In the heart of Huntington Park, a predominantly Latino suburb south of downtown Los Angeles, the Huntington Park Run Club has evolved from a casual fitness group into a vital community sentinel, monitoring for federal immigration agents and distributing "know your rights" materials during twice-weekly runs. Founded two years ago by Iris Delgado to foster connections among local runners and push for safer streets like crosswalks and bike lanes, the club now embodies resistance in the face of intensified immigration enforcement under the Trump administration.
With raids escalating since summer, the group's Instagram posts alert followers to ICE sightings, and a bike marshal on an electric bicycle shadows every meetup to ensure participants' safety and accountability.
The raids have upended daily life in Los Angeles County, home to about 10 million residents, one-third of whom are foreign-born. Huntington Park, with its dense immigrant population, has been a flashpoint: A Home Depot parking lot less than a mile from the club's route has seen multiple sweeps, prompting a nearby high school to lock down during its June graduation ceremony. Just blocks away, federal agents detonated explosives to breach a family home in search of a man accused—later dismissed—of ramming a U.S.
Customs and Border Protection vehicle during a protest, shattering windows and traumatising a mother and her two children as they slept. These operations, part of a broader crackdown on undocumented individuals, have led to cancelled community events like Fourth of July celebrations and summer movie nights, as families retreat indoors to avoid detection.
Club member Evelyn Romo, a 25-year-old recent college graduate who joined after returning home, views the runs as an act of defiance. "Continuing to take up space even in the form of running in these streets is a form of protest, is a form of resistance," she said. The group, spanning ages 11 to 70 and reflecting the area's diverse immigration statuses, has never cancelled a session, prioritising it as a sanctuary for decompression amid fear.
On a recent Wednesday, Delgado led about 30 runners through warm-up stretches before they fanned out along the pavement, their footsteps a rhythmic reclaiming of public space. The club has raised nearly $8,000 through fundraisers for a community fund supporting day labourers at targeted Home Depot sites—traditional hiring hubs now rife with enforcement risks.
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Young member Marco Padilla, 18 and a lifelong Huntington Park resident who joined shortly after the club's inception, highlighted the pervasive anxiety. He recalled armed agents sprinting past his high school gates during a senior breakfast, sending peers into hiding, while parents forbade outings near "hot spots". Yet, the runners opt for visibility: members document raids via phone, alert the group chat, and attend safety trainings on legal recourse. "Some people have chosen to be hidden... but ironically for our group, we have actually decided to do the opposite," Padilla noted.
Delgado emphasised the ethos: "Our main community value is to keep each other safe and look out for each other." This comes as the Supreme Court recently overturned a lower judge's injunction against indiscriminate ICE stops based on race, language, job, or location, allowing roving patrols to resume and ensnaring even U.S. citizens and legal residents in the sweeps.
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