ICE PROTEST: South Bay Takes a Stand on the march again on The Strand

by Mark McDermott

For Meghan Judge, the moment came last year when ICE first arrived in Manhattan Beach. One of their first raids was at Bristol Farms, where they swooped in and took away a man doing landscaping work. It all happened so fast that when the masked agents had departed, the man’s lawnmower remained in the greenery outside the store, still running.

The image of that lawnmower stuck with her. “What the hell is going on?” Judge remembers thinking. “What are we doing here?”

For Luisa Cabrera Faist, the moment came around the same time. ICE raids were occurring all over the Los Angeles area, including a preschool in her hometown of Redondo Beach, which was targeted because of its international students —  masked men arriving at the campus literally looking to take children away, or hunting their parents.

“I had a friend whose child was there and they received an email from the school that said, ‘We’re doing everything to keep ICE out of the school,'” she recalled. “And this is a preschool. I mean, these are two and three and four-year-old children.”

Cabrera Faist saw a friend in a coffee shop who innocuously asked how she was doing. “Oh my god, I am devastated,” she replied. “Their response was, ‘What happened?’ I couldn’t understand that it wasn’t top of mind for everyone. That was kind of an aha moment for me, when I realized it’s very easy for us to go about our daily lives here, especially in this beautiful, wonderful community.”

For Tanya Monaghan, it was less a single moment than a slow boil. She is an immigrant herself, arriving in the United States as a seven year old when her family left apartheid South Africa. 

“I’ve seen this rhetoric before. I’ve seen this movie before,” Monaghan said. “My family was going to go back to South Africa when things died down, but things did not die down, and we stayed here. I’ve been so blessed to live in this country. I love this country.”

When the ICE raids began occurring, things reached a boiling point for Monaghan.

“Watching [checks and balances] go away is so terrifying to me, because that is what this country is predicated and founded on,” she said. “And that’s when it just got super scary. When ICE came in it was this real, tangible thing — it wasn’t like, ‘Oh, there’s racism…’ This is an organization doing bad things under the guise of being patriotic.”

Cabrera Faist, Monaghan and Judge began discussing what was occurring. Cabrera Faist urged action. She wanted to make a stand.

“When I reached out to Meghan and Tanya, my thing was, ‘Yes, there are [protests] going on in El Segundo and in Torrance and in the neighboring areas, but this is my home. I was born and raised in Redondo Beach and grew up going to school in Manhattan Beach. And for me not to see my personal community do something was really disheartening. This is the place that we need to do it.”

The moment had arrived for all three women. 

“We talk a lot about the South Bay being a bubble. And we love that, and for many reasons, it’s a very special bubble,” Cabrera Faist said. “But I think sometimes the privilege that’s here, the disconnect to the bigger city, can cloud people’s connection to those who are less privileged and those who don’t look like them.”

“We just started with conversations, text threads… Basically we were like, ‘What can we do right now, right here in our community?” Monaghan said.

Thus was born South Bay Takes a Stand. They decided their first action would be a march from the Manhattan Beach pier to the Hermosa Beach pier and back. They announced the march on June 22. The event took place a week later, on June 29. To their own astonishment, an estimated 2,000 people walked alongside them.

“Within seven days we were able to really rally people,” Cabrera Faist said. “And I think it just speaks to the yearning of this community to express themselves and express the heartache and the horror at what’s happening.”

What struck the three organizers most about that first march was not just the numbers, but the spirit. 

“There was so much joy in it,” Cabrera Faist said. “There was a couple dancing salsa as they walked down the Strand, little kids dancing with their moms and dads. We had Latin music and we celebrated a culture that was so under attack.”

Whatever blowback the protest faced was mainly online, other than a handful of hecklers, including some kids in red MAGA hats. Instead, the march was overwhelmingly embraced, almost with a sense of joyous relief for people who felt the reaffirmation of community bonds in such an uncertain time. 

