The Inglewood Police Department is a mid-sized municipal agency in Los Angeles County, with approximately 186 sworn officers for a city of 101,662 people. Among the roughly 45 independent city police departments in the greater Los Angeles area, it ranks well behind mega-agencies like the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, but ahead of dozens of smaller suburban departments peppered across LA.

The Police Scorecard, the country’s first public policing evaluation organization, ranks the IPD with an overall score of 43%. The database evaluates police departments based on a variety of factors, including use of force, accountability, crime, arrests, and police spending.

For the IPD, the report card highlights a particularly concerning section regarding police accountability and the use of force.

For police accountability, the IPD received a score of 12%. It is the lowest score across all evaluated categories. Police Scorecard reports that between 2016 and 2024, the department received 116 civilian misconduct complaints, but only 6% were ruled in civilians’ favor.

IPD also received a 33% score for police violence. According to the Police Scorecard, 8 people were killed by Inglewood Police between 2013 and 2025. The organization ranks Inglewood higher than 97% of police departments for killings by police per arrest.

The report also raises questions and concerns about the department’s use of force. The scorecard reports 10 police shootings between 2016 and 2025 and says five occurred without police first attempting a non-deadly-force option.

At the same time, the city of Inglewood spends heavily on policing. The department’s reported budget is approximately $20.1 million, or 18.3% of the annual budget of $110 million. Police Scorecard ranks Inglewood higher than 94% of departments in per-capita police spending.

In addition, the report highlights the department’s approach to arrests. Of the 17,875 arrests recorded between 2013 and 2025, about 47% were for low-level offenses. During that time, Police Scorecard reports 133 homicides, of which 75 remain unsolved.

The numbers don’t tell the entire story, but they also do not lie. The Police Scorecard’s methodology and underlying data should be examined alongside department records, court documents, and individual use-of-force investigations.

But the report card does raise important questions for Inglewood residents: does the city’s significant investment in policing translate into accountability, safety, transparency, effective crime-solving, and safer interactions between officers and the community?

Bryan Bostic died on March 10, after being detained following a traffic stop by Inglewood Police officers. He was 37 years old.

The encounter between Bostic and Inglewood police continues to draw scrutiny from his family, community members, and local officials months after his death. To this day, we do not know the names of the officers involved in the arrest of the 37-year-old that resulted in his death.

A little over a month ago, in response to a public request, we received documents from Lieutenant Scott T. Collins, including a list of all officers who “had direct involvement with Mr. Bostic.”

Fifteen officers were listed:

The Inglewood police officers did not have body-worn cameras at the time of Bostic’s death. In April, city officials said the police department was working toward acquiring body cameras. Inglewood Councilwoman Gloria Gray separately advocated publicly for their use following Bostic’s death.

Of the 15 officers the city listed as being directly involved with Bostic, though we do not know exactly what “directly involved” means, we do know from a previous public request that one of the 15 officers has a record of firing his weapon while on duty.

Sergeant: Zerai Massey #857

In 2013, Massey received the “Attorney General’s Award of Commendation” from then-California AG Kamala Harris.

The public request also shows which areas were patrolled and at what times.

The daily roster showing officers patrolling from 6:30 PM to 7 AM (the image right above) includes 12 of the 15 officers provided, all of whom were “directly involved” with Bostic.

For Bostic’s family and supporters, calls for transparency and accountability remain central as investigators work through the remaining aspects of the case.

On July 3, 2013, near the intersection of Oak Street and Hillcrest Boulevard, about one mile west of Hillcrest and Nutwood, where IPD officers pulled over Bryan Bostic earlier this year, Officers Salman Nazir (#844) fired thirteen rounds, and Randy Rodriguez (#681) fired two rounds, hitting 30-year-old Joshua Luis Jimenez multiple times.

Jimenez received two gunshot wounds to each thigh and a broken femur, documents reveal.

Prior to the incident, an unknown woman flagged down the officers to inform them that someone in the vicinity was carrying a gun. While officers were approaching the area where she had said he was located, they saw Jimenez approaching. The officers began giving commands, but he did not listen to or comply with either officer.

Jimenez later “bent down behind the tree while holding his waistband. Officers Nazir and Rodriguez believed Jimenez was arming himself,” read the Inglewood Police document. “In fear for their lives and each other’s safety, Officer Nazir fired thirteen rounds and Officer Rodriguez fired two rounds, hitting Jimenez multiple times. Jimenez was taken into custody without any further incident and transported to the hospital,” the document adds.

After the shooting, near the tree, the officers found an unloaded .32 Rimfire revolver.

Later, Jimenez was arrested for 25400(a)(2) of the California Penal Code - Assault with a firearm.

Documents show that Jimenez was admitted to UCLA Westwood Hospital and required to undergo surgery to treat his wounds.

The IPD’s investigation, which involved questioning community members from that intersection, revealed that people who have known Jimenez for some time said he had recently lost his job six weeks ago and had been drinking heavily since then. The IPD report states that Jimenez “appeared to be under the influence of alcohol,” and “his speech was slurred.”

I was unable to find any reports on this incident online.

Officers Nazir and Rodriguez remain employed and continue to patrol the streets of Inglewood.

Below are some screenshots from the report worth sharing:

Stay tuned for more details about the other IPD officers who have fired their weapons at people while on duty and still patrol our neighborhoods.

On Tuesday, the Inglewood City Council approved moving forward with the $6,275,772.00 contract with Axon Enterprise over a five-year span. The package includes body-worn cameras, license plate readers, and AI camera Integration Systems.

The council’s program also covers police department upgrades, including automated license plate readers, drones, in-car video systems, and a digital evidence-management system.

Inglewood Mayor James Butts claims this is for public safety: “As the city prepares to support major international and national events, including the FIFA World Cup 2026, Super Bowl 2027, and the 2028 Summer Olympics and Paralympic Games, the demand for enhanced public safety infrastructure will increase significantly,” said Butts.

The city is initially covering the costs, but once it demonstrates that these devices are installed and functioning, it will receive reimbursement from the state via the “Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 Counter-Unmanned Aircraft Systems (C-UAS) Grant Program.”

During the meeting, Mayor Butts highlighted that the city of Inglewood is experiencing a decline in crime. The Council agenda states that:

“In Inglewood, Part 1 Crimes fell 13% in 2025 compared to 2024, led by a 60% drop in Homicides and a 32% drop in Burglaries reported in our City. As of December 31, 2025, compared to its peak in 1981, violent crime has fallen 76% and homicides has fallen 87%.”

Despite the decline in crime, the city approved the $6.2 million contract with Axon, reasoning that the city will see an increase in visitors.

Some activists and community members attended the meeting to ask the mayor to disclose the names of the officers involved in Bryan Bostic’s killing on March 10th. They also urge the city to implement body-worn cameras for police officers to improve transparency. The city is claiming that the death of Bostic is under investigation.

The city of Inglewood is going to have some of the most advanced surveillance technology peppered across the city under the guise of public safety, even as the city experiences one of its lowest crime rates.

Stay tuned for more details!

Today, the Inglewood City Council is set to vote on a multimillion-dollar contract that would expand the City’s police department’s surveillance capabilities across Inglewood, raising questions about cost, oversight, and civil liberties.

At the center of the proposal is a $6.3 million agreement with Axon Enterprise, a top technology company based in Scottsdale, Arizona, that develops electronics, weapons, and software for law enforcement, military, and occupational forces in Israel. The technology they are known for is body cameras, digital evidence platforms, and Tasers. If the city approves the contract, IPD would be equipped with the most advanced technologies that go far beyond traditional policing tools.

According to the equipment deployment summary, the city is receiving (see below):

The package includes body-worn cameras for officers, drone systems, and a citywide network of automated license plate readers (ALPRs) placed throughout the city. In addition, police cops cars would be upgraded with mobile camera systems capable of scanning license plates in real time.

The city is justifying the investment as a step toward public safety, noting that Inglewood is hosting international events such as the World Cup, Super Bowl, and the Olympics. The scale of advanced technology has drawn scrutiny amid calls for an invasion of privacy.

Today, the City Council is scheduled to vote on approving the purchase of new surveillance technology, including body cameras and license plate readers, funded by taxpayer money through the contract.

Once the new systems are installed and provide the governor with “proof of implementation,” the city will be reimbursed by the state through the “Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 Counter-Unmanned Aircraft Systems (C-UAS) Grant Program.”

Dealing with the devil

Axon is on the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) list.

In 2025, Axon Enterprise purchased the Israeli tech company Carbyne for $625 million. Axon supplies Taser devices to Israeli law enforcement and government agencies, and its core focus in the region is deepening through the use of AI and cloud-based communication tools. Since the 1990s, Axon has had a Country Manager in Israel and a history of supporting local security forces.

Axon, formerly known as TASER International, is known for its “less-lethal” TASER brand electric stun guns. In 2009, the Israeli military began using Taser guns against Palestinians. The IDF used Taser guns against the activist who risked everything to join the Freedom Flotilla to break the illegal siege of the Gaza Strip. In addition, for decades, the Israeli Police has used Tasers against Palestinians in the West Bank.

The timing of the vote comes amid heightened local tensions around policing. Activist and community members have been demanding greater accountability following the recent in-custody death of Bryan Bostic on March 10th, which intensified calls for body cameras.

For some people, the cameras represent a long-overdue accountability measure. But others warn that the broader contract goes far beyond transparency.

Concerns over body cameras have also focused on how the data is collected, including video footage, location tracking, and vehicle records, and how it would be used, shared, or retained, just to name a few.

Across the country, similar systems have sparked protests and debate. Privacy advocates warn that this type of advanced technology, such as real-time monitoring, analytics, and potential facial recognition capabilities, could transform tools intended for accountability into instruments of mass surveillance.

Decision point

Tuesday’s vote will determine whether Inglewood joins a growing number of cities investing in the most advanced surveillance systems without community pushback, or whether the people push back on the contract.

Comments from the community must be submitted by 8 AM on Tuesday, April 28th, in order to be distributed to councilmembers ahead of the meeting.

If you are not able to make the meeting, you can submit a comment to the City Clerk at Athompson@cityofinglewood.org or the Deputy City Clerk at Dwesley@cityofinglewood.org

The Inglewood City Council meets at 2 PM on Tuesday, April 28th, in Inglewood City Hall, 1 W Manchester Blvd.

For more details, visit the city’s website: https://www.cityofinglewood.org/AgendaCenter/City-Council-3

The Inglewood City Clerk provided a document that should have been 12 pages long, listing every officer by division, but I received only 9 pages, with some sections redacted. The missing pages or redacted sections might be due to those officers no longer being with the department, having moved, been dismissed, or retired. We don’t know.

The IPD comprises multiple divisions, resources, directed enforcement units, investigators, recruitment centers, and more.

“The Inglewood Police Department is authorized to have 200 sworn officers, and we currently have 181 sworn officers,” Lieutenant Scott T. Collins said in an email about how many officers are in the IPD (see image below).

The department’s website also states that they “employ 186 sworn personnel and 92 civilian support personnel.”

As of 2020, Inglewood had a population of 107,762, resulting in approximately 15.7 officers per 10,000 residents employed by the IPD. By April 2026, the population had declined by over 6%, now estimated to be between 100,000 and 105,000, reflecting a decrease since the 2020 census.

As a result, there are roughly 18.6 officers per 10,000 residents for a population of 100,000, or 17.7 officers per 10,000 residents for a population of 105,000.

The Inglewood Police Department does not have a public online portal for viewing all public requests. That feature is available when requesting public information from the city of Los Angeles, including the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD). All requests are submitted via email to the City Clerk. Therefore, not available to the public unless they are published.

Below is a list of officers organized by department, followed by an image of each corresponding document from the department.

Notes: Serial number is the same as the badge number.

