In Los Angeles and other major U.S. cities, protests have erupted in response to recent immigration raids led by federal agents. Latino residents are taking to the streets in large numbers after coordinated sweeps by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) left dozens of families separated.
But as calls for solidarity grow louder; many African Americans are choosing to remain on the sidelines, raising questions about racial alliances, voter choices, and historical grievances. The raids, which targeted areas such as LA’s Fashion District, Boyle Heights, and Pico-Union, sparked widespread demonstrations last week.
Protesters filled the streets near the federal building downtown. According to Capital B News tensions escalated quickly, with police firing tear gas and flash-bang grenades, while some protesters hurled fireworks in response.
By Sunday night, the situation intensified when President Donald Trump deployed more than 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 Marines to the city. It was the first time in decades a U.S. president had sent troops to a state without the governor’s consent. California Governor Gavin Newsom called Trump “deranged” and accused him of “manufacturing a crisis” to distract from domestic political troubles, as reported by Capital B.
But beyond the images of street protests and police barricades, a deeper conflict is unfolding, not between protestors and law enforcement, but between communities of color trying to navigate overlapping struggles and diverging political loyalties.
On social media, a viral message summed up a growing sentiment among Black Americans:
“Black people be warned. Go home. This is not your battle to fight.” Shared thousands of times, the post questioned why Black people should risk arrest at protests supporting a community that, in their view, did not stand with them politically. That concern stems from data emerging after Trump’s latest election victory.
According to BBC, Donald Trump made significant gains among Latino voters during the 2024 presidential race. In states like Pennsylvania, he received 42% of the Latino vote up from 27% in 2020, helping him flip crucial battlegrounds like Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Wisconsin.
Trump also saw improved support from younger voters, especially men, and made notable inroads among non-college educated voters. His appeal to Latino voters included promises to crack down on undocumented migration and tighten border security, policies now being enacted through the very ICE raids that sparked the protests.
For some Black Americans, these voting patterns have left a sour taste.
“There is a notion of disengaging that took root amongst Black folks and that this attack was
seen as a Latino issue,” Bryant Odega, a 27-year-old public school teacher in LA, told Capital B News.
“But it speaks to this culture of violence where we accept harm and choose not to speak up against what we know is wrong because we feel like we’ve been wronged, too”, he added. Many Black residents point to the long history of systemic displacement in Los Angeles, where neighborhoods that were once predominantly Black, such as South Central have undergone major demographic changes.
Available data shows that 92% of LA’s Black neighborhoods that experienced gentrification are no longer majority-Black, the highest rate in the country. “Growing up in South LA, the first anti-Black insults that I ever heard were from Latinos,” Odega said. “So I understand how these conditions have divided people.”
This context helps explain the tension. For many Black Angelenos, the communities now under federal scrutiny are the same ones they were pushed out of; often through rising housing costs, aggressive policing, and underfunded public services.
Marne Campbell, author of Making Black Los Angeles, also said that the division stems from decades of competition for scarce resources, including housing, education, and jobs. A University of South California (USC) survey further found that new Latino immigrants to LA often arrive with “anti-Black stereotypes,” which shape their interactions with African American neighbors.
Still, immigration is not just a Latino issue. Black migrants are also deeply affected by U.S. immigration enforcement, often in more extreme ways.
Nationally, Black migrants account for 5.6% of the undocumented population but make up over 20% of those facing deportation due to criminal charges. According to research they are four times more likely to be removed than their representation suggests.
Inside ICE detention centers, reports show Black migrants are almost twice as likely to face
abuse. Adrienne Spires, a mental health professional in LA, said the assumption that Black Americans aren’t supporting the protests is misleading.
“I think people are so used to seeing, historically, how Black people have shown up, and we’re always leading the struggle, but just because we’re not the loudest in the room today doesn’t mean we’re not supporting or caring about the issue. There are a lot of complex reasons behind stepping back, she said.
This includes the fear of police brutality, which Black protesters have long experienced. From the Rodney King beating in 1991 to the 2020 George Floyd protests, Black Americans have often faced the harshest responses from law enforcement during civil unrest.
The recent deployment of federal troops only intensifies that fear. As tensions flare, activists are calling for unity across communities of color. Kat Calvin, an LA-based author of American Identity in Crisis, believes the immigration raids are part of a broader strategy by Trump to divide marginalized communities.
“We have to remember what we’re fighting for. It is very easy for our communities to be pitted
against each other, but this is pretty clearly Trump’s war on California,” she said. But for some African Americans, calls for unity ring hollow in light of recent voting behavior. While Latinos protest the policies of the president they helped elect, Black communities wonder if their support is being taken for granted.
Odega, whose Nigerian-born father was deported when he was a child, understands the pain that
deportation brings.
“I know what it feels like to have my family be separated by agents, but it sucks even if you
haven’t. Living in LA, the folks that are being targeted are the people who we’ve grown up with and go to
school with.”
Yet, he also understands the caution. “If this government feels like it can do this to Latinos, we know that they can do that to Black
folks, too.”
By: Joshua Narh