of the guards, who refused to present his name because his employer does not want the guards to speak to the media, said that some workers did not wait a long time to return after a raid on Friday because they have families depending on their income and they are here to work, and they do not cause trouble.

“These men are soldiers, a man.”

About 50 kilometers southeast of Los Angeles, many men sought a comfort today under some trees while waiting for work outside another house in Santa Anna.

They know that their freedom is at risk, but they say they have no choice.

A young black hair and a black shirt stands in front of the bush.
Perez, 24, says, although he is afraid of ice raids targeting uncomfortable workers like himself, but he needs to provide his family, so he will continue to appear at home warehouse sites like those in Santa Anna, California, where he was waiting for work on Wednesday. (Jonathan Austin/CBC)

“It is nonsense. It’s ridiculous. We did nothing wrong. We stand in front of the home warehouse to work to feed our family? Is this our crime?” Adam Rios Perez, 24, who crossed the border from Mexico to the United States with his family as a child around 2008.

“I don’t have papers and still here, I risk my life to present.”

Perez says he saw ice officers around him and knew that they could come after him. He and others are watching black trucks, just as men do in Witkek.

“I am afraid, frankly, but I don’t want to show it because as a man, we must be there,” he said. “I prefer to see my children that I am not afraid. My father, my mother? I am still laughing, like,” I’m fine. “But in reality, I am not.”

Watch | ICE raids strike fear in the workers, says the employer in Los Angeles:

Malik Los Angeles says that the workers are afraid to appear among the ice raids

Carlos Gonzalez says he was quick to his business depot to protect his employees when he heard about ice raids in the area. Even documented workers say they are afraid of targeting them, only based on their race.

Residents are not documented to shift to protests

Los Angeles police say that since the protests began on Saturday, they made about 400 arrests and arrests, and the vast majority of them were to fail to leave the area at the request for law. Nine police officers, most of whom were slightly injured.

On Tuesday, Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass imposed a curfew, which includes a square tendency from the city between 8 pm and 6 am, in what she said was an attempt to control sabotage and looting.

By Wednesday, there was no minimal sign of any disturbances in the heart of the city. Hundreds of naval infantry who were deployed to join thousands of National Guard employees were out of view, completing the training of civil disobedience at the marine facility in Orange County.

While the streets calmed down, the battle between Trump and the California ruler Gavin New would acquire Steam. Newsom, a democratic, said that the decision of the rare president to spread the Marines on American soil and the National Guard without the approval of the state was in line with the “authoritarian regimes.”

Building a home warehouse and parking is full of cars under a blue sky.
Despite the ICE raids targeting home warehouses like this in the Westelier area in Los Angeles, the workers have sometimes returned to wait outside the stores, hoping that they will be appointed by homeowners and contractors who depend on uncomfortable workers. (Rhianna Schmunk/CBC)

From the Home Depot car park in Westlake, it is easy to determine the city center’s protest center on the horizon due to a helicopter around it. Sayra said that people who have no documents remain away from the area.

They are afraid, but Siara says that it worries the entire scene – from protests to the army to politics – distracts the public’s attention from the raids themselves and makes the situation worse for those who hide.

“When legal people here make a mistake, they believe that illegal people do it too,” he said.

“We are just trying to make things well.”



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