Because the Liberty Van rolled into the Residence Depot, its driver slowed, lowered the window and waved at day laborers standing across the car parking zone.
It had rained all morning and the overcast clouds trapped a chill within the air. Nonetheless, on a latest Friday, day laborers milled round even because it started to drizzle once more. A pastor, a Navy veteran, an immigration lawyer and cameraman acquired out of the Liberty Van — camioneta de la libertad in Spanish — and greeted the day laborers whereas providing them water and snacks.
Since June in Los Angeles, federal immigration brokers have destabilized every day life by raiding neighborhoods, worksites and Residence Depots — well-liked gathering spots for day laborers who usually lack U.S. citizenship. In flip, a number of “rapid-response” organizations have surged into motion to help these focused within the raids, and doc their remedy.
Considered one of these organizations is the Save America Motion, which runs the Liberty Vans and features a bipartisan management that’s much more politically related than that of many grassroots organizations. The group was based by Steve Schmidt, a former high aide to Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona, and Mary Corcoran, a longtime public relations specialist, with a steering committee that features regulation professors, pastors and strategists.
On this explicit Friday, Fabian Núñez — a member of that steering committee who beforehand served as speaker of the California Meeting — was a kind of who hopped out of the Liberty Van. He chatted with a day laborer who stopped by to seize a snack, and defined they have been there to movie any interactions with federal brokers, as a part of their nationwide rapid-response effort.
The day laborer stated Immigration and Customs Enforcement brokers have beforehand detained different employees on the Panorama Metropolis Residence Depot and have returned continuously. “Many instances,” he stated. “5 – 6.”
Regardless of the repeated raids, the laborer stated employees like himself have little selection however to maintain displaying up.
“They need to preserve coming,” he stated. “One has to pay the payments.”
The Save America Motion launched the vans first in L.A. after which in Chicago and Charlotte, N.C., the place federal immigration brokers have been raiding closely Latino areas. The motivation behind the venture was to offer assist and assist individuals perceive the affect of the every day immigration raids, Corcoran stated in an interview. Outdoors California, she stated, many individuals don’t get it.
“In the event that they did, I consider there can be rather more urgency round what’s occurring,” she stated.
The vans have been impressed by the Liberty ships and Victory ships throughout World Conflict ll that supplied provides and different aid to the U.S. and its allies.
The groups that run the vans doc and file video, with the footage printed on-line so the general public can watch the enforcement actions and listen to testimonies from affected native residents, she stated.
For months, the Trump administration has argued that it’s merely implementing the regulation — and fulfilling a marketing campaign promise — by detaining and deporting immigrants who lack documentation. However some enforcement actions by ICE and Border Patrol brokers have resulted in U.S. residents being detained. Others have been criticized for being unnecessarily violent and traumatizing.
Fabian Núñez, a Save America Motion steering committee member who beforehand served as speaker of the California Meeting, talks with a laborer who stopped by the Liberty Van for some snacks within the car parking zone of a Panorama Metropolis Residence Depot on Nov. 21, 2025.
(Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Occasions)
In Los Angeles, the Save America Motion first launched its vans in MacArthur Park in September, simply two months after immigration brokers on horses and armored automobiles descended on the realm carrying rifles and tactical gear.
Metropolis Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez — whose district spans from Highland Park, Chinatown and south to Pico-Union — welcomed the group’s effort, which she described as a instrument in a motion of resistance.
Alejandro Maciel, the L.A. bureau chief for the group and a former Los Angeles Occasions journalist, takes the van out roughly 5 instances per week, beginning round 6 a.m. and wrapping up late into the afternoon. Maciel and volunteers drive to Residence Depots throughout Southern California, going north to Ventura County, east to the Inland Empire and south to Orange County.
On Friday, the van experience included the Rev. Madison Jones McAleese, Navy veteran Brian Kelly and immigration lawyer Juan Jose Gutierrez, who can supply authorized assist to households or supply “know your proper” fundamentals to laborers. And to seize all of it was cameraman René Miranda, who began masking raids when a big protest broke out in Paramount, the place he lives.
For McAleese, she stated she felt it was her responsibility to be a part of the hassle to face towards the raids due to what she views as illegal actions being taken by ICE enforcement. McAleese carries holy water and provides to hope with anyone who seeks prayer.
“I don’t really feel like I’ve a selection,” she stated. “God is mirrored within the face of each immigrant, documented and undocumented.”
As they headed to the following location, Maciel pulled up on his telephone StopIce.Internet, an internet site on which individuals submit stories of ICE exercise. Simply the day earlier than, there was a raid in Lengthy Seaside, later confirmed by native media stories, and 9 individuals have been detained by masked brokers, an L.A. County official stated.
The San Fernando Valley was quiet that Friday, however Maciel stated it has been necessary to ascertain and keep relationships with each employees and organizers who’ve created speedy response networks. When he drives the van to a web site, he stated, he greets such organizers and makes certain the laborers perceive they’re there to assist.
Ernesto Ayala, the positioning coordinator on the Van Nuys Day Labor Middle within the Residence Depot car parking zone, stated ICE brokers have been to the positioning a number of instances, as not too long ago as a couple of weeks in the past. On the Van Nuys Residence Depot, volunteers monitor every entry level of the car parking zone and alert the middle of any suspicious automobiles that might comprise federal brokers.
“It’s very traumatic,” Ayala stated of the persevering with raids. Ayala himself was detained and sprayed with an irritant by brokers after they held him down and accused him of interfering. He was arrested however by no means charged with any crime, he stated.
Organizations such because the Save America Motion assist with movies and different documentation that may very well be utilized in potential litigation towards ICE sooner or later, Ayala stated. He stated his arrest was recorded from a distance by a witness.
In October, the group stated video by a Save America Motion photojournalist in Chicago recorded federal brokers deploying tear gasoline towards protesters and pointing weapons at journalists, which on the time violated a federal court docket order. The group made that footage out there on-line with time stamps and annotations.
Together with documenting interactions, Núñez stated, the group hopes to remind ICE brokers of the human affect and make them query their actions, and to maneuver viewers. Such footage, he stated, may assist Individuals see “that these Gestapo-like techniques are occurring and so they’re being utilized with our tax {dollars}.”
“We predict we will persuade them to maneuver, to suppose extra compassionately about individuals and suppose: Is that this the America I signed up for?”
