With the flood of actions made against illegal immigrants, the communities of Cerritos and its surrounding cities have been rattled as people are being carried off in broad daylight. As of the signing of Executive Order 14159 on Jan. 20, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has led to panic throughout the country. People feared raids being conducted on homes and businesses suspected of harboring illegal immigrants — and their fears were warranted.

ICE is a federal agency responsible for detaining illegal immigrants and stopping drug and human trafficking into the United States to preserve national security. However, they’ve begun to target areas in America with primarily Hispanic populations, lurking in low-income neighborhoods and small businesses. Teams have been seen storming into businesses and taking unsuspecting individuals off the street to detention facilities, where they are all but forgotten while waiting for a precarious outcome.

Within a 25-mile radius of Cerritos, five individuals have been pulled under public eye and detained within the month of November alone, one of whom was a gardener taken out of a local restaurant.

However, in the Supreme Court decision of Noem v. Vasquez Perdomo, ICE agents have been allowed to profile and arrest people based on their reasonable suspicion of illegal immigration. The Immigration and Nationality Act authorizes immigration officers to “interrogate any alien or person believed to be an alien as to his right to be or to remain in the United States.” 66 Stat. 233, 8 U.S.C. §1357(a)(1). Immigration officers “may briefly detain” an individual “for questioning” if they have “a reasonable suspicion, based on specific articulable facts, that the person being questioned . . . is an alien illegally in the United States.” Justice Kavanaugh concurred to allow ICE to continue this practice.

This has caused innocent Americans to continue to be picked off the street simply based on their skin color or occupation, much to the outrage of the public. With “specific articulable facts” being largely undefined, not only do illegal immigrants have to dread being taken by ICE, but all people of color do too.

Despite the seemingly low number of immigrants being taken per month, fear is still felt all across Cerritos and its neighboring cities. “My friend was concerned that having her birthday party at the park would risk her friends getting taken off the street, forcing her to celebrate at her house instead,” says senior Jacqueline Rose Terucha. As a result, many bustling and diverse communities, such as Little India in Artesia, have become barren, with community members choosing to stay indoors.

As videos of ICE raids and the treatment of immigrants in facilities circulate across the internet, the American public has responded in protest, calling to abolish ICE entirely. Many rallies have been held in Los Angeles County, where citizens protest in front of detention facilities in an attempt to emphasize the agency’s morals and alleged injustices. “To be growing up in this kind of environment is very chaotic and anxiety-inducing,” says senior Luke Lowe.

Despite attempted action by Congress to halt the deportations, ICE seems to have no plan of stopping any time soon. This campaign discredits the involvement of the Hispanic community in our country — a community that has offered its culture and often been the backbone of what makes America thrive. We are a country of immigrants attacking immigrants, leaving nearly 50% of our people feeling endangered in the home they know and love.