Earlier last month, amid protests against the Trump administration’s huge deportation drive, dozens of demonstrators gathered at Pasadena’s AC Hotel to try to face federal officials who had arrived in town.
On June 7, Pasadena Mayor Victor Gordo was among those in attendance as protesters cheered and recorded the action on their iPhones as they chased government cars out of the luxury hotel’s parking garage while brandishing placards that said “ICE out of Pasadena” and other messages.
The protest, according to the mayor, compelled the agents to vacate the location they were using for local lodgings while conducting their operations in Los Angeles, which included guarding federal buildings in the downtown area.
Gordo told The Times that word spread that Homeland Security cars were parked at the motel. People wanted to use their First Amendment rights, and they did it in a polite, legal, and nonviolent way.
“The hotel staff asked the feds to pack up and leave after hours of loud rallying,” Gordo said. In a video of the event that went viral online, uniformed agents from the Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Protective Service were seen leaving the hotel by sunset with their bags piled on a luggage cart. Protesters followed as local police escorted their cars out of the garage.
Conflicts between local residents and immigration officers have been commonplace in hotels. Blocks of rooms are occasionally rented by federal agencies, such as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, in locations where officers are sent for significant operations.
During the Trump administration’s crackdown, the Pasadena confrontation was one of numerous recent examples of demonstrators gathering at hotels in the Los Angeles area to persuade their owners to refuse accommodations to federal employees. Businesses who depend on foreign workers for maintenance and cleaning have found themselves in a difficult situation where they must strike a balance between safeguarding their workers and politics.
Concerned locals have frequently used social media and whisper networks to share locations where they have seen people they suspect to be federal agents, from Whittier to Hawaiian Gardens to Brea. In response to this information, protests have been held outside hotels in places like Glendale, Downey, and Long Beach.
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Some Angelenos have turned driving about in the hopes of seeing agents leap out of trucks and detain immigrants into a somber kind of protest.
The AC Hotel Pasadena staff directed questions to a spokesperson, who did not immediately respond. The Marriott facility, which opened earlier this year, was operating as usual on Tuesday afternoon. Staff milled, a woman sipped a beer at the bar, and a man worked on his laptop on a luxurious couch.
Gordo claimed to have verified that no Homeland Security personnel are currently residing on the home.
Inquiries were not quickly answered by the Homeland Security press office, and U.S. Customs and Border Protection and ICE, two of the department’s components, did not reply.
Federal agencies have voiced concerns about the consequences of people doxxing agents by disclosing their locations and other personal information online, and protesters have been jailed this month for allegedly interfering with federal officers.
Acting ICE chief Todd Lyons told Reuters last week that people are out there snapping pictures of the names and faces of the victims and sharing them online along with death threats against themselves and their loved ones.
The majority of the crowdsourced effort to disseminate information on the locations of federal agents’ hiding places takes place online.
In certain cases, the unconfirmed reports originate from hotel employees. Other times, locals or visitors to the hotel spot suspected agents in the lobby or outdoors, or they scour parking lots for federal cars.
In the initial days following the start of the L.A. enforcement effort, it was quite simple to identify the residences of agents by searching for cars with agency emblems. However, they seem to have figured out the surveillance strategies of those who want them to return home.
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Lives around greater Los Angeles have been upended by ongoing federal immigration enforcement activities, including a middle school graduation where family and instructors were left cowering in terror.
According to social media posts and alerts on apps and websites that track ICE activities, a Times reporter visited 13 hotels in three Southland counties in Ontario, from Westchester to Garden Grove, where federal immigration officials were reportedly staying recently. There were no obvious signs in any of the hotel parking lots suggesting the cars, vans, or trucks were those of federal officers.
When The Times contacted five hotels, staff members refused to comment. Employees consented to speak at three but refused to identify themselves, citing company policy. In short interviews, two of them expressed uncertainty about whether agents were remaining on the property. According to a third, who works at an Anaheim chain hotel, he saw what he thought were ICE officials at the establishment last week, but they were no longer sleeping there.
The individual, who refused to give his identity for fear of retaliation from his company or immigration officials, claimed that they didn’t bother anyone. Perhaps there were a dozen of them. It was a bit worrisome.
In recent days, workers like him have been the targets of political backlash. “Our great farmers and people in the hotel and leisure business have been saying that our very aggressive policy on immigration is taking very good, long-time workers away from them,” President Trump wrote on Truth Social last week. On the same day, regional ICE authorities received instructions from a senior ICE official telling them to focus on other targets rather than raiding farms, hotels, and restaurants.
Hotel staff were relieved that they were no longer in the crosshairs after the development. However, the Trump administration swiftly changed its stance, declaring this week that hotel employees and other individuals whom Trump had complimented a few days prior would no longer be granted a respite.
At the June 7 event outside the AC Hotel, Pasadena Covenant Church pastor Andrew Mark also spoke to the crowd. In an interview, he stated that while he was impressed, he was not shocked by the community’s togetherness and determination to bring about change.
Pasadena has a strong sense of pride. We don’t want this to be a site where agents can stage and go out and target people, so I believe it’s a good idea for them to be staying in this hotel,” he said. It was disturbing that they were headquartered in a hotel in our neighborhood.
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Witnesses and footage from the June 9 immigration raid in Compton show that a military-style vehicle was deployed.
At the Pasadena Community Job Center, which links day workers with jobs, Manuel Vicente sat behind his makeshift desk in a soundproof room on Tuesday. He produces audio and video content to assist migrant workers in his capacity as director of Radio Jornalera, including information about their rights when they interact with immigration enforcement officials.
Vicente remarked that he likes to repeat the phrase “Pueblo salva el pueblo,” which means “only the people save the people,” and he thinks the successful demonstration at the AC Hotel Pasadena is an example of it.
He claimed that everyone was thrilled when they were ejected from the hotel. Even though it was a minor triumph, our work had an impact. To safeguard our workers and our community, we must unite.
