The Current - How an L.A. food magazine became a source for ICE raid news

Episode Date: August 1, 2025

ICE raids in Los Angeles are tearing families apart and leaving undocumented workers living in fear. In the last few months, the city has seen multiple immigration raids where the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents show up to food trucks and take workers. We talk to Janette Villafana, a reporter at L.A. Taco, a magazine that’s always been focused on the food scene of the city — but now, switched their focus to report on the ICE raids.

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This is a CBC Podcast. Hello, I'm Matt Galloway and this is The Current Podcast. This took all my employees, all of them. It's crazy. Within like two minutes. That was the scene at a Los Angeles taco stand where US Immigration and Customs Enforcement or ICE agents showed up and took workers as they were preparing food. These type of raids have happened all over the LA area and across Southern California in the last couple of months. They've caused many workers to live in fear, fear of going back to work, school or even

leaving their house. According to the American Immigration Council, there are close to 2.3 million undocumented people living in California and that is who officials say ICE has been targeting. Wide protests against the raids last month triggered US President Donald Trump to deploy roughly 4,000 National Guard soldiers to the area, half of whom have been called back, along with 700 Marines. Janet Villafana is a reporter with LA Taco, a publication usually focused on the food scene in Los Angeles, but which has now switched its focus to report on the ICE raids. Janet, good morning.

Good morning. Thank you for having me. Well, thank you. What have the last couple of months been like for the street vendors in LA? I mean, they have been completely living in fear. Before the ice rates began, you know, a lot of food vendors, because it's a lot harder to get a food vending permit, you know, they were already looking out for the health department, random people that are attacking them, and it's just a living situation, right? Like everybody's struggling right now.

But now they have this fear, especially after the first month of June that we had, where the ICE rates were probably at their peak. They were scared. They were terrified. And there was even now there's so many people who are choosing not to go out to sell and are risking not having their money, you know, to pay the rent, to pay bills, to put food on the table. They've been living in fear the last two months. You've been able to show up to some of the vendor areas right after an ICE raid. What

do people there tell you about what has just happened? Yeah, I have. And I mean, people feel, you know, helpless. Like, what more can they do beyond, you know, because vendors know their rights, you know, a lot of them are organized and work with organizations that go out and teach them about their rights, what to do in the event of ICE showing up to your stand or to your business and beyond, you know, like the sentence that I get is that they feel helpless because beyond recording an attempt to detain somebody or like yelling out to the person like, what's your name? And you know, what's the phone number that we can call and don't answer anything. They feel like what more can we do? And then, yes, I have been there.

They have organized as well. There are vendors who, within their little vending communities, they organize and have walkie talkies. And they have somebody keeping watch in the corners to see if there's any strange trucks passing by or SUVs. Are the windows tinted? Do they have weird license plates? They are on high alert.

Do we have a sense of how many vendors have been taken by ICE? It's hard to tell right now, even just in general with the arrests, the numbers. It's hard to tell, but it's been more than a handful. And this is across, of course, Los Angeles. We know of a couple of cases. One of the ones that I personally have covered is on Emma, who is a street vendor organizer, and she was detained. She's still detained. And she's using her organizing skills, even while she's in the detention center, helping others that are detained with her communicate with their families through her family. And she's like a well-known organizer and street vendor herself in the LA community.

Your work with these vendors used to be very different. You covered them in a very different way. Help us understand what the taco vendors mean to the makeup of Los Angeles. I mean, there is no LA without taqueros. There is no LA without street vendors. When you think of LA, you think of the food, you think of the taqueros grilling in the streets, you think of the colorful umbrellas and the vendors selling fruits and flowers, oranges off the side of the freeway, like it's embedded in LA's DNA. They are embedded in LA's DNA and they are a part of the community.

