Community Patrols Around LA Schools Grow After ICE Targets Students and Parents

This article was first published by the nonprofit newsroom LA Public Press on August 21, 2025 and is republished here with permission.

On a muggy Wednesday morning, Leah Bachar, a member of the Community Self-Defense Coalition, walked her route around three schools in Westlake — a neighborhood at the epicenter of recent immigration raids. Her task: observe children arriving at school via bus or cars and walking into the safety of their school building.

“Once we see that the children have entered and then the gates have closed and parents have dispersed, we’re able to say, ‘Okay, at least the school day can continue for now without any issues,” Bachar said.

During the patrol, she wore a safety vest with yellow and silver stripes. The back was emblazoned with the words “¡Educación Sí! ¡Migra No!” and an illustration of a student holding onto an adult as they ride on the back of a bird carrying a pencil in its claws.

The LA Tenants Union has organized school patrols like this one in several LA neighborhoods with other grassroots organizations. Along with observing school drop-offs, patrollers are prepared to document, confirm and alert people to any federal immigration activity in the area. They also provide information on how community members can report ICE and Border Patrol sightings and resources on what to do if federal immigration agents do arrive and take people.

Eddie Cruz, an organizer with the Koreatown Rapid Response Network, said the patrols also build bridges and relationships with people. “Our goal is to act as a safety presence for community members so they can feel [free] to go out and participate in society,” he said.

While school officials can block federal immigration agents from entering campuses if they don’t present a judicial warrant, these agents have been targeting students and their parents across Southern California near or even outside schools. Early in the morning on Aug. 8, masked agents arrested 18-year-old Reseda Charter High School student Benjamin Guerrero Cruz as he walked his dog. Two days later, a 15-year-old was taken from a car and handcuffed by agents outside Arleta High School, the day before the first day of school. Agents later released the student, saying they had mistakenly taken him while looking for an adult. LAUSD Superintendent Alberto Carvalho spoke out against agents’ conduct in this instance and outlined additional safety measures for students and parents, including adding bus routes for children who need transportation to school.

Teachers, students and community organizers from Unión Del Barrio and the Association of Raza Educators and other groups gathered Tuesday in front of the LA Unified School District headquarters in downtown LA to call on LAUSD to do more to secure Guerrero Cruz’s release.

Guadalupe Carrasco Cardona, chair of the Association of Raza Educators, called on teachers to do more too. “ The time is over for us to just go to work and do a fabulous job in our classrooms,” she said during the rally. “The time is also for us to go to work early and patrol our communities.”

How school patrols work

Cruz and other community volunteers in Koreatown have patrolled around the Robert F. Kennedy Community Schools campus since the first day of school on Aug. 14, meeting early in the morning and walking around the campus multiple times, looking for any signs of immigration agents.

At 7 a.m. Monday, LA Public Press shadowed a pair of volunteers looking for potential ICE vehicles, typically identifiable by having an American make and opaquely tinted windows, among other hallmarks.

The volunteers searched for cars like Chevrolets and Fords, then tried to peer in through the windows to see if there were any signs the cars were being used for raids. At one point, they even doubled back to check on a car, but ultimately didn’t confirm any sightings.

Cruz said Koreatown hasn’t seen large-scale raids like Westlake and other areas of LA County. But the neighborhood is home to a dense population of immigrants from Mexico, Central America and other parts of the world. There have been reports of immigration arrests in the neighborhood.

One volunteer, Liz, who declined to give her last name citing safety concerns, said even when ICE officers aren’t around, the goal of the patrol is to offer friendly faces and support to community members. “It’s to build community confidence and power that the vast majority of us are not willing to accept this as a new normal,” she said.

During the patrol, Liz and the other volunteer greeted passersby with a “good morning” or “buenos días,” stopping to talk to workers, including a street vendor and a sanitation worker, about watching out for ICE sightings. The volunteers distributed know-your-rights cards illustrated with a Virgen de Guadalupe graphic designed by artist Ernesto Yerena. They also handed out flyers with Unión Del Barrio’s rapid response hotline (213-444-6562) and encouraged people to text photos of any sightings to that number.

Cruz said volunteers are not expected to confront federal immigration agents, but he hopes their presence is a deterrent. Leah Bachar from the Westlake school patrol agreed.

“ I think that ICE is fully aware … that people are organized and are committed and coming out daily and setting up,” Bachar said. “And I think that that does impart a sort of confusion and fear upon them.”

Cruz also said community outreach can empower and support school staff and teachers who want to organize. He and other volunteers decided to start the patrol after two RFK teachers approached them at their community table on 8th and Irolo Streets in Koreatown.

“At the end of the day, they’re the ones who are part of the school,” he said. “They’re the ones who see their students every day.”

The Koreatown Rapid Response Network and the LA Tenants Union have also helped other community members start their own school patrols, including one at Virgil Middle School at the northern end of Koreatown.

During Tuesday’s press conference on Benjamin Guerrero Cruz’s arrest, LAUSD history teacher and Unión Del Barrio organizer Ron Gochez said a lot of teachers are walking or driving around campuses before and after school to look for federal immigration agents. He said United Teachers Los Angeles, the LAUSD teachers union, is ready to alert schools in the surrounding area of the presence of immigration agents. He encouraged more people to join patrols, especially if they’re less vulnerable to detention and deportation.

“ Always look out,” he said. “If you see something, call the school and call the community-based organizations like Unión Del Barrio so we can go out there and back up and defend the community.”

Bachar encouraged people to start their own patrols. “You have your own neighborhood to look after as well,” she said. “Whatever’s being done in one part of the city can be done anywhere.”

How to get involved

Plug into the Koreatown school patrols by visiting the Koreatown Rapid Response Network and LA Tenants Union’s Ktown Centro community defense table. People can volunteer with the Westlake school patrol by visiting the MacArthur Park Centro in front of the Westlake Home Depot. More information here.

Check out LA Tenants Union’s Instagram for more school patrols around Los Angeles.

For ICE sightings in your neighborhood, including around schools, call or text Unión Del Barrio’s rapid response hotline at 213-444-6562. Sending photos and videos of sightings is encouraged. More tips on documenting ICE raids and arrests here.

You can also call the Los Angeles area Rapid Response Network at 888-624-4752 and find more phone numbers here.

The Los Angeles Unified School District has compiled information for immigrant students and families here.