Office of the Chief of Police 45-10

Administration

Chief: Mark Fronterotta - serial #502

Sergeant: Joseph Cupo - serial #668

Criminal Investigations Division

Sergeant: Luis Jaramillo - serial #819

Internal Affairs Division

Lieutenant: Scott Collins - serial #546

Sergeant: Eric Hunt - serial #948

Special Operations Division

Captain: Cardel Hurt - serial #800

Lieutenant: Marvin Aguilar - serial #917

Lieutenant: Patrick Manning - serial #868

Sergeant: Christian Chocano - serial #950

Administrative Division

Captain: Marie Dibernardo - serial #609

Lieutenant: Nicole Loudermilk - serial #836

Sergeant: Francisco Ruiz - serial #901

Criminal Investigations Division

Captain: Neal Cochran - serial #824

Lieutenant: Gabriela Garcia - serial #697

Sergeant: Nancy Ladner - serial #900

Sergeant: Loren Robinson - serial #803

Sergeant: Juan Torres - serial #855

Crimes Against Persons

Detective: Samuel Bailey - serial #827

Detective: George Baltierrez - serial #991

Detective: Jose Becerra - serial #677

Detective: Christopher Beckman - serial #632

Detective: Sara Booth - serial #1013

Detective: George Choi - serial #1030

Detective: Alejandro Cornejo - serial #904

Detective: Robert Downey - serial #1007

Detective: Michael Han - serial #629

Detective: Antonio McDonough - serial #1002

Detective: Daniel Milchovich - serial #814

Detective: Henry Morgan - serial #1004

Detective: Marya Parente - serial #790

Detective: Luis Rodriguez - serial #839

Detective: Jacqueline Sipaue - serial #994

Detective: Robert Swenson - serial #967

Detective: Travis Towle - serial #974

Crimes Against Property

Detective: Vincent Baldonado - serial #808

Detective: Anthony Brissinger - serial #845

Detective: Jacqueline Delgado - serial #1034

Detective: Heriberto Quintana - serial #951

Detective: David Ramirez - serial #939

Detective: Willard Salmon, Jr. - serial #686

Detective: Jon Thompson - serial #953

Detective: Corinna Rodriguez - serial #789

Patrol Division

Captain: Oswald Figueroa - serial #896

Lieutenant: Brigette Birkbeck - serial #936

Lieutenant: Cilia Islas - serial #870

Lieutenant: Landon Poirier - serial #956

Lieutenant: Freeman Smith - serial #695

Sergeant: John Ausmus - serial #920

Sergeant: Julien Baksh - serial #919

Sergeant: Gabriel De La Torre - serial #829

Sergeant: Roberto Espinoza - serial #893

Sergeant: Roman Gomez - serial #792

Sergeant: Bryan Hand - serial #849

Sergeant: Carmen Hand - serial #1028

Sergeant: Cesar Jurado - serial #794

Sergeant: Scott Kotani - serial #848

Sergeant: Michael Levin - serial #959

Sergeant: Zerai Massey - serial #857

Sergeant: Jay Park - serial #1024

Sergeant: Pedro Perez - serial #909

Sergeant: Keith Rankins - serial #837

Sergeant: Alvaro Ruiz - serial #884

Sergeant: Roman A. Fernandez - serial #925

Sergeant: Victor Serrano - serial #885

Sergeant: Salman Nazir - serial #844

Police Officer: Armando Aceves - serial 1097

Police Officer: Clarissa Alcala - serial #1111

Police Officer: Yvette Alcaraz - Gonz - serial #1087

Police Officer: Elias Alvarez - serial #914

Police Officer: Nathan Aranda - serial #1108

Police Officer: Michael Austin - serial #1062

Police Officer: Raphael Barr - serial #1074

Police Officer: Felicia Batteate - serial #984

Police Officer: Brandon Beak - serial #895

Police Officer: Mychal-Steven Blaylo - serial #1012

Police Officer: Adam Butler - serial #933

Police Officer: Regino Castro - serial #1075

Police Officer: Christopher Chung - serial #1077

Police Officer: Alexander Daar - serial #1069

Police Officer: Austin Deblasi - serial #1082

Police Officer: Paul Devlin - serial #833

Police Officer: Alexander Devlin - serial #1019

Police Officer: Christopher Diaz - serial #1091

Police Officer: Adrien Dotson - serial #1042

Police Officer: Kaelin Dunn - serial #1047

Police Officer: Jose F. Fernandez, Jr. - serial #941

Police Officer: Salvador Flores Flore - serial #1056

Police Officer: Jesus Garcia-Estrada - serial #1067

Police Officer: Nate Gonzalez - serial #1071

Police Officer: Travis Hannemann - serial #1105

Police Officer: Cristian Hernandez - serial #1095

Police Officer: Saadiq Jennings - serial #1073

Police Officer: Ikel Jimenez - serial #1112

Police Officer: Jason Jimenez - serial #1080

Police Officer: Alfred Karlay - serial #1093

Police Officer: Christopher Kearney - serial #850

Police Officer: Brian Kowan - serial #916

Police Officer: Michael Lee - serial #1011

Police Officer: Martha Lopez - serial #1008

Police Officer: Jason Mallek - serial #1041

Police Officer: Jesus Manzo - serial #1098

Police Officer: Ana Martinez-Kiefer - serial #887

Police Officer: Aria Massey - serial #1099

Police Officer: Cody McKinsey - serial #980

Police Officer: Janeri Menjivar - serial #1066

Police Officer: Eduardo Montalvo - serial #1088

Police Officer: Deon Montgomery - serial #1106

Police Officer: Luis Moreno-Ocampo - serial #1089

Police Officer: Javier Mosley - serial #1057

Police Officer: Khalid Nasser - serial #1063

Police Officer: Jacob Nation - serial #1092

Police Officer: Andres Ochoa - serial #1048

Police Officer: Lisha Oliver - serial #1031

Police Officer: Nicholas Orellana - serial #1102

Police Officer: Patrick Orta - serial #1107

Police Officer: Armando Ortiz Jr - serial #1035

Police Officer: Frederick Osorio - serial #859

Police Officer: Kendall Payne - serial #1104

Police Officer: Jose Pena-Gonzalez - serial #1065

Police Officer: Esteban Perez - serial #1101

Police Officer: Jesse Perez - serial #1110

Police Officer: Nathon Platero - serial #1109

Police Officer: Andy Pozuelos - serial #1100

Police Officer: Elizabeth Quebedo-v - serial #1070

Police Officer: Darlene Quirarte - serial #1085

Police Officer: Naomi Rivera - serial #1078

Police Officer: John Robles - serial #1079

Police Officer: Matthew Rodriguez - serial #1084

Police Officer: Inmer Rosa - serial #1081

Police Officer: Luis Ruiz - serial #1103

Police Officer: Oscar Salcedo - serial #981

Police Officer: Stuart Sato - serial #1037

Police Officer: James Shaw - serial #874

Police Officer: Gary “Ethan” Siddall - serial #815

Police Officer: Andrew Stringfellow - serial #1023

Police Officer: Kenneth Todd - serial #1083

Police Officer: Aaron Torres-Carrasc - serial #1076

Police Officer: Oyuki Tsukamoto - serial #1086

Police Officer: Jesse Velasco - serial #1094

Police Officer: Adan Verbera - serial #1055

Police Officer: Xavier Vilches - serial #1096

Police Officer: Trevor Wilson - serial #1032

Police Officer: Troy Wunderlich - serial #946

Police Officer: Sean Yanez - serial #835

Police Officer: Neurit Yanez - serial #835

Police Officer: Joseph Zeller - serial #921

K-9

Police Officer: Jesse Guizar - serial #875

Police Officer: Joseph Lisardi - serial #945

Police Officer: Kyle Long - serial #1036

Police Officer: Peter Lopresti - serial #913

Police Officer: Erik Rodriguez - serial #1027

Police Officer: Samuel Serrano - serial #1054

Police Officer: Atilano Mayorga - serial #860

Technology

Sergeant: Jeffrey Lagreek - serial #805

Police Officer: Shea McCurdy - serial #905

Traffic

Police Officer: Ruben Alfaro - serial #1005

Police Officer: Gleb Shein - serial #1072

Police Officer: Fernando Vasquez - serial #960

Special Enforcement Division

Police Officer: Matthew Amendola - serial #1014

Police Officer: Jeremy Ciauri - serial #1003

Police Officer: Andrew Little - serial #1015

Police Officer: Noah Oliver - serial #1058

Police Officer: Anthony Salinas - serial #1001

Police Officer: Bryant Vitela - serial #1053

FBI/ Narco/ Human Trafficking

Lieutenant: Brett Birkbeck - serial #851

Police Officer: Daniel S. Diaz - serial #806

K-9

Police Officer: Marcco Ware - serial #928

Special Enforcement

Lieutenant: Geoffrey Meeks - serial #876

Police Officer: Juan Gonzalez - serial #1016

Special Operations Division

Special Enforcement team

Police Officer: Camilio Garcia - serial #852

Police Officer: David Trujillo-Dailey - serial #947

Traffic

Police Officer: Gerardo Aceves - serial #869

Police Officer: Michael Concha - serial #812

Police Officer: Ryan Green - serial #924

Below are the documents received from the City Clerk.

Inglewood Police Department roster as of February 14, 2026

Author's note: an update was made on May 5, 2026, with the total number of officers employed.

Hello everyone,

I want to introduce you to a new section on my Substack, ‘Open Files: Inglewood Police Department (IPD).”

Police departments are not private security companies or private escorts; they work for and are funded by the public. The department receives its funding from the city’s general fund, which mainly comes from local taxes such as property, sales (anything you purchase that is taxed), business license, hotel/transient occupancy, utility user taxes, fees, permits, and fines, just to name a few.

That said, the public should have access to who is patrolling our neighborhoods, their records, and how our money is being used.

This part of my Substack provides public access to information about the Inglewood Police Department, obtained through public records requests. These requests enable anyone to access records from state, county, or municipal agencies, promoting transparency and accountability. This section serves as a central hub for information I’ve collected over the past few months from the department, which should be accessible to the public.

Why am I doing this?

On March 10, at the corner of Hillcrest Boulevard and Nutwood Street, Bryan Bostic, 37, was reportedly pulled over by the Inglewood Police Department (IPD) during a routine traffic stop. Moments later, for an unknown reason, Bostic was found on the ground with multiple officers arresting the 37-year-old.

A bystander video captured the arrest. The video shows Bostic face down on the concrete as one officer knelt on his back, resembling what George Floyd experienced in 2020. The Inglewood police officer was pulling an arm back to handcuff him. Later, two more officers arrived on the scene to help him as Bostic lay face down, handcuffed and helpless.

Moments later, the ambulance arrived, and according to City of Inglewood Mayor James T. Butts, paramedics cleared Bostic (meaning he is alive and can be taken to the station to be booked). It wasn’t until the officers reached the police station that they found an unconscious Bostic. He was later pronounced dead.

Authorities have not explained how Bostic died, and his family is calling for an independent investigation.

Bostic’s family is fighting to obtain information from the Inglewood Police Department. The IPD does not wear body cameras, so you have to depend on their word. In addition, the IPD website does not provide much information for the public, such as how many patrol officers are on duty, how many have fired their weapons while on duty, or whether any have brutalized or killed someone after a routine traffic stop.

This information should be available to the public.

The Inglewood Police Department operates on a $20.1 million yearly budget, using nearly 18% of the city’s entire General Fund. Meanwhile, approximately 8 to 12 public schools in the Inglewood Unified School District (IUSD) have closed or are slated to close since the 2018-2019 school year.

Schools closed in 2024-2025: Hudnall Elementary, Highland TK-6 School, Kelso TK-6 School, Crozier Middle School, Morningside High School.

As a fellow Inglewood native, I felt a deep sense of anger after watching the video of Bostic lying on the ground, helpless, surrounded by multiple police officers to prevent him from getting up.

Bostic should be here with his family right now. The least he should be worried about is handling a traffic ticket or whatever moving violation he committed. Instead, the family is now investigating the cause of his death, organizing expensive funeral services (which the city should pay for), and mourning the loss of a family member.

The public has every right to know who is patrolling their neighborhood and that officer’s professional history with the department and community. Police institutions don’t just operate on policy– they operate on trust. And trust, if it means anything to them, has to be earned in the open. And let’s be honest, given the lineage of policing in this country, it draws from a dark time of catching enslaved people and upholding unjust laws (see Jim Crow)– the institution of policing in this country has a lot of work to do if it wants the public’s trust.

In addition, the city of Inglewood will be the most policed and surveilled city in the U.S. with the upcoming FIFA World Cup in 2026, Super Bowl in 2027, and the 2028 Summer Olympics and Paralympic Games.

This project exists to keep a steady, watchful eye on how the department conducts itself: not in press releases, TikTok, or Instagram reels, but in its actual decisions in public and in the publication of departmental documents through a Public Request.

We will track budgets, internal memos, policy shifts, and enforcement patterns, because these topics shape people’s lives in real ways, often without much public visibility. Paying attention to those details isn’t about cynicism– it’s about accountability.

Each officer involved in the killing of Bostic, or anyone, should be posted so the public knows who they are and which neighborhoods they are patrolling.

They do that when a civilian kills someone, so we should also know when a police officer kills someone. Our taxes pay their inflated salaries.

This project is to provide the public with the information it deserves.

Transparency isn’t asking for a favor. It’s a requirement of public service. It belongs to anyone willing to read closely, ask questions, and stay informed.

That’s what this space is for.

How can you help?

You can subscribe to my Substack, become a paid subscriber, share this with your friends and family, and encourage them to subscribe.

So, I welcome you to– ‘Open Files: Inglewood Police Department.’

––

Author notes: As an independent journalist, I am not affiliated with any major corporations. However, you can support my work by becoming a paid monthly subscriber or sending one-time tips via Venmo or PayPal.