One thing that I like to say is like LA Taco has been covering immigration just in a different way. You know, we've been covering the immigrant community in Los Angeles through our food writing. And we've gotten to know a lot of these vendors that we've now, you know, built rapport and trust. And that's why they're coming to us and letting us know how they're feeling. Hey, like, things are rough out here. Hey, you know, we just spotted ICE down the street or like a street over. And they're the ones that are giving us updates because we of course cannot be all over the city, but they're the ones also letting us know

how things are for them and how much they're currently struggling. President Trump has said that these ICE raids are to target people who have committed serious crimes in the United States. What have you learned about the extent to which that is true in your reporting? It's not. I mean, it's plain and simple. It's not. I'm sure they have detained criminals as they say, as they like to call the immigrant community, but the people that we have seen being detained, being abducted, it's actually a proper word, in

the streets of Los Angeles and across Southern California in the last two months are not criminals. I mean, I'm sorry, but seeing an elderly person being tackled to the ground while they're waiting for a bus stop, I'm not quite sure that that was a criminal and how they're a threat to the United States. Street vendors, they are hard working people who are out there sometimes working multiple jobs, who are working day in and day out to put food on the table, to sustain their families, to get their kids through school, to build a business. Because a lot of street vendors may

start off on the streets, but eventually they get their brick and mortar businesses or restaurants. These are the people that they are targeting. No matter what they say, these are the people that they are targeting and there's plenty of proof out there. Hostie, I want you to stay with us and I'd like to bring someone else into the conversation. Jonathan Rios opened a taco truck with his parents seven years ago. He's now fully taken over the operation because he is too afraid to let his parents, who are undocumented, come to work. Jonathan, good morning. Hi, thank you for having us.

Thank you for this conversation. Help us understand what is life like for your family right now? So there's been some tough two months now, over two months, I think, that we're dealing with this new fear of our family. We mainly fear that our family, our parents can get taken away. So us as siblings now have taken over the business and took over the responsibilities that both of our

parents have been doing for the past years that have been involved in the business. So it's quite a new experience and definitely just to live in fear, even by simply taking out the trash outside in the street. And that could just be your last minute here. So... Do your parents leave the house at all? No, they're not going out for this remaining time. For the same reason, I think that now where we've come to a new situation over time, where they feel more like reality and we have to prepare our family mentally, prepare ourselves

for worst-case scenarios where we've said to ourselves, you know, if it's the time, then let God decide what He has planned for us. And if by them having to go, that's the plan, then by all means, we cannot let any days longer get to our mental health anymore because it's definitely stressful and it's not okay to live in fear. They can't, you know, just not even, you know, go walk around the street, go walk around the park for the same reason. There's the mental toll on your family. You have also had to take over the business full-time.

What has that been like? It's definitely a new experience. It's a double shift, triple shift, my countless shifts throughout days and weeks because I have to now step up and part of the entrepreneurial life you have no schedule so I've had a few workers who have stepped up and are able to work during these tough times and that's what I consider my team that has supported me through these times and together have been able to make it happen and continue to be open through these days. Why have you kept the truck going?

Why? Because we were raised through our parents in that aspect where quitting is not an option. So we most definitely have to always find an alternative. It's much easier to close than to maintain open. I feel that the challenge, it's tough and the decisions among our family, but we also have to understand the other side of the coin where many of the workers also are depending of our business, are working. And I include myself because, I mean, there is bills to pay.

There's only so much you can pull out from your savings. Each individual family is the same way in the same boat. Some of the people in the United States, some of the people in Los Angeles, would say that they voted for this. And I wonder how you feel about that. I wish I could include myself in that. What do you mean?

I actually did not vote because I like to say it was between bad and worse. I do feel like Donald Trump had some good tactics to improve the economy. I had hopes in that aspect because he is a business person, though that does not mean I completely agree to everything that he had in his agenda, which this was not included. Do you regret now not voting? Uh, most definitely not because I feel that the party was not fully my, what I agreed upon. So I feel that this was a tough election. I most definitely felt like I couldn't.

It's like they put me against the wall. I think that we've had other better elections and we have other better candidates. This one's having very visceral consequences, obviously, for your family. Most different. Thank you very much for taking the time to speak with us today. Thank you. Jonathan Rios is a taco street vendor in LA who has fully taken over the business to protect

his parents? Has online porn changed sex forever? What's left to know about Bitcoin? And why does the internet suck so much right now? These are the kinds of questions we set out to answer on CBC's Understood, a podcast that I help produce. I'm Joyta Shingupta, and part of my job is to look deeper than the daily headlines and find stories at the intersection of business, technology, and culture.