“I was so amazed and so proud of our community,” Monaghan said. “Because I did not expect, in this affluent area, that so many people would come out, especially so many families and children. I got tears in my eyes because, as we walked, everyone was cheering.”

At one point during the march, a street vendor approached and handed flowers to the organizers. It was a small gesture that captured something larger.

“They were all afraid to walk with us,” Judge said of the immigrant community. “But that vendor came down and gave us all flowers. It was so special and so touching.”

After that initial march, South Bay Takes a Stand held a candlelight vigil at which attorney Robert Simon and Councilperson Nina Tarnay spoke.  Simon, a Manhattan Beach resident, is a trial attorney who has been so outraged by the Constitutional abuses taking place in the name of immigration enforcement that he and his entire firm have worked pro bono on behalf of those who have been targeted by ICE. Tarnay, who is also an attorney, serves on the Manhattan Beach City Council, and is an immigrant herself —  as a child, she was among the “boat people”  who had to flee Vietnam after the Communist takeover.  

“I think we are all immigrants at some point,” Judge said. “That’s what makes our country what our country is.”

More recently, after the killing of Renee Good in Minneapolis, South Bay Takes a Stand organized a protest in El Segundo. And this Sunday, they are organizing what is likely to be their biggest event thus far, given the heightened awareness brought on by another killing in Minneapolis, that of Alex Pretti at the hands of U.S. Border Patrol agents. South Bay Takes a Stand will again march on the Strand. 

What Monaghan has noticed at not only the event she and her friends have organized, but other protests is that collective peaceful action serves as an antidote to despair. 

“Every time I go to these things, it’s so uplifting,” Monaghan said. “I get emotional from the beauty of people coming together. You’re seeing the elderly out there, people in wheelchairs.”

“Just come,” Monaghan said. “Because it makes you feel better. And there is power in numbers.”

Minneapolis to California

What happened in Minneapolis this month was not isolated. 

In the last four months, immigration officers have fired on at least ten people. Except Pretti, all were fired on while in their vehicles. In each case, federal officials have claimed that the agents fired in self-defense.

Robert Simon, the trial attorney who spoke at South Bay Takes a Stand’s candlelight vigil and who will again speak at the February 1 march, represents several victims of ICE enforcement. His cases reveal a disturbing pattern.

On Halloween morning, Carlos Jimenez, an American citizen in his early twenties with three young sons, was driving to work in Ontario, California, when he saw ICE agents pulling over three men. The agents were blocking the road, and Jimenez pulled up to ask them to move so schoolchildren waiting for the school bus wouldn’t get caught up in the situation.

“Instead of these guys acting nicely, they start yelling at him, and a guy puts a gun in his face,” Simon said. Jimenez backed up his SUV, then pulled forward to leave. As he drove away, agents shot through the back passenger window — right where a child’s car seat would be — and hit Jimenez in the back of his shoulder.

“He calls 911. His wife takes him to the hospital,” Simon said. “The Feds go to the hospital…and then they take him out of the hospital, detain him while he still has a bullet in him, and make up a story that the officers were afraid for their life. The same narrative we hear over and over again.”

ICE is still pressing charges against Jimenez for assault with a deadly weapon on a peace officer. A judge called an emergency hearing on Halloween night and released Jimenez on bond, calling the government’s case into question. Jimenez now wears an ankle bracelet and awaits trial in March.

“If you’re really afraid for your life, why are you shooting through the back of the window as they’re pulling away?” Simon asked. “He got shot in the back right shoulder. He couldn’t even use his right arm. So how was he even trying to hit them?”

In another case, Francisco Longoria was driving home from work in San Bernardino with his teenage son in the passenger seat and his daughter’s boyfriend, in his early twenties, in the back. Both younger men are American citizens. ICE agents pulled them over.

“They jump out of cars. Guys are pointing guns at him,” Simon said. “He’s like, ‘What’s happening? Why am I getting pulled over?’ They don’t respond. They break his windows.”

