On July 4th, 2025, President Donald Trump signed into law the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBA), which made massive financial cuts to Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) while providing permanent tax breaks to wealthy individuals and corporations. The bill also provides more than $75 billion to ICE for increased enforcement and expanding detention and deportation in the United States. The $75 billion budget includes earmarks for 10,000 new ICE officers, 3,000 new Border Patrol agents, new border enforcement and surveillance technologies, and expanding detention capacities to 100,000 beds!
We are a growing group of community volunteers who use grassroots organizing strategies to observe, record, and report ICE/Border Patrol presence in our local communities throughout East San Gabriel Valley. We've seen many losses and we expect many more; however, we are starting to see consistent wins! The wins have had tremendous influence in preserving the safety of our communities from state violence.
Our work is centered around building relationships and conversations in parking lots where day laborers wait to find jobs. We need volunteers, but we know those will come with time and with inspiration from more wins! However, above all, we are up against the constraints of limited supplies and materials that are needed more than ever! Our financial sources are just us, out of pocket—paying for canopies, tables, printing, coffee, and pan dulce! However, the game has changed since the ICE and Border Patrol budget increase. We want to better prepare for increased ICE and Border Patrol activity in our communities in the coming months. We don't have a billion-dollar budget, but we have faith in our broader community—we'll bet on that anytime!
We just need $900.
We need it to aid the work of community volunteers at two different parking lots—one in El Monte and the other in Covina, California. The money will go straight to:
* One 10x10 Canopy
* 4 outdoor folding chairs
* 2 Power banks
* One set of 6 Walkie Talkies
* One set of 4 Walkie Talkies
* Coffee Carafe
* 48 Plastic Whistles
Any funding that is left over will go towards coffee and pan dulce for our community of day laborers!