L.A. Once Feared and Criminalized Immigrants. Have We Changed?

Police Departments, Law Firms, and Courts Are Challenging Washington’s Power to Punish

We here in Los Angeles are familiar with the use of fear as an instrument of public policy. Whether it was the LAPD’s occupation of South Central, the Hollywood black lists, the Japanese internment or the zoot suit riots, we’ve been perpetrators and victims, and we bear the scars.

Now it is happening again. Trump’s immigration policies are intended to frighten the vulnerable among us and also make us afraid of them. As before, we have choices. The default has been to go along with state-sponsored fear as long as …