She was attending her first protest, pushed to be seen with hundreds of others at a “No Kings” demonstration Saturday morning in El Segundo, desperate to make a press release.

However she was there for her father, as effectively.

The signal she held aloft as automotive horns honked in assist stated: “I’m speaking for those who can’t.”

Her father would have cherished to hitch her, Jennifer informed me. However with ICE raids in Los Angeles and arrests by the lots of in latest days, her 55-year-old undocumented dad couldn’t afford to take the danger.

Steve Lopez

Steve Lopez is a California native who has been a Los Angeles Instances columnist since 2001. He has gained greater than a dozen nationwide journalism awards and is a four-time Pulitzer finalist.

Jennifer is 29. I hadn’t seen her in practically 20 years, after I wrote about her father and visited her residence in Inglewood to ship $2,000 donated by readers who learn his story.

Right here’s the again story:

In December of 2005 I received a tip a few taking pictures within the entrance yard of an Inglewood residence. Two males approached a landscaper and demanded cash. He resisted, and within the tussle that ensued, a shot was fired.

Paramedics rushed the person to the emergency room at UCLA, the place docs decided {that a} bullet had simply missed his coronary heart and was lodged in his chest. Though docs really useful he keep at the least in a single day for commentary, he insisted he felt effective and wanted to get again to work.

The landscaper, whom I known as Ray, insisted on leaving instantly. As he later defined to me, the Inglewood job was for a shopper who employed him to re-landscape the yard as a Christmas reward to his spouse.

Ray was shot on Dec. 23.

Demonstrators at a “No Kings” occasion at Essential Road and Imperial Freeway in El Segundo on Saturday.

(Steve Lopez / Los Angeles Instances)

He completed the job by Christmas.

I’ve been enthusiastic about Ray since ICE brokers started the crackdown ordered by President Trump, whose administration stated its objective was to deport 3,000 individuals a day. A whole bunch have been arrested within the Style District, at automotive washes and at constructing provide shops throughout Los Angeles.

That’s led to clashes between legislation enforcement and demonstrators, and to peaceable protests just like the one alongside Imperial Freeway and Essential Road on Saturday in El Segundo.

I considered Ray as a result of Trump typically speaks of undocumented immigrants as monsters, and little question there are criminals amongst them.

However through the years, practically all my encounters have been with the likes of Ray, who’re an important a part of the workforce.

Sure, there are prices related to undocumented immigrants, however advantages as effectively — they’ve been an important a part of the California economic system for years. And amongst these keen to rent them — within the fields, within the hospitality trade, in slaughterhouses, in healthcare — are avid Trump supporters.

On Friday, I known as Ray to see how he was doing.

“I’m worried about it,” he stated, though he has some safety.

Demonstrators on the “No Kings” occasion in El Segundo elevate their indicators, together with one which learn, “Real men don’t need parades.”

(Steve Lopez / Los Angeles Instances)

A number of years in the past, an immigration legal professional helped him get a allow to work, however the Trump administration has vowed to finish non permanent protected authorized standing for sure teams of immigrants.

“I see and hear about a lot of cases where they’re not respecting documents. People look Latino, and they get arrested,” stated Ray, who’s within the midst of a years-long course of to improve his standing.

Ray continues to be loading instruments onto his truck and driving to landscaping, tree-trimming and irrigation jobs throughout L.A., as he’s performed for greater than 30 years. However he stated he’s being further cautious.

A protester at a “No Kings” occasion in El Segundo prepares an indication on Saturday.

(Steve Lopez / Los Angeles Instances)

“You know, like keeping an eye out everywhere and checking my telephone to see where checkpoints are,” he stated.

Ray’s ex-wife has authorized standing, and all three of their kids had been born right here and are U.S. residents. The wedding ended and Ray has remarried, however he stays near the three children I met within the spring of 2006, once they had been 9, 10 and 11.

The youthful son, who’s disabled, lives with Ray. His older son, a graphic designer, lives close by. Jennifer, a job recruiter, lives subsequent door and has been on edge in latest days.

“Even though he has permission to be here … it’s scary, and I wasn’t even letting him go to work,” Jennifer stated. “On Monday I was getting into the shower and heard him loading up the truck.”

She ran exterior to cease him, however he was already gone, so she known as him and stated, “Oh my God, you shouldn’t be going to work right now. It’s not safe.”

“No Kings” was the theme of the day throughout an illustration in El Segundo on Saturday.

(Steve Lopez / Los Angeles Instances)

Jennifer works from residence however couldn’t focus that day. She used an app to trace her father’s location and checked the most recent info on ICE raids. Up to now, Ray has made it residence safely every day, though Jennifer is hoping he slows down for some time.

Twenty years in the past, after I wrote about Ray getting shot and his insistence on going again to work instantly, one of many readers who donated cash — $1,000 — to him was certainly one of his landscaping shoppers, Rohelle Erde. Once I checked in together with her this week to replace her on Ray’s state of affairs, she stated her total household got here to the U.S. as immigrants to work laborious and construct a greater life, and Ray did the identical.

“He has been working and making money and helping people beautify their homes, creating beauty and order, and this must be so distressing,” Erde stated. “The ugliness and disorder are exactly the opposite of what he represents.”

The night earlier than Saturday’s rally in El Segundo, Jennifer informed me why she needed to show:

“To show my face for those who can’t speak and to say we’re not all criminals, we’re all sticking together, we have each other’s backs,” she stated. “The girl who takes care of my kids is undocumented and she’s scared to leave the house. I have a lot of friends and family in the same boat.”

Jennifer attended together with her son, who’s 9 and informed me he’s afraid his grandfather might be arrested and despatched again to Mexico.

“He’s the age I was when you met me,” Jennifer stated of her son.

She took within the crowd and stated it was uplifting to see such an enormous and various throng of individuals rise up, in peaceable protest, in opposition to authoritarianism and the militarization of the nation.

Mom and son stood collectively, flashing their indicators for passing motorists.

His stated, “Families belong together.”

Jennifer informed me that her father nonetheless has the bullet in his chest.