Venmo: abemarquez

Paypal: abraham.marquez11@gmail.com

What’s up, everyone

I’ve realized I haven’t published much on Substack in the past six months, but that doesn’t mean I stopped reporting. I’m here to share the work I’ve been doing with other outlets outside of Substack.

Reporting for Al Jazeera

Los Angeles is home to the largest Iranian diaspora outside Iran. I spent weeks speaking with that community for Al Jazeera to understand how they feel about the U.S./Israeli war on Iran.

https://www.aljazeera.com/news/longform/2026/3/18/how-los-angeless-iranian-diaspora-is-confronting-the-us-war-on-iran?utm_campaign=linkinbio&utm_medium=referral&utm_source=later-linkinbio

Reporting for The Southlander

On July 8, 2025, community organizer Ernesto Ayala put his body on the line to protect a group of women ICE was trying to kidnap.

I sat down with Ayala to talk about that day and how he is dealing with the aftermath.

https://thesouthlander.com/jenaro-ernesto-ayala-interview/

On October 16, 2025, immigrant rights activist Leo Martinez was hit from the side by federal agents while he was performing his ICE patrol duties in his Oxnard neighborhood.

I spoke with Martinez to learn what occurred that day and to hear how he is feeling.

https://thesouthlander.com/hit-and-lie-leo-martinez/

Please subscribe to The Southlander newsletter and consider becoming a paid member. The Southlander is the first worker-led newsroom in Los Angeles, and I am proud to be a part of it. You can sign up here: https://thesouthlander.com/

Reporting for L.A. Taco

April 2026 - I reported on the owners of Miznon, a restaurant at Grand Central Market in downtown Los Angeles. The co-owners, Shahar Segal and Eyal Shani, were actively involved in the Gaza genocide.

Read about it here: https://lataco.com/miznon-expands-despite-protests

March 14 - I wrote about a hidden mariscos gem in Boyle Heights. I’ve been coming here for over a decade, and I always thought there was already an article about this place because of how good the food is and the owners’ hospitality. It felt like one of those things that “there is no way food writers don’t know about this place.” To my surprise, it’s never been written about, so I took on that challenge.

https://lataco.com/hidden-nayarit-mariscos-gem-boyle-heights

November 2025 - I learned that U.S. Representative Jimmy Gomez had already accepted thousands of dollars from AIPAC for his 2026 campaign.

https://lataco.com/gomez-accepts-aipac

Reporting for Caló News

January 2026 - I wrote about a young Chicana, Claudia Vazquez, who has reinvented the matcha whisk. Vazquez worked with local LA vendors to complete her project and did not have to work with companies overseas.

https://www.calonews.com/food/a-young-chicana-reinvents-the-matcha-whisk/article_2afedd71-7ec3-47a7-8a71-23900bf0f24a.html

Thank you for reading and supporting my work.

Stay tuned, more stuff to come!

-abe

Over the weekend, grassroots organizations mobilized to protest against the news that the United States and Israeli government have launched a war against Iran by bombing fourteen locations across the country. The action is what President Donald Trump described as “major combat operations” across the country, which is home to roughly 91.57 million people.

Fars News Agency reported that the attack killed Iran’s supreme leader, the Ayatollah Ali Hosseini Khamenei, his wife, his daughter, his son-in-law, and his granddaughter. In addition, the U.S. and Israel bombed an all-girls school while in session, and the death toll now stands at 148, mainly young schoolgirls. The illegal attack also claimed the lives of Iran’s Armed Forces Chief of Staff, Defense Minister, and Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps commander, largely wiping out a generation of top military and political leadership.

“I am here in the streets to stand firmly against US/Israeli attacks on Iran,” said Shany Ebadi, an Iranian American and organizer with the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL). “There is no conviction that the US cares about democracy in Iran, the US does not care about women’s rights in Iran, this is nothing more than blatant military imperialist aggression against the people of Iran, and we are here to demand no Iran with Iran, and demand an end to the sanctions on Iran,” she added.

One protest was held on Saturday at City Hall, organized by the Palestinian Youth Movement, Code Pink, Democratic Socialist of America (DSA L.A.), 50501 SoCal, the ANSWER Coalition, and the Party for Socialism and Liberation. The action was part of a nationwide movement in over 60 cities across the United States, said Brian Becker, National Director of the ANSWER Coalition, at the rally.

On Sunday, the Centro Community Service Organization (CSO) and the Freedom Road Socialist Organization (FRSO) organized a protest at 1st Street and Soto in Boyle Heights. “The Shah was put in power by the U.S.,” stated Carlos Montes, a Chicano organizer with the FRSO.

The U.S. Wants Regional Control

The United States has a long history of intervening in Iran’s internal politics to establish a puppet regime for its imperial ambitions. From 1953 to 1979, Iran was ruled by the United States through Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.

An examination of that period shows that the U.S. sought to impose a neo-colonial dictatorship on the Iranian people. That is why we are told to dislike Iran’s political and religious leadership and system, while remaining silent about neighboring countries like Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Oman, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Qatar, Bahrain, and Kuwait.

Based on U.S. corporate media reporting and what the White House tells us, we can have strong relationships with regional brutal monarchies but not friendly ones with the Iranian government, and this is by design.

At the same time, we are told that Israel’s government is our ally and the only “democracy” in the Middle East.

There is a reason for that.

Iran is the only country in the region that is not a U.S. puppet, and the only country in the region that has a national budget to fund, support, and help the Palestinian resistance against the illegal Zionist occupation. Another source of support for the Palestinian resistance in the region is Hezbollah, a Shia Islamist Lebanese political party, and Yemen.

That is why the U.S. and Israel have bombed Lebanon and Yemen but not other regional states. In fact, regional monarchies are used as military bases to surround Iran, as we saw in the twelve-day war in 2025 and are seeing in the latest round of airstrikes.

Iran is a large and powerful country. With nearly ninety-two million people, it has the largest population in West Asia. It holds 4% of the world’s oil reserves and 15% of its gas reserves, ranking third and second globally. In 2023, Iran discovered a large lithium deposit, possibly the world’s second-largest, with reserves of 8.5 million tons, in Hamedan province.

In addition, Iran is home to many minerals and arable land. Iran borders eight countries and has coastlines on two key waterways. Its territorial waters extend twelve miles into the twenty-one-mile-wide Strait of Hormuz, one of the most important waterways in the world, through which a fifth of the world’s ships carrying oil and natural gas pass. Therefore, controlling the flow of fuel is a position no one else holds, except Iran.

Iran’s oil and minerals are technically under state ownership according to the country’s constitution, with major mining and processing (steel, copper, aluminum) owned by the government through the Iranian Mines and Industries Development and Renovation Organization (IMIDRO), which manages large-scale mining operations and state-owned assets. The profits go into the nation’s infrastructure, education, and healthcare.

From 1901 to 1951, the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC), formerly the Anglo-Persian Oil Company, controlled all of Iran’s oil. AIOC is now known as British Petroleum (BP). AIOC siphoned off all the oil and profits, leaving the people of Iran in poverty and underdevelopment.

Iran’s Islamic Revolution: A Thorn to U.S. Imperialism in West Asia (Middle East)

World War II took the lives of 70 to 85 million people, leaving European colonial powers much weaker and creating room for colonized people to assert their independence. Iran seized that opportunity in 1951, when the people of Iran voted Mohammed Mossadegh into office as their Prime Minister. As a result, Parliament voted to nationalize the oil industry, which Britain controlled. The move was supported by the people, as widespread dissatisfaction with foreign ownership of Iran’s natural resources was already evident.

After World War II in 1945, the U.S. emerged as the strongest imperialist power because it was the only one not dealing with the devastation of war, since all the fighting took place in Europe. It was at this moment that the current international financial institutions that control world trade were created, and the U.S. holds power within these institutions.

The U.S. dollar officially became the world’s primary reserve currency in 1944, following the Bretton Woods Conference. This agreement established a new international monetary system in which other currencies were pegged to the dollar, which was convertible to gold at $35 per ounce. The World Bank and the United Nations were established in 1945, and the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) was formed in 1947 to operate outside U.S. law and be exempt from congressional oversight.

In 1953, the CIA carried out its first coup, successfully overthrowing a democratically elected government, and it bragged about it as “an American project from beginning to end.” The next year, the CIA overthrew Guatemala’s popular president, Jacobo Árbenz. For the next decade, Haiti, Honduras, El Salvador, Panama, the Dominican Republic, Perú, Bolivia, Chile, and Brazil (and many more) fell victim to U.S.-backed CIA coups.

After the 1953 coup, the U.S. installed Mohammed Reza Pahlavi as the monarch, the Shah of Iran. To keep him in power, Washington financed and trained the Bureau for Intelligence and Security of the State (SAVAK), the notorious and brutal secret police, to attack and destroy any popular opposition to the new rulers.

SAVAK was given the freedom and power to make arbitrary arrests, detain people without charges indefinitely, and extract confessions through torture. One of the people the SAVAK detained and tortured was the now martyred Ayatollah Ali Khameini in 1971.

Part of SAVAK’s operations was to outlaw Mosaddegh’s political group, the National Front, by arresting all its leaders. Iran’s communist party, the Tudah (The Masses), was destroyed as well.

The ruling class in the United States was happy, though. A variety of Western companies controlled Iran’s oil through shared contracts. American companies took control of Iranian oil production, capturing the majority of the profits. Politically, Iran is what is stopping Israel from fully colonizing Palestine and completing their “Greater Israel” project, which aims to take land from Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia.

In 1969, during the Vietnam War, Nixon appealed to Iran, Israel, and Saudi Arabia to defend U.S. interests in the region, as the U.S. military was preoccupied with losing the Vietnam War and lacked the capacity to address both issues. From 1970 to 1978, the Shah of Iran imported roughly $20 billion worth of arms, military services, and ammunition from the U.S. A member of Congress said, “the most rapid build-up of military power under peacetime conditions of any nation in the history of the world.” Iran’s new military hardware was intended to serve as Washington’s watchdog in the Persian Gulf and to safeguard Western companies’ interests.

The Iranian Islamic Revolution fundamentally altered the geopolitics of U.S. imperialism in the region. It demonstrated the world’s ability to mobilize its people to overthrow colonial regimes and has served as an inspiration to oppressed groups in the Muslim world and across the Global South.

The revolution changed the balance of power in West Asia. The U.S. has attempted many ways to destroy the revolution through sanctions and assassinations, but the Iranian people still assert their right to self-determination and are aiding others, like Palestine, to do the same.

When It Comes to Israel and the U.S., International Law Vanishes

President Trump and Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have publicly stated that their aim in attacking Iran is to kill and remove the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. This open call for an assassination against a head of state violates Executive Order 12333, which states, “2.11 Prohibition on Assassination. No person employed by or acting on behalf of the United States Government shall engage in or conspire to engage in assassination.” Therefore, the assassination is illegal under U.S. law.

In addition, U.S. law requires congressional authorization to start wars, which Trump neither sought nor obtained. International law also bars wars of aggression, and Iran posed no direct threat to the U.S. The nuclear question had already been resolved in 2015 by then-President Obama, who verified and had inspectors rigorously inspect Iran’s facilities. Trump repeated the claim that Iran wouldn’t renounce nuclear weapons is a lie designed to sell a war.

Israel is the only country in the region with nuclear warheads. And the U.S. has over 5,000 of them and is the only country in history to drop an atomic bomb on civilians.

Under the United Nations Charter, specifically Article 2(4), states “UN member states are prohibited from using force against the territorial integrity or political independence of another state. An attack is only legal if it falls under the narrow exception of self-defense (Article 51) or is authorized by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).”

The Trump administration and the Israeli government did not receive UNSC approval and are not under an imminent threat from Iran, making this attack illegal.

The Palestine Question

The U.S. aims to overthrow the Iranian government not just for its oil and natural resources, but because Iran refuses to abandon the Palestinian cause, unlike other Arab countries. “If Iran’s support for the Palestinian resistance had not existed, we would never have achieved this capability. Truly, the Arab Nation has abandoned us. The Arab Nation has abandoned us. They abandoned us in our hardest and most painful moments. While Iran has supported us with weapons, equipment, and expertise,” said Yahya Al-Sinwar, a Palestinian militant and fourth chairman of the HAMAS Political Bureau.

Since the collapse of the Bashar al-Assad government in Syria, which is now ruled by Ahmed al-Sharaa, formerly known as Abu Mohammed al-Julani, who was the former leader of Al-Qaeda in Syria, and a former ISIS prodigy, support for the Palestinian resistance against Zionism falls solely on the Iranian Revolutionary government.

Syria provided key components of communications and transfer of weapons between Iran and the axis of resistance. In large, that is why Israel bombed Syria more than 600 times in 2025, with Israel supporting “its action by claiming to eliminate Iranian military installations” in Syria.

