How a shooting ignited protests across the nation

From Minneapolis to L.A., demonstrators call for the abolition of ICE

- BY MELISSA GOMEZ

A RALLY on Friday at the federal detention center in downtown L.A., where ICE detainees are being held.

(ALLEN J. SCHABEN Los Angeles Times)

In downtown Los Angeles on Friday, hundreds gathered as part of a nationwide protest of ongoing immigration raids that have rattled cities and communities across the country.

Labor organizers, clergy leaders and immigrant rights groups gathered at La Placita Olvera to march down to the federal detention facility where Immigration and Customs Enforcement holds detainees. They came together less than a month after a Minneapolis woman, Renee Good, was fatally shot by an ICE agent, and protests have roiled the city as raids have continued.

L.A. City Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez made an appearance and reiterated the common refrain to “abolish ICE.”

GENARO MOLINA Los Angeles Times

ELIZABETH Torres, 15, right, Darlene Rumualdo, 15, center, and other high school students at the protest.

“Look at all the people around you. This is what’s going to save us from authoritarianism,” she said, addressing the hundreds who had gathered in La Placita, a historical site of Latino organizing. “I'm a council member, but the government will not save you.