Philo P site - At Los Angeles’s MDC, Protest and Resistance Collide

At Los Angeles’s MDC, Protest and Resistance Collide

Writen by Moises Lemus and Javier Moro Oct 23, 2025

Since early summer, a small but determined group of protesters has gathered regularly outside the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in downtown Los Angeles. The demonstrations, part of a movement known as the No Kings protests, call attention to the relationship between federal immigration enforcement and local policing.

MDC is a federal facility operated by the Bureau of Prisons, but protesters say Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) have been active there—evidence, they argue, of ongoing cooperation between local and federal authorities.

Among those leading the demonstrations is Javier Moro, an activist who has been at the site since June. His account below appears unedited to preserve his firsthand perspective on the protests, police response, and what he says are systemic failures in Los Angeles’s approach to immigration enforcement and civil rights.

Firsthand Account by Javier Moro:

I’ve been protesting at MDC since June 8th, during the first no kings protest. This is the day I was shot by a rubber bullet by LAPD, and all because I was protesting the ICE Gestapo occupying Los Angeles. I was using my first amendment of freedom of speech to peacefully protest with my comrades. We were peacefully protesting when the LAPD began to brutalize us out of nowhere. None of us ever carried a weapon. There’s always peace in the crowd until the LAPD shows up, they are always the ones that incite violence. Mainstream media always portrays the protesters as “agitators” or “clashing” with the LAPD but in reality, it’s always the LAPD brutalizing protesters. This gets to show the leadership of our mayor, Karen Bass, who lies on TV and say that the LAPD aren’t helping ICE but in reality, they are.

I’ve seen horrible things inside MDC. The day that I will always remember is the day where we first saw women and children being tied up together walking into the detention center. What’s even more jarring is seeing all the ICE and DHS agents wearing masks to hide their identities. They do that because they know what they are doing is illegal, and they know that their day in court will come. We need new Nuremberg trials to prosecute these federal agents and the people who work within the Trump regime. People like Donald Trump, Steven Miller, and Kristi Noem need to be brought to justice.

DHS agents at MDC are cowards not only because they are protecting ICE, but also because they love to target mostly women protesters. More than half of the people that DHS arrested or brutalized are women, and that is not a coincidence. DHS agents all over the country target mostly women because they are cowards and hardly go after people their own size. They target women who are dancing on the sidewalk, talking on the megaphone, blowing bubbles, or sometimes they target women who fit particular profiles.

I’ve been protesting at the MDC for about 4 months now, and I’ll be here until these Gestapo thugs end their occupation. We’ve seen protesters get arrested for the most ridiculous reasons like standing on the sidewalk, writing with chalk on the sidewalk, or hurting DHS agents’ feelings. There’re three women who are facing federal conspiracy charges for doxxing ICE agents and we are hoping those charges will drop since they are baseless. It doesn’t make sense that anyone could dox federal agents since their private information is available to the public. ICE are supposed to be public servants not a domestic terrorist group. We’ve seen this childish behavior from ICE agents all over the country, like in cities like Chicago and New York City.

The 2nd No Kings protest was more of the same here in Los Angeles. After the morning parade/march was finished protestors went over to the MDC to protest ICE and DHS. Protestors were met with LAPD officers blocking off the street before we marched to the MDC. This shows the dishonesty of our mayor, Karen Bass’ treasonous behavior, since she’s always championing Los Angeles being a sanctuary city when it is not. Protesters who stayed after 9pm were met with rubber bullets, batons, and tear gas by LAPD. We are living in dark times because we are living in a fascist United States that is ruled by an authoritarian regime. Karen bass and Gavin Newsom need to do a better job protecting their own citizens.

What Javier Moro describes isn’t just about one protest or a few bad officers. It shows a much larger problem — one that runs through both political parties and across different levels of government. While Democrats and Republicans argue in public, both sides have supported or ignored the same systems that allow abuse of power to continue.

In Los Angeles and across California, city and state leaders often call their areas “sanctuary” jurisdictions. But in practice, local police still cooperate with ICE, and peaceful protesters are still treated as threats. This gap between what officials say and what actually happens shows how much of the system depends on appearances rather than real change.

Democratic leaders, in particular, have failed to confront these contradictions. They often criticize right-wing policies but quietly accept campaign money from the same security, police, and prison groups that help shape those policies. That financial and political dependence makes them part of the same problem they claim to oppose. It also helps explain how federal agencies under Trump gained so much power with so little resistance.

The events at the Metropolitan Detention Center are a direct result of this failure. When law enforcement is allowed to operate without accountability, it turns from protecting the public to protecting power. This isn’t law and order — it’s the slow normalization of authoritarian behavior.

Real accountability won’t come from inside this system. It comes from people like Javier and others who keep showing up, documenting what they see, and refusing to accept silence as normal.

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