Want to know more? Know it now with Understood. Find the latest season wherever you get your podcasts. Janet is still with us. I want to bring her back into the conversation. I wonder what you think about that last point, Janet, about the difficulty that Jonathan felt about being represented and now seeing this happen. I mean, I will say first of all that I don't think that LA voted for what's happening. LA is a very diverse, I mean, California in general, but LA is a very diverse community and they're very, you know, tight knit.

And I think we've seen that during these ICE raids. While everything has been super horrific, one thing that has been consistent from day one has been how the community has rallied to help and support each other. I empathize with folks like Jonathan. You know, it's difficult. It's difficult for everybody right now with street vendors.

You know, they are a large target's difficult for everybody right now with street vendors. You know, they are a large target because they do sell on the streets. So it's not like they can take the same precautions like a restaurant and like lock their doors. For their safety, the safety of their employees and their customers, they're out in the open air. You know, they're on the sidewalk at parks selling ice cream. They're very vulnerable. They're a very vulnerable community right now during these raids. Lauren Henry You've talked about how people within the community are organizing organizations who've even been formed to post warnings for vendors. Where is the hope right now? Obviously, people are trying to help each other, but the situation is so

tenuous. We just heard about all of the fear. What is the best hope out of this moment for the people you've been talking to in your reporting? I think the hope again comes from each other, seeing how people are so willing to help one another. There's people fundraising, there are people in the community who are buying out street vendors so they don't have to go out to sell, who are literally doing community buyouts so that their local frutero, their local taquero, their local street vendor doesn't have to be out on the street. Even if it's for a day, for a week, for a month, but they're buying out vendors.

That's where the hope comes from. That's where I see the hope because I know that our community is very resilient. And while this is absolutely horrible, it has continued to show us that we're going to show up for each other. LA is so strong. This year they have been through so much, the fires and so many things that they're still recovering from. There's businesses that, you know, their businesses were burned down and they're still dealing with that plus the ice rates. I have hope because of the community itself, you know, they're just showing up.

They're showing up for each other and that's what we lean on. That's what everybody's leaning on is on each other. JANET, thank you for taking the time to tell us about your reporting and your community. Appreciate it. Thank you so much for having me. Janet, Filafana is a reporter with LA Taco, a publication usually focused on the food scene in Los Angeles, but which has now switched its focus to report on the ICE raids. Well, Jeanette Zanny-Patton is an immigration lawyer and the director of policy and advocacy

at the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, or CHIRLA for short. She's been working on the ground to help support undocumented immigrants who have been detained. She joins us from Los Angeles. Good morning. Good morning. How do the stories that we just heard from Janet and Jonathan correspond with what you have been seeing? Janet Sattel They're pretty spot on. We've seen so many, not only street vendors, but families impacted by these raids. As you know, many of these raids were occurring all over LA County, often eight, 10, 12 raids at a time. And so we hear the stories

of families who are just unable to work. We hear the families who are afraid to send their children to summer camps or summer school. We also hear stories of individuals who are just too afraid to even go to the doctor. And so the impact on the immigrant community has been pervasive and has been very, very, very deep. Your group is challenging the ICE tactics being used in these raids in court. Tell us about the case you are making. KAMALA HARRIS So we are co-litigating this case with several

other organizations here, including the ACLU, immigrant defenders, and public counsel to challenge the manner in which these arrests and detentions and raids are actually being conducted here in the city and county of Los Angeles. Our first claim is that immigration agents are racially profiling individuals for arrests, predominantly black and brown, people of color are folks that are being arrested or detained. It's an arrest first, ask questions later. As you know, we have seen US citizens be arrested as well or detained. It's an arrest first, ask questions later. As you know, we have seen US citizens be arrested as well and detained. And so that's one of the basis of our lawsuit. The second basis is attorneys have not had access to their clients, whether

it's at B-18, which is the federal detention building here in downtown Los Angeles. As soon as the raid started, several groups of attorneys as well as advocates went to B-18 to try to do intake and talk to their clients that were being detained. Yet the officials would not allow anyone to go in for several days. We, for example, went on Friday, the day that the raid started on June 6. We went back on June 7, on the Saturday. They told us to come back at 8 o'clock in the morning. Again, attorneys were denied access and in fact were tear gassed. And then on Sunday as well, June 8, attorneys and advocates were declined access to the attorneys.

