LAist: Public immigration sweeps in LA are not new -- similar tactics were used in the 1930s [View all]

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https://laist.com/news/la-history/public-immigration-sweeps-in-la-are-not-new-similar-tactics-were-used-in-the-1930s

It was a sunny, late winter afternoon Feb 26, 1931. Hundreds of Angelenos, many of them Mexican Americans, crowded into the historic La Placita Park in DTLA to relax and catch up with friends.

The park was a stone’s throw away from where the Pueblo of Los Angeles was founded in 1781 by 44 settlers of Mexican, Black and Spanish descent. As friends chatted on the park's numerous benches, vendors sold food, musicians performed, and soapbox speakers preached. The atmosphere was breezy and calm.

But at precisely 3 p.m., all that changed. Immigration officials, police officers and members of LAPD's anti-communist “Red Squad” stormed the park, sealing off the two entrances so no one could exit. The officers forcibly lined up everyone or kept them seated on benches and began interrogating them as panic mounted. According to eyewitnesses, several people who tried to flee were beaten by police.
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One of the first public immigration blitzes in the country, the La Placita raid signaled a dangerous new era where folks could be detained with no due process based on appearance alone.