On July 7, 2025, armored vehicles rolled into MacArthur Park, in Los Angeles, where children were at summer camp. National Guard troops deployed alongside federal agents on horseback, looked like soldiers in a war zone. Community health workers providing routine medical services scattered in fear. Mayor Karen Bass, who confronted the agents at the scene, called it "a city under siege."

MacArthur Park was just the most visible spectacle in a months-long campaign. Throughout the summer, ICE raids swept through Home Depot parking lots, car washes, bus stops, and farms across Los Angeles County, targeting people who looked like they could be undocumented immigrants. Appearance alone was used to warrant probable cause.

In September, the Supreme Court formally cleared the way for agents to profile people based on their race.

All of this sparked massive fear, so people stopped going to work. Businesses shuttered. Parents kept their children home, afraid to let them board school buses or walk familiar streets. By October 14, the economic and social disruption was severe enough that the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors declared a state of emergency. The predominantly immigrant neighborhoods, many inhabited by U.S. citizens, were asking, once again, "Why do I get the feeling I don't........

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