Iran has a long history of supporting the Palestinian resistance against the Zionist occupation and considers it a central pillar of its existence. Today, Iran, Iraq, Hezbollah, and Yemen are the only governments that support the freedom of Palestine from Zionist occupation.

Reza Pahlavi, the opposition figure opposing the current Iranian government and son of the Shah, advocates the opposite approach: he aims to normalize relations with Israel, abandon the Palestinian cause, and restore a monarchical system without presidential elections.

Over the weekend, his movement was cheering because the U.S. and Israel bombed Iran.

To this day, Reza has not run for president in Iran, which holds elections every four years.

How an Anti-War Movement is Taking Shape in Los Angeles

The organizations behind the protest stated that they aim to build a massive anti-war movement to stop the Trump administration from endlessly bombing countries. “It’s been one year into his presidency, and he has bombed ten countries now. And look around you (at the protest). It is working-class people who are outside protesting to stop this. The Democratic Party is nowhere to be seen,” said Rey Ramirez, a South Central resident.

“We, the people of the United States, are here to tell the Trump administration that it may wage this war in our name, but not with our consent,” said actor Jane Fonda at the protest in front of City Hall.

Organizers from both protests announced that this will not be the last time they call for a protest against the war and that they will also take to the streets. In addition, groups across the city will host events and educational forums on U.S. imperialism to help people understand why an anti-war movement is necessary in today’s politics.

On January 3rd, the United States government escalated its attack on the Venezuelan people and the Bolivarian revolution through “Operation Absolute Resolve,” a bombing raid and an illegal abduction of President Nicolás Maduro. The Trump administration’s move demonstrated to the world what it is willing to do to a head of state to force the government to bend the knee to the U.S. empire.

In recent days, a group of U.S. senators from both the Democratic and Republican parties, including Alex Padilla (CA), Chris Coons (DE), and Rick Scott (FL), met with the opposition leader, María Corina Machado. The meeting was held behind closed doors on January 19th, as revealed by Machado’s X account, and later announced through a few social media posts and media releases.

The meeting between Machado and members of the Democratic and Republican parties highlights a history of U.S. intervention in Venezuela and across Latin America. It also exposes the hypocrisy of the Democrats in their resistance to the Trump administration, making clear to the world that they both, Republicans and Democrats, want a Wall Street-friendly head of state in Venezuela. As a result, completely ignore holding Trump accountable under international law, considering he violated Venezuela’s sovereignty.

Democrats Are Part of the Same Two-Headed Snake

The Democratic Party presents itself as the “resistance” to the Trump agenda, yet its actions reveal loyalty to U.S. imperialism. Hakeem Jeffries, the Democratic Party House Minority Leader, released a statement about January 3rd that begins by completely discrediting the people of Venezuela who elected Nicolás Maduro as their president, saying, “Nicolás Maduro is a criminal and authoritarian dictator who has oppressed the people of Venezuela for years. He is not the legitimate head of government. Undoubtedly, the rule of law and democracy have broken down in Venezuela, and the people of that country deserve better.”

For decades, the people of Latin America have not viewed those meetings between Washington-friendly presidential candidates and U.S. lawmakers as neutral acts of engagement. Instead, they evoke a familiar historical pattern from history in which U.S. officials declare their preferred political candidate, legitimize opposition figures like Machado, and intervene in the internal affairs of sovereign nations. Senators say they are only “supporting” democratic processes, but critics argue that they are undermining the democratic process of the people of Venezuela and what they voted for.

However, in Latin America, history has taught people to listen closely when Washington says it is “concerned” about democracy or that it wants to bring “freedom” to the people. For many years, the people of Latin America have experienced what that means, from invasions, coups, sanctions, and military operations.

The U.S. has a long, bloody history of intervening in the political outcomes in Latin America, from overt interventions to covert operations. Since 1959, the Pentagon has aimed at overthrowing the government in Cuba, and since 1979 has sought to overthrow the government in Nicaragua.

Today, the opposition, led by Machado, is using all available means to tell people that Maduro is not the president. In addition, media talking heads are pushing the line that the country is in chaos and that the U.S. will bring order.

In Machado’s recent media tour after meeting with lawmakers, she has introduced herself as a member of the government and Edmundo González as the “elected” president of Venezuela, ignoring that he lost the election to Maduro. In addition, this comes just weeks after President Trump stated that the U.S. is in charge of Venezuela. Later, he posted a picture of his own Wikipedia page, showing that he is listed as the President of Venezuela, further underscoring the split among the ruling class over how or what to do in Venezuela. (Has anyone asked Trump what happened to his last appointed president, Juan Guaidó?)

The U.S. backing of opposition groups often preceded coups, economic destabilization, or prolonged political crises, and the U.S. has used the media as a weapon. The U.S. has been trying to overthrow the United Socialist Party of Venezuela since Hugo Chávez’s victory on February 2, 1999. Though in recent decades their language promoting democracy and human rights has shifted into Cold War-era class language of fighting communism.

For example, “Once we liberate Venezuela, we will keep working. And we will have a free Cuba, and a free Nicaragua,” said Machado in a press conference Tuesday evening.

The U.S. embargo on Cuba has harmed Cuba’s economy for over six decades. “From March 1, 2022, to February 28, 2023, the blockade cost Cuba an estimated $4.87 billion in losses,” United Nations report on ‘Economic, Commercial Embargo Imposed by United States Cuba Harmful, Violates UN Charter, 2023.

The structure of power has remained largely unchanged since the Cold War era, when Washington still positioned itself as the arbiter of legitimacy. Despite all the evidence that the Venezuelan government is still intact and operating, legacy media is pushing the Pentagon’s narrative, which claims to determine who is and is not the government. By doing so, they are denying the people of Venezuela their legitimacy, even as they take to the streets to show the world who they support.

“We have seen pictures on Wikipedia regarding who the president of Venezuela is. There is a government in Venezuela. There is an acting president. And there is a president in prison in the USA. And we are going forward in international relations,” said Delcy Rodriguez on January 13th, as she kicked off the second term of the 2025-2026 school year.

When U.S. lawmakers insert themselves into domestic political campaigns, they do so with the weight of history and the world watching, a history that many in Latin America remember all too well. As these meetings between Machado and the U.S. political establishment continue, an uncomfortable but necessary question arises: are they truly supporting democracy or maintaining power and influence in the region that has long been treated as Washington’s backyard? We know the answer.

The Bolivarian Revolution Stands

Venezuela’s opposition failed in their coup attempt against then-president Hugo Chávez on April 11, 2002. One of their strategies in 2002 was to use the media to tell people that Chávez was no longer in power and that the people needed to move on with the “transitional” government. The opposition moved in and did so, reversing all progressive laws and the constitution that belonged to the people. Once people learned that Chávez had not resigned, they mobilized in the hundreds of thousands and took control of their country, regaining power by bringing Chávez back.

Today, the Venezuelan people continue to take to the streets in support of their elected government and demand that Maduro be returned.

The revolution has suffered a major blow, but its hold on state power remains intact. Since January 3rd, the United Socialist Party of Venezuela has consistently demonstrated its strategic creativity and cohesion, continuing to operate daily.

Republicans and Democrats are showing that they actually agree on U.S. intervention and are on the same side as Trump. Attempting to overthrow the Venezuelan government is a bipartisan effort.

The Empire’s plan to shove disinformation down our throats needs to be challenged with facts and clear political discourse. We have to continue to support the Bolivarian Revolution in Venezuela.

As Donald Trump continues to ramp up his immigration raids and slash social programs, one theme is consistent through his press conferences and executive orders: class war. Not just the one enforced by ICE raids, mass kidnappings, and deportations, but one that he is aiming to invade and bomb Venezuela, Mexico, and now Colombia in the so-called “war on drugs.” These attacks on the working class are part of the same imperial system, and they must be opposed with equal force, organization, and clear politics.

Trump’s recent remarks claiming that he is going to “take control” of Latin America under the pretext of fighting drug cartels are nothing new. These remarks echo a long and bloody history of U.S. intervention in the hemisphere—one that stretches from Chile and Argentina to more recent efforts aimed at overthrowing Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba.

One does not need to fully agree with the governments of these countries to support peace or diplomacy and prevent bloodshed or death. While people in the U.S. face hunger, homelessness, and lack vital mental health services, instead of addressing these issues, our government is spending our tax dollars on war and occupation.

It is not the fault of the governments of Latin America that the Trump administration is slashing the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), cutting Medicaid, evicting people, and closing the Department of Education, among other cuts to social programs. These are direct actions by our own anti-worker government and system.

Every time Washington claims it’s bringing “democracy” or “freedom” to Latin America, Africa, Asia, or the Middle East, it brings hunger, poverty, death, racism, and destruction. These invasions have overthrown democratically elected governments, supported dictators, and displaced millions of families, fueling the very migration crisis Trump now condemns.

Latin America Under The Boot Of The U.S. Empire

In recent years, Washington has funded multiple coups across our hemisphere, aiming to replace elected presidents with Wall Street-friendly puppets and promote “color revolutions” in the region. From the 2009 coup in Honduras to the 2019 overthrow in Bolivia, the failed 2018 coup attempt in Nicaragua, the 2022 Peruvian coup, and the repeated plots to invade Venezuela or assassinate democratically elected President Nicolás Maduro. The U.S. has continued to undermine democracy in Latin America under the guise of “freedom” and “human rights,” and now the “war on drugs.”

But this pattern is nothing new. Since its creation, the United States has consistently interfered in Latin America’s internal affairs– through invasions, land grabs, and regime changes. From stealing half of Mexico’s territory to occupying Haiti, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico.

Our hemisphere has always fought to defend its sovereignty and independence from both European colonial powers and U.S. imperialism.

As Eduardo Galeano noted in his well-known book, ‘Open Veins of Latin America,’ he stated that:

From 1898 to 1994, the U.S. overthrew at least 41 governments in Latin America, according to research by Columbia University historian John Coatsworth.

On March 8th, 2022, the Congressional Research Service (CRS) released a report stating that from 1991 to 2022, the U.S. conducted at least 251 military interventions and 469 foreign interventions worldwide since 1798.

The ruling class in the U.S. has always feared that the peoples of the Americas could unite, draw from our ancestral practices, culture, and heritage, and improve our lives in the pursuit of self-determination, which is why they spend trillions of dollars creating divisions. They are well aware that we have more in common with working-class people in our hemisphere than with the billionaires who control the world.

In a 1965 report by Ray S. Cline, Deputy Director for Intelligence (CIA), to the Policy Planning Council Department of State:

“Most of the Latin American Communist parties formally came into being in the decade following the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia in 1917. The Communist Party of Argentina is the oldest party in the hemisphere, having been founded in 1918. Each of the parties has looked to Moscow from the start for its ideology and guidance. None has drawn on Latin America’s heritage of communal practices and traditions, which have stemmed from the area’s great Aztec, Maya, or Inca civilizations.”

There is a reason why we are constantly told that the governments of Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Mexico, and, more recently, Colombia are “bad” actors and need to be replaced. It has nothing to do with human rights, drugs, and everything to do with controlling the nation’s natural resources and finances, labor power, and getting them to align with the U.S. imperial ambition to dominate the planet. That is the same reason we never hear anything about the governments of Guatemala, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Chile, and others that are under the imperial grip of the Pentagon and Wall Street.

Also, who gives the U.S. the right to dictate what type of government and system an independent country should use? As Dr. Martin Luther King put it:

How can we criticize another country when we can’t get our own government to stop sending weapons to kill innocent Palestinians? How can we trust that the same government financing and orchestrating a genocide in Gaza now cares about human rights in Venezuela or Cuba? When the U.S. government itself bears the blame as the original sinner of this hemisphere, it has never been held accountable for its actions.

There is a reason the Trump administration approved a $20 billion bailout for Argentina amid its economic crisis—while maintaining an illegal embargo on Cuba and imposing sanctions on Venezuela and Nicaragua. Major corporations and banks maintain a strong hold on Argentina’s natural resources and national debt, and they aim to do the same in Cuba and Venezuela.

U.S. Banks Fund Death And Destruction

Banking institutions in the U.S. have a long, brutal history of profiting from the death and destruction of our hemisphere. For the case of Venezuela, there was a moment when Venezuela was a producer of cocaine, and that production was moved to the North American market. This was during the 1970s and 90s because the U.S.-backed government of Venezuela at the time allowed the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to operate freely throughout Venezuela, overseeing cocaine shipments to the U.S., unbothered by law enforcement.

Former Venezuelan president Carlos Andrés Pérez (CAP) collaborated with U.S. agencies and was well-known for being connected to major narco-traffickers who also financed his presidential elections. In 1974, when Carlos became president, he made a major deal with the DEA and opened a regional office in Caracas, which marked the peak of cocaine traffic from Venezuela to the U.S..