How is that possible, Jeanette? I mean, we would understand that attorneys have a legal right to see their clients. Attorneys have unfettered access to their clients who are being detained. It is so critical, especially in this moment where we are seeing the use of expedited removal, which is essentially the ability of the Trump administration to deport individuals without even a hearing. And so those minutes, those hours that people have after they're arrested are critically important to be able to either what we call motions for habeas or figure out what type of legal remedies individuals may have before

they either get deported or transported to, you know, in many cases, you know, a third country as we saw folks getting sent to Cicot in El Salvador, or to detention centers in Texas and Louisiana, and other obviously remote areas in the US where it would make it that much more harder for attorneys and families to have access to their loved ones. Do you have a sense of how many people have been detained since the raids began on June 6th? I think our latest numbers that we have are about 2,300, but I'm pretty sure that number

is a lot higher. We do have an injunction in place because of the lawsuit that we're able to file. And so that injunction has been in place for about two weeks now. And so we have seen a reduction in obviously the raids and arrests, but there's still arrests happening. When it comes to the people who are being detained, the Trump administration has said they're targeting violent criminals, gang members.

You have actually collected data on who these people are. What does that data tell you? Yeah, I think about 93% of those arrested do not have a serious or violent offense. And over 63% of those arrested have no criminal history whatsoever. The numbers definitely prove that this administration is not telling the public the truth and they are going after folks that are legally in this country. Folks who have green cards have also been arrested. We have seen arrests at courthouses, folks who have asylum cases pending before an immigration judge, folks that are going to their interviews at USCIS for routine

appointments including check-ins, including interviews for green cards, are also being arrested. Even though your data suggests that the words of the Trump administration do not match who is being removed, it is still true that broadly in the United States, and I appreciate that California is a very Democrat leaning state, but broadly in the United States, there is a significant contingent of Americans who see what is happening and they feel that this is what they voted for. They support it. And I wonder what you would say to your fellow citizens about that. Dr. Kareemah M. Bolling, Ph.D., Chief Executive Officer, U.S. Department of State

What I would say is that I don't think anybody voted for an administration that is operating on the ground in illegal and unconstitutional ways. You know, we do have immigration laws that provide individuals with immigration remedies. But despite that, the manner in which this administration is conducting their immigration enforcement operations are illegal, unconstitutional, inhumane, fail to recognize the humanity and dignity of a large percentage of our population here in the United States. And I don't think anybody really voted for that. I mean, the reality is, you know, this administration is testing the limits of what it can do by violating the Constitution. They're starting with immigrants first, but they're going to go after other groups. And so I think every US citizen, everybody who's here on US soil,

obviously deserves the protection of the constitution because that's the way our constitution works, whether you're undocumented or not. Everybody should be outraged at the lack of due process, the indignant manner in which this federal administration is operating. What is it like for you watching this play out in your community? So I've been an immigration lawyer for over 30 years and I've never seen anything like this. It is so heartbreaking to hear the stories of the families that are impacted.

It is so heartbreaking to hear the stories of adult children really concerned about the loss of their parents. And these are adults who are having a really hard time. And I can only imagine what a child is going through, right? So for me, that speaks volumes in terms of the impact in terms of how deep this is really hurting our community and what it says about our community. I mean, I think, many people are talking about how cruelty is the operative word here by this administration, but it's not just that. It's the way that this administration and that a certain segment of our society sees people from my community, that we do not deserve to be treated like human beings, that we do not deserve to be treated with respect or with any level of humanity. I've had people in their 60s and 70s be arrested and tell me about the manner in which they were treated in detention.

So you are trying to put a stop to many of these practices through the courts, through the court injunction. And obviously, if you are successful, that should lead to some progress as you see it. What if the court case doesn't work? What does the path forward look like? We will continue to use every tool available to us to try to protect as many individuals as we can. We continue to meet with families of those who've been detained to offer resources, to offer services, to help mitigate the impact of this really, really dark period in history. J'net, thank you for this conversation. Thank you so much. J'net, Zannie Patton is an immigration

lawyer and the Director of Policy and Advocacy at the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles. You've been listening to The Current Podcast. My name is Matt Galloway. Thanks for listening. I'll talk to you soon. For more CBC podcasts, go to cbc.ca slash podcasts.