Immigrant rights, anti-authoritarianism among key issues at activism summit in LA

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Longtime defenders of immigrants' rights gathered in Los Angeles Thursday for the daylong summit United We Stand: Defending Democracy and Each Other, stressing that what is taking place across the country is not only about immigrants.

"What this is about is to ask a fundamental question that more and more Americans are asking: 'Am I the next person whose rights will be violated?'" said Miguel Santana, president and CEO of California Community Foundation.

The gathering provided a platform for increased discussion on topics like authoritarianism.

"It's not about left, right, or conservative, liberal. It is about 'will this society tolerate the diverse and ethnic makeup of the United States?' And some have decided no," said Eric Ward, executive vice president of Race Forward.

"I can't harp enough on how this is an attack on democracy," said Marc Philpart, president and CEO of the Black Freedom Fund.

Among the organizations taking part in the summit is the Immigrant Defenders Law Center.

"Since the beginning of this new administration, since Trump came back into power, we've seen an attack on due process," said Lindsey Tocylowski, president and CEO of the organization, citing the invocation of the Alien Enemies Act as one example.

Tocylowski also stressed an ongoing pattern of attorneys not being able to access their clients.

"We have people sometimes being held in the most abhorrent conditions you could imagine, being denied food, denied medical care, sometimes small children, including today. We know there are small children there," she said.

One of the spaces most targeted during raids are Home Depot parking lots where day laborers find work, including one in Cypress Park.

"We've seen probably over 50 people kidnapped from here, everyone from street vendors to customers with their babies in the backseat, to our own staff," said Maegan Ortiz, executive director of IDEPSCA, the Institute of Popular Education of Southern California. The actions of the federal government have escalated from racial profiling to a steady escalation of physical violence, regardless of citizenship status or race, stressed Ortiz.

"This is really about a regime in Washington D.C. that wants to enforce and make clear its position to power with everybody and make sure that people align with their agenda, which is really, let's be honest, a white supremacist, nationalist, authoritarian agenda," she said.

Thursday's forum underscored the importance of multi-racial movements, which California has a long history of.

"California is being attacked because we have been successful. We're not where we want to be," said Angelica Salas, executive director of CHIRLA, the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, adding, "But we've walked, boy, a very long path towards being more just and more inclusive for our community."