By Veerin Moolma

Asian Americans and various organizations gathered in Little Tokyo, Los Angeles to call on the Trump administration to push military personnel and ICE out of Los Angeles as soon as possible.

Photojournalist Veerin Mooma put the news conference to music.

(Music to ICE photos of raids) 

Manjusha Kulkarni, Executive Director, AAPI Equity Alliance: Does Los Angeles feel safer to you? The answer is an overwhelming no. 

(Music to ICE photos of raids) 

Asm Mike Fong, Chair, California Asian & Pacific Islander Legislative Caucus (49th Assembly District): Our places that are normally safe, are not safe anymore. 

Connie Chung Joe, Chief Executive Officer, Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California (AJSOCAL): Our community members have stopped going to work. They’ve stopped going to school. They’ve stopped going to their doctor’s appointment. They’ve stopped going to temples or churches. They’ve simply disappeared.

(Music to ICE photos of raids) 

Unidentified: This isn’t just a Latino issue. This is an AAPI issue, and this is an LA issue. (Music to ICE photos of raids) 

Nithya Raman,LA City Council: The raids that we’ve seen across Los Angeles are not just disruptive, they are cruel, and they are unconstitutional. 

(Music to ICE photos of raids) 

John Kim, CEO Catalyst California: Is that this attack and this moment will break LA that they will divide us. 

(Music to ICE photos of raids) 

Peter Gee, Co-executive director of Little Tokyo Service Center: It was the aggressive, unconstitutional raids of detention. 

Cynthia Choi, Co-Executive Director Chinese for Affirmative Action & Stop AAPI Hate: Every single person in California and in this country has constitutional rights, regardless of their immigration status. 

Unidentified: Stop the warrantless, illegal rights, free our families from cruel detention and end the military takeover of our communities. 

Angelica Salas, Coalition of Human Immigrant Rights: This raid of terror in our communities must come to an end. It is enough. 

(Music to ICE photos of raids) 

Manjusha Kulkarni, Executive Director, AAPI Equity Alliance: We wanted to say, this is unacceptable, it is unconstitutional and it’s unAmerican. And we know that they are not the only ones who are experiencing ice raids, many in the Asian American community have also been abducted and kidnapped by massed agents who don’t carry identification, who don’t have a warrant, but are really just pulling people off the street.

Chanchanit (Chancee) Martorell, Founder & Executive Director, Thai Community Development Center (Thai CDC): Today, there was a press conference held by AAPI Equity Alliance of which Thai Community Center is a member of. In order to broadcast to the world that the actions by immigration enforcement cannot be tolerated and must stop right now because it’s harming the community and families and people we love who do not deserve to be treated as the other, and really we need to be able to go about their lives peacefully and also be left alone and not be fearful of leaving their homes and conducting their lives normally, that they’re used to conducting. 

Connie Chung Joe, Chief Executive Officer, Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California (AJSOCAL): So today was a day to show that even though we’re scared and we’re hiding, this is impacting us. Our organization is seeing Asian immigrants, every day, getting detained by ICE. They’re getting detained at their homes, they’re getting detained at courthouses, and even though it’s not making the news as much, it is happening to our communities. So we need to fight for our community. 

Chanchanit (Chancee) Martorell, Founder & Executive Director, Thai Community Development Center (Thai CDC): So we have had to come together to condemn the inhumanity and the cruelty being perpetrated in our community, basically by ice and other federal law enforcement authorities on our streets. 

Manjusha Kulkarni, Executive Director, AAPI Equity Alliance: So, we want to be clear to viewers of Asian American outlets. We want to be absolutely clear. They have come for us, they are coming for us. So just because we’re not in the Latino community does not mean that they are not picking up hundreds of individuals who are undocumented from our communities

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