In 1993, 60 Minutes did a show exposing the DEA-CIA drug trafficking operations.

The people of Latin America indeed continue to suffer at the hands of the cartels. However, cartels can only function successfully because of the U.S. banking system. In 2010, we witnessed Wachovia admitting that they laundered $378 billion in drug money. The company’s laundering director said, “It’s the banks laundering money for the cartels that finance the tragedy (in Mexico).” Bank of America, HSBC, and Wells Fargo also admitted to laundering money for the cartels, at the cost of human life.

No CEO from these banks was put on trial, arrested, or denied employment —they were just slapped with a fine.

In 2005, under the leadership of Hugo Chávez, he expelled the DEA from Caracas as part of his intense anti-drug campaign. A United Nations report states there is no discernible drug cultivation or production in Venezuela.

The Trump administration cannot provide any evidence that the Maduro government is connected to the cartels. Still, there is evidence that the U.S.-backed self-proclaimed “president” of Venezuela, Juan Guaido, is linked to Colombian death squads and drug networks, as reviewed in 2020 by journalist Ben Norton.

In a recent interview with Rafael Correa, the former president of Ecuador, Nicolás Maduro said that he reviewed recent data showing that “it is over $500 billion annually that is in the U.S. banking system, in legal banks. If they want to investigate a cartel, let them investigate the cartel up north. It’s from the United States that all drug trafficking is directed from South America and from the rest of the world.”

Venezuela’s oil reserves, which the U.S. seeks full control over, are among its most valuable assets. Venezuela has approximately 303 billion barrels of oil, making it home to the world’s largest known oil reserves. In addition, they have significant deposits of natural gas, iron, bauxite, gold, and diamonds, as well as various other minerals and agricultural products such as coffee, sugar, and cacao.

U.S. Deploys Aircraft Carrier

On October 24, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth announced the deployment of the aircraft carrier USS Gerald R. Ford (CVN-78), the largest warship on Earth, traveling to the Caribbean. This vessel is not a tool or instrument for attacking small drug trafficking boats; it is an instrument for waging a massive war on the Caribbean and South America.

This move is an escalation aimed at intimidating the leaders of Venezuela and Colombia as well. The most capable and lethal strike force in the world is added to the already significant military buildup in the Caribbean, which includes 10,000 troops, at least eight warships, P-8 surveillance aircraft, and F-35 jets deployed amid the Trump administration’s alleged counter-narcotics efforts.

On November 14th, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced “Operation Southern Spear.” Hegseth said they aim to target “narco-terrorists.”

The small island country of Trinidad and Tobago, located just a few miles from Venezuela, reportedly is already hosting U.S. troops for a five-day “military exercise.”

Unlike the illegal invasion of Iraq in 2003, where former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell briefed the United Nations Security Council on “evidence” of Iraq’s failure to disarm and weapons of mass destruction (WMD), the Trump administration is not providing any evidence support the claims that Maduro is trafficking drugs or that any of the fishing boats that the U.S. is bombing along the Pacific and Caribbean are carrying drugs.

“It’s past time for Maduro to go. Keep it up, President Trump,” said Senator Lindsay Graham on Friday, October 24th.

Graham continued advocating for “decisive military action on land, sea, or air.” Claiming that for years it’s been a “haven for drug cartels and poisoning America,” said Graham.

On October 21 and 22, the U.S. military continued its operations, including maritime activities along Colombia’s Pacific Coast, this time striking two boats near Colombia.

The Intercept recently reported that a high-ranking Pentagon official admitted that these strikes are criminal attacks on civilians.

The United Nations explicitly condemned Trump’s boat strikes, calling them “International law does not allow governments to simply murder alleged drug traffickers.” David Cole, a professor at Georgetown University, said it clearly, “We are simply engaged in cold-blooded murder.”

Since September, at least 83 people have died in approximately 21 airstrikes in the Caribbean Sea and Eastern Pacific as the US military expands its assets in the region. While Washington claims the goal is to combat drug trafficking, the growing fleet has raised concerns that the U.S. may be planning an attack on Venezuela.

Trump’s Aggression Against Latin America

The real reason Venezuela is under attack is that the U.S. government no longer controls its natural resources, and the government in power is not a puppet. Trump’s message is clear: he wants to reassert U.S. power through fear and military force. Both overseas and at home. Our response must be just as clear; we refuse to let him attack Latin America and our undocumented community. We must build solidarity across borders, expose the hypocrisy of “law and order” politics, and challenge U.S. imperialism that underpins both ICE and the Pentagon.

The future of Latin America and the safety of our immigrant communities depend on our ability to connect these struggles. Opposing Trump’s war agenda means more than rejecting one man’s policies– it means fighting the entire system of empire that enables them.

We live in the belly of the beast. The people of Los Angeles and the nation have the most important responsibility to prevent the U.S. war machine from re-invading our hemisphere for a rich man’s war. From Gaza to Venezuela, we must oppose Trump’s war agenda. We have nothing to gain and so much to lose if Trump can carry out his military bombing or invasion of Venezuela, Colombia, and Mexico.

Resistance must therefore be internationalist. This means standing with Latin American movements fighting U.S. intervention and with immigrant communities resisting deportation.

Author’s note: This report is also being co-published with Ben Camacho’s Substack, Inadvertent.

The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) wants to be able to legally shoot journalists with kinetic weapons at the “No Kings” protest this Saturday, according to court records filed on Wednesday. The city of Los Angeles is asking a federal judge to lift a preliminary injunction that forbids the LAPD from shooting journalists with kinetic weapons while reporting at protests.

The filings are part of a case filed by the Los Angeles Press Club (LAPC) and Status Coup against the city of LA and its police chief, Jim McDonnell. The case was filed after LAPD, along with the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), used kinetic weapons against journalists covering protests against state-sanctioned kidnappings. LASD and DHS also used chemical weapons.

LAPC and Status Coup’s attorneys responded on Thursday with an opposition to the city’s filing. They argued that the city’s request for an emergency motion to lift the injunction is improper. They also argued that lifting the injunction – allowing LAPD to shoot journalists – is “contrary to the public interest.”

The first “No Kings” protest in LA took place on June 14th, with an estimated 30,000 people in attendance. Over 2,000 protests were held nationwide on the same day against Trump’s plan to cut social programs. Over 5 million people participated in a “No Kings” across the US.

LAPD also took to the streets in a show of force that resulted in violent repression against protestors. That day, videos showed the LAPD shooting at protesters indiscriminately.

The city’s filing argued that the injunction should be lifted because the LAPD cannot avoid using chemical and kinetic weapons against journalists when protests happen. LAPD Metropolitan Division Lieutenant Joseph Dunster, in his declaration filed alongside the city’s motion, explained that 40mm and 37mm kinetic weapons, as well as tear gas, cannot be used in a way that does not target journalists who are working at protests.

The city’s filing implied that the LAPD is not capable of determining who poses a threat. “Paragraph 3 bars the use of less-lethal munitions or chemical agents against journalists not posing an imminent threat,’ but provides no definition of ‘imminent threat’ or ‘objectively dangerous and unlawful situation.”

Penal Code Section 409.7, which went into effect in 2022, states that police are not allowed to intentionally assault, interfere with, or obstruct duly authorized journalists at demonstrations. Despite these protections, dozens of journalists have documented being struck by crowd-control munitions in recent months while displaying their press badges or wearing marked Press vests. The lawsuit against the city and the LAPD chief was filed because the LAPD had repeatedly violated state law, and seemingly their own policies, by shooting journalists who were covering the protests.

The injunction came after lawyers for LAPC and Status Coup presented the court with various instances of LAPD’s pattern of brutalizing reporters with less lethal munitions.

The city’s motion challenges previous court rulings that limited police from targeting or obstructing journalists and media workers, such as camera operators, during protests. Those rulings, in the past ten months in cities like Paramount, Compton, Los Angeles, and Portland, were meant to protect journalists under the First Amendment after multiple documents and evidence showed that journalists were targeted by law enforcement with rubber bullets, tear gas, or arrests while clearly identifying themselves as press.

In the filing, the city argued that the injunction, which restricts LAPD from shooting journalists, endangers officers and hinders their ability to maintain “order” during “chaotic conditions.” Another claim is that in large protests that move through the city, it is often impossible to distinguish between civilians and members of the press, especially at night when journalists are “embedded” among the crowd. Journalists wear credentials, carry cameras, lights, patches, and other equipment that distinguish them from a crowd of protestors.

The city aims to loosen the rules governing the use of “less-lethal” weapons, allowing officers to use them if they perceive an imminent “threat,” regardless of whether the press is present. This justification is also used when police officers kill someone. Police often claim that they fear for their lives when shooting someone, no matter what profession the person has. It is later justified with this claim, according to USA Today, after the killing of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald in 2017.

This comes on the heels of nearly five months during which immigrant communities have seen unmarked cars with masked men kidnapping people under the orders of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), with the full support of the Trump Administration, while Mayor Karen Bass struggles to catch up with responses to the federal actions.

In a statement to LAist, Adam Rose, press rights chair for LAPC, said, “Instead of holding the department accountable, the city is spending even more money to hire an outside law firm so they can effectively beg a judge for permission to keep assaulting journalists for just doing their job. The mayor of Los Angeles needs to take charge here, and Bass has been completely absent.”

As the case continues, the outcome could determine whether journalists have some protection when reporting from the frontlines or whether documenting police actions during civil unrest will run the risk of retaliation by the institutions they aim to hold accountable.

This could send signals across the nation to other cities, police departments, and journalists covering the unrest, as the Trump Administration allocated more funding to ICE. In comparison, police departments continue to receive more funding from cities to occupy our public spaces and detain community members.

Despite the LAPD’s and federal government’s violent tactics against Angelenos, the mayor‘s statement focused on protestors needing to be “peaceful.” She included a veiled threat of police violence against protesters and press: “As always, the Los Angeles Police Department is expected to uphold those same rights — ensuring public safety while protecting the freedoms of expression and assembly and the rights of the press.”

At today’s council meeting, the LA City Council voted unanimously to formally ask the city attorney to withdraw her motion that seeks to lift the injunction.

The opposition to the LAPD’s motion stated, “If the City can comply with Penal Code section 409.7, it can follow the injunction. And if it cannot — as its long-running history of using force on and denying access to journalists at protests and the Court’s factual findings show—the Preliminary Injunction is unquestionably necessary.”

Update: 10/17/25, 11:22 AM – with Mayor’s response.

Update: 10/17/25, 3:16 PM - with a section reflecting the council’s vote to ask the city attorney to withdraw the motion has been added to the article.

Around the world, teachers are often regarded as mentors, movement builders, guides, and community organizers. When they extend their lessons beyond the classroom, applying theory into practice, their actions serve as powerful tools and symbols of conscience.

On October 8th, marking the second anniversary of Israel’s attack on Palestinians in Gaza, more than one hundred K-12 educators from across the United States began a three-day hunger strike to raise awareness about the severe situation facing Palestinian children in the Israeli-occupied Gaza Strip. Teachers are calling on policymakers to act now to protect the rights of Palestinian children.

Over the past two years, educators across the country have employed various forms of protest to raise awareness about the Palestinian cause. There is no single, verified total for teachers fired due to their support for Palestine, but reports from across the nation mention professors being dismissed for showing support.

Internationally recognized humanitarian organizations have documented the inhumane treatment Palestinians face since October 2023. The United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF) reported in December 2023 that “The Gaza Strip is the most dangerous place in the world to be a child. And day after day, that brutal reality is reinforced.” The United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) Secretary General, Mr. Tom Fletcher, stated on September 24th:

Since October 2023, over 67,000 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli attacks. Thousands more are under the rubble. “At least 20,000 children are among the dead, or one child killed every hour for the past 24 months,” according to a recent Al Jazeera article.

The effects of Israel’s bombing campaign on the Gaza Strip are compounded by the 16-year siege, during which Israel maintains a stranglehold, restricting the amount of food, aid, and materials that can enter the enclave.

Teachers dedicate their lives to nurturing others, yet they are now risking their own health for three days to call attention to the suffering of people beyond their classrooms, the Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip. Their hunger strike becomes both an act of solidarity and a moral lesson for the world.

“The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) and the World Health Organization (WHO) both published a report stating that there is famine in Gaza,” said Erika Gomez, an educator from Los Angeles. “Over half a million people will face catastrophic levels of starvation, and many will die without anyone hearing about it because Israel has killed almost all the journalists in Gaza.”

This hunger strike demonstrates that education doesn’t stop when the school bell rings, it carries on in the streets and public spaces.

“I’ve never gone three days without eating. It feels like a long time. But after those three days, I’ll be able to eat again, and the people in Gaza won’t be able to,” said Colin, a middle school teacher in Massachusetts. “Experientially, it’s very personal, but doing this as a group offers a portal into a more universal struggle.”

