This is why we protest: Voices from Los Angeles demonstrators

During a week of protest, Los Angeles is the center stage of the national immigration debate, with pundits on both sides characterizing the fight through the lens of their respective viewpoints.

Not everyone is pleased with the actions — there has been vandalism, destruction and injuries — isolated yet striking moments that have at times overshadowed peaceful demonstrations. But for many out in the demonstrations, there was a message that they wanted to be heard.

During these demonstrations, Los Angeles Times reporters on the ground have interviewed protesters and asked them why they’re demonstrating. Here’s what they had to say:

Alejandra Flores attended a protest in front of Westin LAX Friday with her daughter and her mother, who had recently become a U.S. citizen.

Maritza Perez Huerta attended her first protest this week. She couldn’t make it out to protests a couple of years ago because she was younger and her mother was afraid.

Priscilla Ramos spent her first day of protesting in front of the Metropolitan Detention Center this week, where Marines were expected to arrive.

Priscilla Ramos holds a sign at a protest in front of the Metropolitan Detention Center on Friday.

(Christopher Buchanan / Los Angeles Times)

Cynthia Guardano was born in the United States in a mixed-status family. She was downtown demonstrating on Friday.

Cynthia Guardano protests in support of her family.

(Christopher Buchanan / Los Angeles Times)

Jason Petty, a 46-year-old musician from Boyle Heights, told The Times he went to a rally because “this is our community — immigration is us.”

Petty, a former ninth-grade history teacher, said he was born and raised in Los Angeles and was here during the 1992 riots. He is Black, and his grandmother lived in Watts during the 1965 Watts riots. His father was a Black Panther.

Petty said he has a daughter in fourth grade and that immigration agents recently came to the neighborhood near her school. He said he has had to have difficult conversations with her, assuring her she’s safe, and why it was important to go to the rally.

Outside City Hall in Santa Ana this week, Alicia Rojas observed a protest from afar. The Colombian native had her amnesty application denied as a child. Now a U.S. citizen, Rojas grew up during the era of Proposition 187 and remembered all the racism against people like her at the time.

Michelle Hernandez, 19, marched at the federal building with a Mexican flag draped over her shoulders. A daughter of Mexican immigrants, she said she had been worried about family members and friends during the ICE raids.

Franchesca Olivas drove two hours alone from Hemet to attend the anti-ICE demonstration this week outside the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles. She was carrying an upside-down American flag attached to the Mexican flag because she’s half-white and half-Mexican.

Aaron Fontan, 24, said he also has participated in Black Lives Matter protests and felt familiar police pushback and militance this time around. However, he felt that not as many people are willing to show up to anti-ICE protests.

Beyond the protests, some civic leaders have also voiced their opposition to the escalation in immigration enforcement.

Los Angeles Unified School District Supt. Alberto Carvalho, the son of immigrants, has been outspoken about his mission to protect students:

Service Employees International Union California President David Huerta was injured and detained while documenting an immigration enforcement raid in downtown L.A. last week.

Times staff writers Christopher Buchanan and Annie Goodykoontz contributed to this report.