Last week, our client’s wife, a beloved member of her community, was arrested and disappeared by ICE during what should have been a routine immigration check-in in San Francisco. Without warning, she was ripped from her family and shipped to a detention facility in Arizona. Her story is not an isolated incident. It is part of a deliberate and escalating campaign by the Trump administration to terrorize immigrant communities, undermine constitutional rights, and normalize authoritarian tactics in our state.
Now, President Trump has taken this cruelty to a new extreme by deploying 2,000 armed National Guard troops and 700 Marines against demonstrators and immigrant communities in Los Angeles. This is not a response to any real crisis, and Governor Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass did not request military intervention. Instead, it is a brazen attempt to manufacture chaos, suppress dissent, and accelerate the persecution of marginalized communities under the guise of “law and order.”
We will not be fooled. Under Trump’s direction, ICE and federal agents have turned our neighborhoods into hunting grounds. Immigrants are being snatched from their homes, workplaces, and courthouses, shipped to remote detention facilities, and denied access to legal counsel. Even members of Congress have been barred from conducting oversight. ICE’s violent arrest and detention of labor leader SEIU California President David Huerta, a U.S. citizen, during recent protests and the subsequent filing of trumped up felony charges for allegedly obstructing ICE agents highlights the administration’s ruthless suppression of those who stand in solidarity with vulnerable communities.
Make no mistake: Trump’s militarization of our streets is not about public safety. It’s about instilling fear. It’s about silencing protest. It is about disappearing those he deems “undesirable” without due process. The pain and anger fueling protests in California are a direct response to this relentless assault on vulnerable immigrant families.
The Trump administration’s actions are a direct attack on California’s values and sovereignty. In just six months, Trump has targeted undocumented immigrants, trans Americans, and federal workers; destabilized our economy with reckless trade wars; and threatened to withhold billions in critical federal funding from our state, all while pushing policies that would strip health care and food assistance to millions of impoverished Americans. Now, he has turned the military against Californians exercising their constitutional right to protest. This is not governance, it is tyranny.
We demand immediate action to halt all ICE raids in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and across California; end the forced disappearances of our community members; and restore due process for all. The federal government must withdraw National Guard troops and Marines from our streets—their presence only escalates tensions, suppresses dissent, and puts vulnerable communities at greater risk. At the same time, local law enforcement must uphold the constitutional right to protest, abide by state law limits on the use of force against protestors, and ensure that no one faces retaliation for standing up against injustice.
These steps are not just necessary, they are urgent. Every moment of delay means more families torn apart, more rights violated, and more lives endangered by this administration’s unchecked cruelty. California’s leaders must act now to protect our communities from this brazen assault.
We commend Governor Newsom and Attorney General Rob Bonta for challenging the President’s unconstitutional deployment of the military in court, and we urge California’s congressional delegation and local leaders to take every possible step to resist this authoritarian overreach.
To the communities living in fear: We see you. We stand with you. And we will continue fighting to defend your rights. The cruelty must end. The disappearances must stop. California will not surrender to authoritarianism without a fight.