In their press release, they state that each participant will decide the length and intensity of their action.

This nationwide hunger strike is one of many that have occurred since October 2023 to raise awareness about the humanitarian crisis in Gaza. College students across Los Angeles and nationwide have adopted this form of protest to stop the genocide and pressure their universities to divest from companies complicit in Israel’s genocide.

“I am joining in on the hunger strike with teachers across the U.S. to bring attention to the mass starvation of the people in Gaza, and especially the children,” said Linn Lee, a retired public school educator from the O.C.

The hunger strike, organized by Educators for Palestine, a caucus within the National Education Association (NEA), follows the group’s recent push to have the nation’s largest labor union sever ties with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). Many K–12 educators involved in the effort argue that the ADL functions as a pro-Israel political advocacy group rather than a social justice partner for schools. NEA delegates voted to end the union’s collaboration with the ADL, but the decision was later overturned by NEA leadership following pressure from the ADL.

“In addition to the work I’ve done through the union, I have been contacting legislators, standing out at protests, and donating money,” said Theresa, a middle school nurse in Minnesota. “This hunger strike is kind of upping it to the next level. We are putting our own bodies in harm’s way. A hunger strike is a more active way to participate and use my body to show resistance and solidarity.”

The strikers hope that their message reaches the people of Gaza, and that they know people are thinking about them daily. Their message is clear: education must be paired with action, and compassion must move us to do the right thing.

Links to my reporting in Paramount/Compton on June 7th:

On the ground coverage from Paramount/Compton

The East is a Podcast on Spotify

Los Angeles has become a military zone. As citywide protests erupted following ICE raids on local immigrant communities, United States President Donald Trump sent Marines and National Guard troops into the city for the first time in decades. How is this show of force turning immigration raids into a national flashpoint? In this episode:

• Abraham Marquez, Investigative Journalist, The Southlander

Links to my reporting in Paramount/Compton on June 7th:

On the ground coverage from Paramount/Compton

The Take on Spotify

Episode credits: This episode was produced by Sarí el-Khalili, Sonia Bhagat, and Tamara Khandaker, with Phillip Lanos, Spencer Cline, Haleema Shah, Amy Walters, Mariana Navarrete, Kisaa Zehra, and our guest host, Manuel Rapalo. Noor Wazwaz edited it. Joe Plourde mixed this episode. Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Our video editor is Hisham Abu Salah. Alexandra Locke is the Take’s executive producer. Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera’s head of audio.

President Trump started his second term exactly where he left off in 2021, waging an everyday psychological and physical war on immigrants. Joe Biden's Presidential term was no help because he continued Trump’s immigration policies and did not provide a pathway to citizenship as he had campaigned, abandoning an estimated 11 million undocumented immigrants to their fate under the more openly fascist Trump regime. As a result, it has brought more attention to our undocumented community and our immigration policies.

The tug and pull by Democrats and Republicans of whether immigrants should have some rights to a dignified life has left us with a dysfunctional, incoherent immigration system for working-class people to understand, leaving people lost in how our system works or should work.

Consulting history reveals that our government does not work for the people; it works for the ruling class, the capitalist class. This is their system, not ours. We are conditioned to believe what politicians tell us, that we need to repeatedly vote for the next “good” candidate, which leaves us disappointed each time. In reality, we should challenge the system as a whole and its treatment of our most vulnerable community members.

Trump’s racist agenda against immigrants is nothing new. Trump is not an outsider who landed in the U.S. from Mars a few years ago and suddenly started attacking our people with hateful rhetoric and executive orders. Trump is homegrown and falls in line with all U.S. presidents before him in attacking our immigrant community. From the colonial period to the “founding” of this country to today, immigration law is rooted in racism. Therefore, Trump is following in the footsteps of his predecessors, Democrat or Republican, because the system allows him to do so.

Capitalism and Immigration

In capitalism's eyes, immigrants are not regarded as humans but rather as a labor pool from which to extract maximum profit while also denying them basic human needs for a dignified life. This leaves migrant workers in fear, preventing them from demanding better wages or working conditions, as they live in a state of irregularity and vulnerability, facing the threat of unemployment, arrest, or worse, deportation. Undocumented workers from the Global South are essential to maximizing profits in wealthy, developed countries.

Migrant workers accept low wages and work in unhealthy, dangerous conditions, meaning that they are not free to choose where they want to work; they are pulled by capital. Therefore, the labor force exploited by the ruling class is central to creating value in the capitalist system.

Moreover, capitalism does not set a specific price on goods we need or use; instead, it aims to maximize profit from what is produced and minimize the cost of labor involved. For example, in 2022, California’s agriculture sector generated more than $59 billion in sales, and the state remains a top producer of agricultural products in the nation, ranking as the world’s fifth-largest producer, surpassing the economies of many countries.

Meanwhile, farmworkers are among the most exploited workers in the country, earning about $24,871 annually, according to the UC Merced Community and Labor Center. There are approximately 500,000 to 800,000 farmworkers in California, with seventy-five percent being undocumented. In addition, “around 30% of households with farmworkers’ income fall below the poverty line, and 73% earn less than 200% of poverty (a threshold used in many public assistance programs),” reads a report by La Cooperativa.

In Trump's first five months, he applied intense pressure on our undocumented communities. However, the capitalist class that relies on that labor pushed back against Trump, as the same individuals that ICE is targeting are those the system exploits, working in our fields, hotels, and the service industry.

For example, on April 10th, President Trump recommended at a Cabinet meeting, “We have to take care of our farmers, the hotels and, you know, the various places where they tend to, where they tend to need people.”

Industry leaders and Wall Street are well aware of the financial losses that would happen if the deportation system continues, and the U.S. economy could collapse in days if it succeeds in its plan to deport millions of undocumented workers.

“America currently faces a workforce shortage of 1.7 million people. We simply don’t have enough workers to fill the current job openings, and mass deportations could exacerbate this shortage and put further pressure on businesses,” said Sam Sanchez, owner of Third Coast Hospitality, National Restaurant Association board member, and co-chair of Comité de 100.

To clarify, what Sam is referring to regarding the 1.7 million workforce shortage is not a lack of unemployed people but rather a scarcity of individuals willing to take the low-wage jobs in the hospitality industry, where undocumented workers are often valued because industry owners can pay them low wages without providing benefits.

There are over six million documented unemployed people in the U.S., but many documented workers are unwilling to do this brutal work for low pay.

Since the founding of the U.S., immigration law has never truly reflected the needs of the people but has always served the interests of the ruling class. The labor pool of undocumented workers is like a faucet: when they are needed, entry is allowed; once the work is done, the outlet is tightened to deport them.

The Colonial Period to the Creation of the U.S.

In March, the Trump administration deported 252 people, mainly from Venezuela, to El Salvador’s torture camps, where they will be forced to work. This move resembles what previous empires did in the 18th century. In 1717, the Transportation Act enabled the British government to send convicts to its colonies, where they would be converted into indentured servants.

“Before the American Revolution, Britain transported about 50,000 convicts to the American colonies.”

Convicts, who later became indentured servants, were not the largest group of people forced into British colonies that eventually became the U.S.; instead, enslaved Africans were. Over 300,000 enslaved people were brought into North America. Slavery represented a different form of forced migration because, unlike convicts, enslaved people had no possibility of earning their freedom. Enslaved people and their descendants made up a significant portion of the population in British colonies and the U.S. since the 1600s.

Enslaved people were not viewed as immigrants because they faced an experience so torturously different that the story of slavery does not fit into the narrative of migration. Meanwhile, although enslaved people were never granted freedom on North American soil, convicts sent to the colony who became indentured servants eventually gained their freedom after years of forced labor; they were discharged with a small amount of cash, perhaps some land in a new continent, and skills to survive.

Settlers who left Britain for their colonies in North America did so of their own will because they were drawn by the possibility of purchasing cheap land taken from the Indigenous, high wages, and freedom from the King. Many of those people financed their voyage to North America. Settlers are not immigrants.

The Formation of Laws Around Citizenship

In 1790, the U.S. Census, which excluded Native Americans, showed that the population in the U.S. reached 3.9 million people. Additionally, the Census revealed that over 80 percent of the population identified as white. The same year, the U.S. passed its first citizenship law, the 1790 Naturalization Act. This law granted citizenship to “free white persons” who lived in the country for two continuous years.

People of European descent who were propertyless and indentured servants were not considered “free”; thus, gaining citizenship was restricted. White male suffrage was achieved on a state-by-state basis, and the law excluded non-whites, indentured servants, and enslaved people from naturalization.

The Soviet Union was the first country in the world to successfully create new educational and economic opportunities for women. In 1917, the Bolshevik legislative initiatives granted them full civil and political rights, while new laws ensured women were legally equal to men.

Meanwhile, white women in the U.S. did not secure the right to vote until 1920, one hundred forty years after the U.S.’s “founding.” Their right to vote emerged from an intense struggle that mobilized thousands of white women to challenge a system that didn’t acknowledge their civil and political interests. On the contrary, Black women were not allowed to vote until the Voting Rights Act of 1965, one hundred and eighty-nine years after the creation of the U.S., which also came after decades of sacrifice, organizing, and struggle.

In addition, when the country was formed, Black people of African descent did not have any rights, whether they were freed or enslaved people; citizenship rights were not extended to them, and that policy was upheld in the 1857 Dred Scott Supreme Court decision. The case stated that people of African descent were “beings of an inferior order” and were not allowed to become citizens.

However, Congress feared that a significant portion of the foreign-born population with voting rights could threaten national security, particularly with the possibility of going to war. Consequently, Congress passed the Naturalization Act of 1795, which extended the residency requirement to five years. It also included a clause stating that a potential citizen could declare their intention to naturalize three years before doing so. Notably, the 1795 act incorporated a religious component, changing the requirement from “good character” to “good moral character.”

During the late 1700s, war between the U.S. and France was possible. As a result, Congress passed a series of bills. In 1798, they passed the Alien Enemies Act, which extended the federal government's power in immigration policy. Notably, it gave then-President John Adams the power to invoke the act to imprison and deport non-citizens during times of war or invasion.

Today, we are seeing Trump use this language that allows him to deport people from Venezuela with no legal pushback because he is calling it an “invasion” and claiming that they are “unlawfully infiltrating” the country. That is not true.

However, these laws increased the residency period for naturalization to 14 years and required individuals to declare their intention to naturalize 5 years prior. The waiting period was reduced to five years in 1802.

The U.S. Civil War ended in 1868, giving rise to the 14th Amendment, which primarily grants citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the U.S. The amendment expanded the right of citizenship to formerly enslaved individuals and all people born on U.S. soil. Two years later, in 1870, the Nationality Act broadened these rights to include “persons of African nativity or descent.”

Native Americans born on tribal lands were not granted the citizenship rights that the Fourteenth Amendment guaranteed. Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, they fought with determination for survival and sovereignty against U.S. expansionism and the doctrine of Manifest Destiny. (Similar to how Israel is colonizing Palestine, using religion as a land deed.)

In 1924, the U.S. finally granted Native Americans citizenship through the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924. Before the bill, only some Native Americans were granted citizenship if they joined the military, received land allotments, or were granted citizenship through treaties. The 1924 bill aimed to grant citizenship to all non-citizen Native Americans born in the U.S.

The Mexican Problem

While U.S. settlers used Manifest Destiny to exterminate the indigenous population as they expanded westward, another significant population was the Mexican people, who were forcibly incorporated into the country by the U.S. war of aggression that took fifty-five percent of Mexico. The U.S. and its forces conquered a large portion of Mexican territory during the Mexican-American War from 1846 to 1848, acquiring what are now the U.S. states of Utah, Nevada, California, Wyoming, New Mexico, Colorado, and Arizona.

The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed on February 2, 1848. It stated that Mexican individuals who remained in the area of those states for one more year would automatically become U.S. citizens. However, like all U.S. treaties with Indigenous peoples, the U.S. government systematically violated this agreement.

With the U.S. government being the new overseers of the new territory in the Southwest, new struggles emerged for the indigenous people, revealing Congress’s racism.

The white-dominant society portrayed Mexicans as biologically inferior. Therefore, the fact that Mexicans from the Southwest could be naturalized under the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo posed a threat to white-only citizenship. Because of the U.S. conquest of the new territory, it was nearly impossible to remove them on a legal basis, and therefore, they faced new racist challenges. What came next was a racist media campaign against Mexicans.

Many Mexican workers found employment in agriculture across the Southwest. However, from 1900 to 1909, Mexican immigration was low, comprising only .6 percent of the total immigration to the U.S. Different class interests disputed their future. Congress denied Mexicans in the Southwest their voting and workers' rights. Simultaneously, growers and business developers depended on exploiting their labor for profit. They testified before Congress about the value of their Mexican workers, effectively stalling restrictive legislation.