Longoria pulled away. The agents fired three shots into the passenger door, right where his teenage son was sitting. None of the bullets hit the boy, but Simon still has the car with all three bullet holes as evidence.

ICE immediately charged Longoria with assault with a deadly weapon on a peace officer. But Longoria’s son and the young man in the back seat were both recording. Simon’s investigator canvassed the area and pulled surveillance footage from nearby cameras.

“It shows, obviously, that there was no officer in front of the car. Nobody feared for their lives,” Simon said. “The judge gets them to admit they had no probable cause to pull him over in the first place. The judge says, ‘Are you really going to press charges against this guy?’ They dropped the charges.”

But because Longoria is undocumented, ICE detained him anyway. Simon filed a habeas petition and got him released on December 5. He’s now home with his family.

In both cases, ICE agents claimed they feared for their lives. In both cases, they shot at vehicles that were driving away from them. In both cases, there is no body camera footage.

“They’ve never shown us any body cam footage, or any body cam footage on any of these cases,” Simon said. “We’ve asked many times, sent preservation letters [to preserve evidence]. It’s just like they operate in darkness.”

Simon has filed federal civil rights lawsuits on behalf of both families. Next week, he’s traveling to Washington D.C. with the American teenagers who were in Francisco Longoria’s vehicle to testify before Senator Blumenthal’s Senate hearing with the Homeland Security Department.

“We’re pushing bills that will require ICE agents to wear body cams, to not wear masks, to have clear identification of who they are, and to identify themselves,” Simon said. “And the other [issues he is advocating for] are, ‘Hey, you just have to pretty much follow the Constitution. You can’t do illegal stops.’”

The lack of accountability, Simon said, stems from ICE agents believing they have absolute immunity. “The administration is telling these agents at the Department of Homeland Security that they have absolute immunity, which is 100% false,” he said. “They do have personal liability. They can be held criminally, personally.  I’ve been very adamant about this —  the local District Attorneys need to start pressing charges against these guys individually for state crimes, for which they cannot be pardoned. Because right now, they think they walk around in an invincibility cloak.” 

What’s at stake, Simon said, goes beyond individual cases. It’s about the nation’s founding principles at this critical juncture of history, 250 years after the Declaration of Independence.  “We had so many people talking about 1776 and following the Constitution, and we’re just having the Constitution trampled on,” he said. “Literally, the unpredictability of what is the law, or more specifically, how it’s going to be applied — how can the executive branch take over all the other checks and balances and say, ‘We can do whatever we want? The Constitution doesn’t apply, sometimes, when we don’t want it to?’ That’s just terrible.”

Simon sees the fear spreading through the South Bay daily. Friends contact him about coworkers who are afraid, about nannies who have never had problems but don’t know their documentation status. Some are going through the legal process of becoming American citizens yet are vulnerable when they make their court appearances in that process, because ICE targets such proceedings. 

“Unfortunately, my answer is you should do nothing. You should have a lawyer,” Simon said. “It’s very unfortunate that you have millions of undocumented folks in Texas and Florida, which we’re not seeing these raids there. Instead, we see it in Minnesota with 130,000 people who are undocumented. And it’s just for political reasons. It’s clearly being weaponized.”

The raids have hit close to home. Red Carpet car wash on Sepulveda in Manhattan Beach has been raided three times. Simon knows a car wash owner who has been targeted repeatedly, even though he had employees with proper documentation.

“They were pushing people around, attacking them, chasing them,” Simon said. “These people should all be held accountable for doing those things.”

For Simon, speaking out is not just a professional obligation but a moral imperative.

“I’ve been on a lot of media shows, and they ask, ‘Bob, why are you so vocal about it lately?'” Simon said. “And I’ll say, well, because I am a wealthy, straight Christian male, married 15 years with three children. I have the privilege of being vocal. Unfortunately, people that are unsure of their documentation status, or people who have loved ones that are, they can’t be vocal because they will be targeted. So I think everybody that comes from that place of privilege — now is your time to be vocal and let people know that you believe in humanity over this cowardice and destruction and fear.”

