Protesters Join Family of Father Arrested by ICE Agents Outside His Daughter’s School at Rally in Downtown LA

By Mike Szymanski

More than 100 parents, educators, and students on Monday rallied and chanted outside the Homeland Security and Immigration and Customs Enforcement offices in downtown Los Angeles to protest the arrest of a father who was taken from his family outside his daughter’s school.

“We’re better than Trump. We deserve better than this. We are not leaving,” said an emotional Jocelyn Avelica, the 19-year-old daughter of Romulo Avelica-Gonzalez, who was arrested last week by ICE officials wearing jackets emblazoned with “police” after he dropped his 12-year-old daughter off at school. His 13-year-old daughter, Fatima, watched crying from a car and recorded the arrest. The video has received more than 4 million views.

Fatima tried speaking to a crowd of dozens of cameras at Monday afternoon’s rally in Pershing Square but kept breaking down in tears and was unable to speak. Her mother, three sisters, and other family members attended the rally and joined in the chanting.

The protest was held on the same day that President Donald Trump issued a revised travel ban, which the speakers vowed to fight as well as ICE arrests. It was organized by the National Day Laborer Organizing…