Between 1910 and the 1920s, Mexican migration increased as Chinese and Japanese agricultural workers departed, and people fleeing violence during the Mexican Revolution sought stability and employment. However, during the next decade, the demand for their labor declined with the start of the Great Depression. What followed was a campaign by the Border Patrol to detain Mexicans, which also included U.S.-born citizens, and deport them across the border—something that Trump mentioned on July 1st, stating he plans to do next: deport U.S.-born citizens.

When the U.S. entered World War II, it renewed efforts to recruit Mexican workers for wartime production, once again opening the faucet to keep the system operating.

The 1924 Immigration Act helped growers prevent Congress from passing more restrictive laws because it did not set quotas on the number of immigrants from the Western Hemisphere who could enter the United States. During this time, politicians and the press began, much like today, to inflame anti-Mexican and anti-immigrant sentiments. For four years, from 1926 to 1930, Congressmen attempted to expand the quotas to include Mexico and the entire Western Hemisphere.

The issue of what to do with Mexicans in the Southwest was such a concern for Congress that they placed the “Mexican problem” on their agenda. Thus, instead of providing a humane pathway to live in the U.S., they sought ways to remove them and treat them as second-class citizens in their ancestral land.

The Mexican people have endured systemic violence from the U.S. ruling class in various forms to strip away their political and labor rights since their land was taken by force one hundred and seventy-seven years ago. They’ve whipped up racist campaigns to stigmatize Mexicans as “illegal” or “alien” people. Unlike other immigrant groups in the U.S., a large portion of the Mexican people came under U.S. rule as a result of U.S. Imperialism.

Since then, the Mexican community has been systematically and consistently denied political rights and has struggled for better working conditions and equality at every turn.

In the 1950s, during an economic boom fueled by the Bracero program, millions of Mexicans migrated to the U.S. as “guest workers” from 1942 to 1964. The U.S. government organized a racist “operation wetback” that led to the deportation of over 1 million undocumented immigrants. Deportation as a tactic to further divide and conquer the Mexican people is now a multibillion-dollar industry that extends beyond the people of Mexico. Today, approximately forty-three percent of people detained by ICE are from El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, according to data from the American Immigration Council.

In contrast, over 200,000 European immigrants were able to overturn their legal status between 1925 and 1965. In other words, Mexicans were brought in to work the fields in their ancestral lands, only to be deported after the growers exploited their labor.

‘Undesirable’ Countries and the Quota System

The Immigration Act of 1924 (The Johnson-Reed Act) limited the number of immigrants allowed into the country through a national origins quota. The quota permitted immigration visas to two percent of the total number of individuals of each nationality in the U.S., as recorded in the 1890 national census. It completely excluded immigrants from Asia.

By establishing a hierarchy among European peoples, the 1924 Immigration Act also underscored a notion of nationality that excluded non-white individuals. A minimal quota was set for individuals from African countries, and several countries were considered “ineligible for citizenship,” including those from various parts of Asia, such as Japan, Thailand, and India.

The 1924 Immigration Act excluded Asians from citizenship, particularly the Japanese, who were not previously barred from immigrating but were now admitted to the U.S. This set of laws upset Japanese officials, as it violated the Gentlemen’s Agreement. Despite the tension between the two nations, Congress was more concerned with preserving the nation's racial composition than promoting good diplomacy with Japan.

The American Industrial Revolution and Immigration

The period from the 1850s to the 1900s was an era of industrialization in the U.S., a time of urbanization and immigration that propelled the nation toward developing its infrastructure and high-tech industries. During the Industrial Revolution, a significant wave of immigration occurred, transforming societies and economies worldwide. People sought economic opportunities, escaped violence, or had no choice but to leave their homeland, resulting in a massive demographic shift and cultural changes in both the sending and receiving countries. Those who welcomed a large influx of immigrants witnessed their economy and development flourish, while those who lost their indigenous populations struggled to recover economically.

The 19th century introduced new techniques and technologies that revolutionized the capitalist economy into a fully-fledged industrial profit-making system. The foundations of the new economy rested on the country’s westward expansion, which involved taking land from the indigenous people and developing railroads and factories across the nation, enabling the establishment of goods and services in the new territory.

The new projects peppered across the country required cheap labor willing to do the most brutal and dangerous manual labor jobs. A large portion of workers were from China, who were escaping colonialism and all its manifestations, like famine and violence. Chinese workers built enormous tracts of the U.S. railroad system, specifically in the West. As the California Gold Rush declined, so did the demand for cheap labor.

The pool of immigrant Chinese workers competed with white workers for survival. This led to the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, which barred new Chinese workers from entering the U.S. Those already on U.S. soil were also ineligible for citizenship. The act expanded to include all Asian people except those from Japan.

It was not until 1898 that birthright citizenship was established in the United States.

The 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act was the first example of an overtly racist immigration law passed in the U.S. In contrast, it represented an open borders policy for white immigrants from Europe. This policy remained in effect until the Immigration Act of 1924 and the Quota Act of 1921. Since the act was passed, we’ve seen multiple laws enacted that deny travel, citizenship, and fundamental rights to people from majority Muslim countries, as well as to nations the U.S. considers an “enemy” for charting their path of independence, such as Iran, Nicaragua, Cuba, and Venezuela.

Although the Chinese Exclusion Act is the first example of racist immigration law in the U.S., one could argue that denying citizenship to everyone, specifically to people of color, intentionally to maximize profit, is the initial act of a racist system and a racist government body that maintains that status quo.

A War From the Depths of Time

Our social progress and expansion of democratic rights for the working class can be traced through social movements. When people are organized, they can demand what is rightfully theirs, and social pressure compels the government to enact laws that reflect those demands. This has led to significant achievements, including the eight-hour workday, social security, the Voting Rights Act, the Civil Rights Act, and many more.

The same is true for our immigration laws, which offer some hope to our undocumented community by allowing them to no longer live in the shadows when laws are enacted in their favor.

In the 1980s, the sanctuary city movement started as a campaign to offer refuge and protection to Central American refugees fleeing U.S.-supported civil wars that aimed to crush national liberation efforts, mainly led by Marxist groups. However, U.S. immigration policies denied asylum to those fleeing violence. Over one million people from Central America migrated to the U.S.

The sanctuary city movement, led by churches, faith-based organizations, and synagogues, formed the “sacred resistance” that turned places of worship into sanctuaries for Salvadoran and Guatemalan asylum seekers, defying federal authorities to promote humanitarian aid, legal reform, and an end to U.S. intervention in Central America.

The sanctuary city movement and other forms of protest compelled the Reagan administration, which was not an advocate for immigrant rights, to sign the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA). Ultimately, over two million people were approved for permanent residence.

In the 1990s, people mobilized against Prop 187, known as the “Save Our State” bill on California's ballot, which aimed to deny public services like education, healthcare, and social services to undocumented immigrants. The bill also included a requirement that public officials, including healthcare professionals and teachers, report suspected undocumented individuals to immigration authorities. 

The bill passed with 58.92% of the vote; however, it was challenged in court and subsequently voided due to legal issues, primarily because of public outcry, as thousands took to the streets of Los Angeles on October 16, 1994.

The same can be said about Obama’s decision to sign the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) on June 15, 2012. DACA provided temporary protection from deportation and allowed eligible undocumented immigrants who arrived in the U.S. as children to apply for work permits and attend school.

This decision followed constant protests by immigrant rights activists against Obama’s deportation policies and his failure to pass the DREAM Act, which offered a pathway to citizenship, unlike DACA, which gives immigrants temporary protection and is revocable. Obama was called the “Deporter-In-Chief” for deporting (removals) over two million people, more than any other president before him.

The protest persisted after DACA was signed.

Video: Jennicet Gutiérrez, Transgender and immigrant rights activist from Mexico interrupts Obama in 2015. Jennicet is a founding member of La Familia: Trans Queer Liberation Movement.

Gutiérrez said: “President Obama, stop the torture and abuse of trans women in detention centers.”

In addition, “There is no pride in how LGBTQ and transgender immigrants are treated in this country. If the president wants to celebrate with us, he should release the LGBTQ immigrants locked up in detention centers immediately.”

Video: President Obama is interrupted by a young immigration activist who demands that the President use his executive power to halt deportations during a speech in San Francisco about immigration reform. (2013)

_

In Los Angeles, the city saw one of the largest immigrant rights marches on May 1, 2006, International Workers Day, where between one and two million people marched downtown in response to The Border Protection, Anti-Terrorism, and Illegal Immigration Control Act of 2005, also known as the “Sensenbrenner Bill,” for its sponsor in the House of Representative Jim Sensenbrenner from Wisconsin. The march was also called “Day Without an Immigrant.”

That movement continued in 2010 when thousands of people gathered in Arizona to oppose Senate Bill 1070. SB1070 required police to verify the immigration status of anyone they stopped and suspected of being in the country illegally.

Los Angeles has long been a leader in the immigrant rights movement, and it continues to lead today. In Trump’s first months in office, we saw high school students walk out of school to protest his immigration policies. Also, in the last thirty days, LA has been occupied by the National Guard, Marines, and Federal/ICE/CBP agents kidnapping our relatives, and people are protesting their presence everywhere they appear.

It's always the social movements of the people when they come together under a common struggle against a shared enemy, where the politics are sharp; it's that movement that can bring about radical change to society. Today, millions of people are witnessing that no government institution is stepping up to protect and defend our undocumented community.

Local police protect federal agents as they kidnap our neighbors, while the Democratic Party does nothing. Meanwhile, both parties fully support a live-streamed genocide in Gaza and tell us that Palestinian lives don’t matter. How can we ever think they care about our families?

It is the people risking their lives against oppressive state forces who are driving change. Today’s activists and organizers are charting a new path of revolutionary optimism, in the belly of the beast.

True comprehensive immigration reform and equality for immigrants can be achieved through shared struggle in the streets. It is not the Democrats or the Republicans that are going to save us. Rejecting both bourgeois political parties and building an independent pro-immigrant rights movement interconnected with other social movements can create the change we need.

On Saturday, June 7th, ICE was seen near a Home Depot and a meat factory in Paramount. News spread quickly, prompting the community to rally in defense of the undocumented workers targeted for arrest by ICE.

Just down the block, at the intersection of Atlantic and Alondra on the Compton side of the city, sheriff's deputies stopped people from entering the Home Depot to prevent further arrests by ICE.

Here is an Instagram reel of my report from that day for CounterPunch Media.

Photos from the protest

On May 9th, third-year UCLA Palestinian student Maya-Ayooni Abdallah launched her hunger strike on campus after learning about the twenty-five students across four Cal State University (CSU) campuses who had begun their hunger strike for Gaza on May 5th. The strikers across CSU and UCLA are part of the nationwide divestment movement that was sparked on April 17th, 2024, at the Columbia University encampments.

The strikers' demands call for their schools to divest from companies associated with the occupational government of Israel. This marked the sixth school to join the movement in California. It started in April with two universities, Chapman University in Orange County and Occidental College in the northeast LA region of Eagle Rock.

Abdallah was also involved in the student encampments at UCLA, where on May 2, 2024, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) violently arrested and shot at unarmed students peacefully protesting. “We have every right to protest on campus and demand that our university divest from Israel,” said Abdallah in an interview on her seventh day of her hunger strike at UCLA.

On Saturday, May 17th, Abdallah, who was on her way to a protest to commemorate the ongoing Nakba day, was hospitalized while on campus at UCLA. It marked her ninth day of her hunger strike. “I was very lucky to be with friends who called the ambulance immediately,” said Abdallah in her Instagram post.

The hunger strike to raise awareness of the humanitarian crisis in Gaza and throughout occupied Palestine resonates deeply for the third-year college student. “I’m half Palestinian, half Lebanese. I was in Palestine in the West Bank on October 7th. So I definitely felt very compelled to share, and tell the truth of what was happening in Palestine,” Adballah said.

Adballah’s act of defiance, refusing food until her university takes meaningful steps in divesting from Israel, has received support from fellow UCLA students, activists across the LA area, and other strikers at CSU campuses. On Saturday, when the news broke that she was hospitalized, people took to social media to show their solidarity with the third-year UCLA student.

“I heard the call from the CSU students and joined them in this protest,” Abdallah said. “Every day on campus, someone approaches me to tell me that they support my protest and saw it on social media.”

Abdallah’s hunger strike is not about personal gain but about forcing the world to acknowledge the genocide of the Palestinian people at the hands of the colonial Israeli government, which the U.S. government funds. Since her first day of the hunger strike, Israel has killed 21 children in one airstrike, and on the 77th anniversary of Nakba Day, May 15th, Israel killed 115 Palestinians in another airstrike. This destruction adds to the ongoing denial of humanitarian aid to the people of the Gaza Strip for months, and the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) announced on April 25th that food has run out in the enclave.