Standing up

All three women behind South Bay Takes a Stand are putting something on the line by organizing these protests. Judge is a mental health podcaster. Monaghan is a writer and magazine deputy editor. Cabrera Faist is a marketing executive. They’ve all received hate online, and they know speaking out can cost them professionally.

None of them set out to become political activists. Judge grew up a Reagan Republican in the suburbs of Washington D.C. and “could have cared less about politics” until the last decade. Monaghan grew up in Palos Verdes and her parents were Republicans until Trump, when their Christian beliefs overrode their political allegiances. She describes herself as “not a political person” at all. Cabrera Faist likewise has not been involved in politics. 

“I’m not political. I am a humanist,” she said. “We are talking about humanity here. I’m talking about real people.”

“This is not about division or political identity,” Monaghan said. “It’s about democracy, human rights, and the belief that every person deserves safety, dignity, and a voice.”

Monaghan speaks Spanish and personally knows the workers at Red Carpet car wash. She’s watched the fear spread through the South Bay’s immigrant community.

“These are good, hardworking people that add value across the board,” Monaghan said. “It’s just a human thing.”

Cabrera Faist’s mother, who is from Colombia, has been a U.S. citizen for decades, but now carries her passport everywhere, just in case. The fear isn’t theoretical. ICE raids locally are ongoing. The raids have been widespread and random enough that even legal residents and citizens feel unsafe. 

“They are here,” Monaghan said. 

The organizers have heard stories that haunt them. One friend told them about a ten-year-old immigrant child who was preparing a school presentation about his identity. When he realized part of his identity was being from an immigrant family, he asked his mother to take that word out. He didn’t want to be bullied. He’d learned that “immigrant” was a bad word.

Judge worries about what children are absorbing. “We’ve been taught our whole lives, ‘Do not say that to somebody else. Be kind,'” she said. “I personally am Christian. I’m a lifelong Catholic. That’s not what I was taught. I was taught ‘Love thy neighbor.’ So to hear our officials saying hateful speech — young kids are watching.”

They likewise note that they are not protesting immigration enforcement itself. During the Obama administration, over 3.1 million undocumented immigrants were deported, dwarfing the 540,000 thus far deported under the Trump administration.

“Obama did deport people but he did it following what our Constitution says,” Judge said. “My point is that it’s about how they’re doing it.” 

The three women know they can’t stop what’s happening nationally. They can’t prevent ICE raids or change federal policy. But they can make their voices heard. They can show their immigrant neighbors that they’re not alone.

“South Bay Takes a Stand began at a grassroots level — without funding, without hierarchy, and without a long-term agenda,” Monaghan said. “Just a shared feeling among neighbors that something wasn’t right and that we needed to show up together.”

Manhattan Beach Councilperson Nina Tarnay, who spoke at the group’s candlelight vigil, has been moved by the community’s response.

“I’m in awe of the kindness of our community,” Tarnay said. “It gives me hope that in times of division, the residents of the South Bay commit time and time again to loving and supporting one another. There is nothing more American than this.”

Monaghan’s husband, Liam, who is also originally from South Africa, said something that stuck with her: “Fear is contagious, but so is bravery.”

“Joy and love are threats to this administration,” Cabrera Faist said. “That’s why they’re so afraid of people coming out and being in support of one another. That is a sign of love.”

“We do not want to be doing this,” Monaghan said. “We want ICE to go away. None of us want to be organizing protests. But we have to. While people are being shot in the streets, while families are being torn apart, while children are being traumatized — we have to show up.”

On Sunday, they’ll walk the Strand again. And hundreds, possibly thousands, of their neighbors will walk with them.

“Silence enables harm,” Monaghan said. “Showing up peacefully, visibly, and consistently — that’s one of the most powerful tools we have.” 

For more information, see @SouthBayTakesaStand on Instagram. ER