On May 21st, humanitarian aid trucks entered the Gaza Strip after eleven weeks of denying them entry. “None of this aid, that is, a very limited number of trucks, has reached the Gaza population,” said Antoine Renard, country director of the World Food Programme.

Abdallah took to Instagram to thank everyone who reached out to her after learning that she was rushed to the hospital. She seems to be doing better and is still doing other work to advocate for a free Palestine and an end to the occupation.

On Monday, May 19th, the students at Cal State Long Beach posted on Instagram that, after twelve days, they also ended their hunger strike.

They posted on their Instagram:

In a powerful act of protest, we are witnessing young activists nationwide demanding urgent action on a devastating humanitarian crisis in the Gaza Strip. From university campuses to social media campaigns, these determined youths are using their voices, their skills, their bodies, and their networks to call for an end to the occupation of Palestine.

Overall, their protest underscores the failure of local and global leaders to address the urgent needs that Palestinians face daily, including access to clean water, food, medicine, and healthcare, and much more.

UCLA divestment movement

With an international uprising against Zionism, various forms of protest, such as hunger strikes, school encampments, walkouts, and much more, have emerged nationwide. UCLA students have refined their methods by deepening their understanding of how their university is connected to the Zionist movement, and they aim to inform people about how the UC system is intertwined with Israel’s occupation of Palestine.

In March, organizers at UCLA published a report, “Unmasking UCLA: White Paper,” that details how the UC system is in bed with the colonial government of Israel through a variety of methods. “In this moment of crisis, institutions of higher learning across the US and the world have begun to re-evaluate their complicity in the ongoing genocide of the Palestinian people through financial, political, and academic support of Israel and military corporations that profit from war and genocide,” reads the White Paper statement.

The UCLA divestment movement is steadfast in its demands, which are listed on its website. These are some:

• Divest all UC-wide and UCLA Foundation funds from companies and institutions involved in the Israeli occupation, apartheid, and genocide of the Palestinian people.

• Disclose all UC-wide and UCLA Foundation assets and funding sources, including but not limited to contracts, grants, gifts, and investments.

• Boycott all academic ties to occupation and genocide, including by terminating all gifts, grants, contracts, and endowed positions funded by weapons manufacturers directly perpetuating the genocide of Palestinians.

• Abolish all policing on our campus.

  

  

The divestment movement falls in line with the United Nations court ruling that calls for the prevention of genocidal acts in Gaza. The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) and the International Court of Justice (ICJ) have found and confirmed that all nations are obligated to cut their military and economic support to Israel’s occupation of Palestine, which includes the Gaza Strip, the West Bank, and Jerusalem. Therefore, urging the UC school system to sever its connections with Israel due to its illegal occupation and treatment of Palestinians aligns with the judge's ruling.

The front line is everywhere

The movement to free Palestine from the illegal occupation has reached every aspect of life in the US. In the days following October 7th, protests erupted in every major city and small towns nationwide, and politicians who receive money from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) or maintain friendly relations with Israel are being interrupted at public meetings.

In addition, politicians running for office, either in local or national congressional elections, are forced to have a position on Palestine, where in the past, you were able to get away without having one. But since the genocide is being livestreamed, contradictions sharpened, this has created a protest movement with multiple fronts across all walks of life. As a result, the government is criminalizing support for Palestine because it cannot stop the movement, and wants to spark fear in those who are looking to join.

Abdallah’s and the Cal State Long Beach students' hunger strike is part of a larger movement led by young people who will no longer tolerate how our government treats Palestinians. Their protest highlights a historic trend of the anti-war movement that dates back to the 1960s and 1970s, where hunger strikes served as a form of protest to stop the Vietnam War. Supporters of the hunger strike took to social media to call the students courageous for their sacrifice for a humane cause, and the students pledged to continue their fight for a free Palestine.

Author’s note: I reached out to UCLA for comments regarding Maya and its plans for divestment, but I have not received a response. On May 7th, while reporting on the Cal State Long Beach students' hunger strike, I reached out to the CSULB president but was also met with silence.

On Saturday, hundreds of people gather at the Israeli Consulate in West Los Angeles at 2 p.m., part of an international week of action to commemorate the ongoing “al-Nakba” — “the catastrophe,” where 77 years ago in 1948, hundreds of Arab Villages were depopulated by the barrel of a gun. Eighty percent of Palestinians were ethnically cleansed out of their homeland and into refugee camps, many of them into the Gaza Strip.

Demonstrations took place across the planet, from Ireland, London, New York, San Francisco, and many other cities in support of the Palestinian people. In the last week, the Israeli government has been bombing refugee camps and the last remaining hospitals.

Many protesters held placards resembling press vests to honor journalists. As of May 14th, one hundred seventy-nine journalists and media workers have been killed by the Israeli military, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. In addition, many demonstrators held up poppy flower signs to honor all the martyrs, seeking to highlight the ongoing massacre in all aspects of life in the Gaza Strip.

“If we let the Israeli military get away with the displacement of the Palestinian people, this signals to the people of the world that the empire can do the same anywhere. We must keep fighting,” said Adal Ríos, an organizer with Unión de Barrio.

The program began in front of the consulate with speakers from various grassroots organizations, including the student movement, who read Mahmoud Khalil's letter to the audience movingly. The demonstrators denounced the Trump administration for using repression to slow down the free Palestine movement in all its manifestations, including the encampments, hunger strikes, and protests. In addition, protesters condemned his administration for continuing to send weapons to Israel. Since taking office, Trump has approved nearly $12 billion in weapons to Israel. “The Trump Administration will continue to use all available tools to fulfill America’s long-standing commitment to Israel’s security, including means to counter security threats,” reads a press statement by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

The Gaza Story: Resistance and Steadfastness

The Gaza Strip is a small, densely populated area with 2.5 million people on the eastern Mediterranean coast. It borders Israeli-occupied territories to the north and east, Egypt to the south, and the Mediterranean Sea to the west. The strip is approximately twenty-five miles long and six miles wide.

Before October 7th, 2023, the United Nations regarded it as an open-air prison due to its status as one of Earth’s most densely populated areas, with Israel controlling the flow of food and aid entering the strip. For over ten weeks, Israel has blocked humanitarian aid and supplies from entering the Gaza Strip, as reported by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine refugees (UNRWA) on May 16th.

Nearly seventy-five percent of everyone living in Gaza is a refugee after Israeli forces pushed them out of their homes and villages during the 1948 Nakba, where hundreds of villages were ethnically cleansed, and Israeli militias killed those who wouldn’t leave. Later that year, the United Nations issued Resolution 194, which mandated that 750,000 Palestinians who were made refugees during the Nakba could return to the land after being ethnically cleansed by Israeli forces.

The Israeli government is never held accountable for violating Resolution 194.

In 2018, the United Nations stated that “Gaza may well be unlivable by 2020” because it lacks safe drinking water. After all, Israel has destroyed by bombing all their desalination water plants. Over the past nineteen months, the U.S. has provided Israel military intelligence to operate their genocide, and in 2024 alone, the U.S. government sent Israel $17.9 billion in military financing and weaponry. In contrast, Palestine has no formal army or conventional military.

Israeli Air Forces, with the bombs provided by the U.S., have dropped 70,000 tons of bombs on Gaza since October 2023, exceeding that of World War II. In addition, the Gaza Strip is much smaller than Hiroshima but has experienced “the equivalent of two nuclear bombs,” according to Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor.

“Israel is only able to get away with the mass murder of Palestinians because of the full economic, political, and material support it gets from the U.S. government,” said Tharwa Khalid, an organizer with the Palestinian Youth Movement (PYM).

Israel has bombed at least thirty-six hospitals. More than 80 percent of schools have been attacked, and over 5,479 students, 261 teachers, and 95 university professors have been killed in Gaza, with 756 teachers injured—numbers that are growing each day.

Protests have erupted since October 2023 worldwide after U.S.-made weapons have killed thousands of Palestinians. In addition, Israel has intensified its attacks with the announcement of a new ground offensive on the Gaza Strip. The steadfastness of the Palestinian resistance continues to attack the occupying forces throughout the enclave. Israel published the “Swords of Iron War,” which states they’ve had 856 casualties since October 2023.

Ceasefire talks have been unsuccessful as Israel keeps bombing the Gaza Strip.

Repression breeds resistance

The march proceeded from the Israeli Consulate to the U.S. Federal Building on Wilshire and back, concluding peacefully, except for two Israeli flag-waving agitators whom the organizers effectively subdued within minutes. Guest speakers and organizers made it clear that the U.S. government has the full power to stop the genocide and stop arming Israel, but decides every day not to end the massacres.

It’s been nineteen months since Palestinians in the Gaza Strip broke out of prison in operation “Al-Aqsa Flood,” using bulldozers to break through the Israeli fence that imprisoned 2.3 million people. For the first time, they could break through the wall and step on their ancestral land of historic Palestine.

The Palestinian Youth Movement has been at the forefront of organizing hundreds of marches across the country, demanding that the U.S. government stop arming Israel with bombs that are dropping on civilians, and and end to the occupation.

The PYM will continue organizing marches, educational forums, and teach-ins, as well as producing educational materials to raise awareness about Palestine. Under Trump’s Administration, we are witnessing the continuation of the same imperial policies from his predecessors, and it will continue to be met with resistance here in the belly of the beast.

Photos by Meg Webster:

Some clips of the speakers:

On May 5th, seven students from California State University, Long Beach, launched a hunger strike as part of an organized protest across four CSU campuses: San Francisco, Sacramento, and San Jose State. In total, twenty-five students are striking for Gaza. They join a wave of nationwide protests demanding an immediate end to the United States' arming and facilitating a genocide in Gaza by Israel.

The seven strikers announced on the campus their commitment to refuse food until their institution divests from companies that supply weapons, military equipment, and surveillance technology, among other demands, to Israel’s military. In addition, they call on their campus administration to pressure other CSU presidents and the Board of Trustees to do the same.

“This is part of a larger student movement to ensure that California State Students’ tuition, and Universities’ investments, are not complicit in the genocide of the Palestinian people,” read the statement by the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) at CSULB.

Similar hunger strikes and encampments have spread to campuses in the Los Angeles area. Thirty miles north in Eagle Rock, ten Occidental College students began their hunger strike protest in April. Like the students in Long Beach, their demands included protecting students from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and providing a Sanctuary Campus for non-citizen students. The strike has drawn both support and backlash, with the protesters being accused of antisemitism, a claim organizers firmly deny.

University officials have yet to respond to a request for comment for this article. Meanwhile, students and local activists began providing water and electrolytes to the strikers, while medical students volunteered to monitor their health. “We (strikers) are in constant communication, and we have a lot of support from student organizers,” said Marcus Bode, one of the seven hunger strikers at CSU Long Beach.

As the strike enters its third day, local attention is growing, said Bode, hoping to get the nation’s attention so it applies pressure to the CSU school system to divest from Israel.

The protest comes as global outrage continues to grow over the rising death toll, and denial of food. “It is a privilege to be able to voluntarily go without food. That is not something Palestinians have the option to do. They will not survive another summer,” said Bode.

The idea of using a hunger strike as a form of protest began on April 25th, when the United Nations (UN) agency World Food Programme (WFP) reported that it had run out of food in the Gaza Strip, as Israel continues to block any humanitarian aid into the region, where over two million Palestinians live. “The call came from students from Birzeit University in the West Bank, and we were one of the first schools to answer the call because of the UN announcement,” said Bode.

Thousands of people depend on the U.N. food program for survival. The agency states that its warehouses are now empty and cannot provide for the one million people it has been feeding over the last year, half of Gaza’s population.

The UN stated that it has “more than 116,00 metric tonnes of food assistance - enough to feed a million people for up to four months - are ready and waiting to be brought into Gaza by WFP and partners as soon as borders reopen.”

The strikers want to bring awareness to the humanitarian crisis in Gaza with their hunger strike, and have their university take part in divesting from its contract with Israel-related companies. Since the destruction of the ceasefire, and in the last few weeks in particular, Israel has bombed Palestinians in refugee camps, which has accelerated the crisis, claiming the lives of countless civilians and destroying whatever little infrastructure remains.

On May 4th, the United Nations and its partners issued a warning of the deepening humanitarian crisis in Gaza. For the ninth consecutive week, no aid has entered the Gaza Strip. Twenty-five bakeries were fully closed by March 31st because wheat flour and cooking oil ran out, and that same week, food parcels distributed to families went empty.

“Israel officials have sought to shut down the existing aid distribution system run by the United Nations and its humanitarian partners,” read the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs statement.

The CSU Long Beach administration contacted the strikers a few days after launching to set up a meeting, but nothing is currently scheduled. The students at Long Beach are prepared to continue their hunger strike indefinitely until their demands are met.

An attempt to reach CSULB President Jane Close Conoley was met with silence.