California Community Foundation Launches Mass Public Art Campaign to Protest Against ICE Raids

The four Angelenos were wrenched from their jobs, homes and families by federal immigration agents this summer and disappeared into detention facilities. But in a mass public campaign to stand with them and hundreds of other neighbors taken in immigration raids, the California Community Foundation and other prominent institutions are projecting their stories and photographs of Angelenos who support them onto their buildings in billboard-sized, illuminated images.

The images will appear nightly at CCF, LA Plaza Cultura y Artes and the Japanese American National Museum in downtown Los Angeles, with other institutions soon to follow. 

The community campaign raises the urgent question: If people are arrested without regard to constitutional rights, who is safe? 

"This is a call to action," CCF President and CEO Miguel A. Santana said at a Nov. 6 news conference unveiling the project. "'Am I Next?' is more than a question. It is a declaration of courage, a stand for justice and a defense of our most sacred American values, because until justice returns, none of us is free, none of us is safe."

The "Am I Next?" campaign confronts attacks on civil liberties and the undermining of democratic norms that weaken civic life. The 20 by 30-foot portraits feature a cross-section of Angelenos united in protest over recent U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service raids that have swept up hundreds of residents—most with no criminal record—and placed them in detention. 

Edward James Olmos and George Takei, renowned actors and long-time social justice icons, have joined the campaign. In remarks at the news conference, they compared the federal immigration raids today with civil rights abuses their communities have experienced in the past and urged Americans to step up to oppose them. 

Takei recounted his terror when, as a five-year-old boy, two U.S. soldiers armed with bayonets forced his family from their Los Angeles home and brought them to Little Tokyo to join thousands of other Japanese Americans sent to World War II concentration camps without charges, hearings or evidence of wrongdoing following the Pearl Harbor attack and subsequent racial scapegoating. 

"We have been asking the question, 'Am I Next?' But I am a Japanese American, and we Japanese Americans have been there before," Takei said at the news conference. "I stand together with all our fellow Americans…to inform them of where our democracy failed during World War II, and when we see it happening again, we have to be actively participating in the movement to oppose it." 

Olmos, a Mexican American, said he feared the current administration would go after not only those who looked like him but also anyone perceived as an opponent. But he thanked CCF for launching a campaign he said would unite people as never before. 

"We're in a very, very difficult time and moment in history, a moment that will be remembered forever," he said. "Be ready. Stay united. Become part of the people who speak out." 

The campaign harnesses the power of art and collaborative action to highlight the threat to democracy to all when immigrants are targeted. Along with CCF, LA Plaza de Cultural Y Artes and the Japanese American National Museum, the Museum of Latin American Art (MoLAA) and the Social and Public Art Resource Center (SPARC) have joined the campaign, with other institutions to follow. 

In addition, a dedicated campaign website will allow Angelenos to send in their own photos to show their support. The "Am I Next" content will also be available as open source material to download from the website.

At LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes, in addition to the "Am I Next" content, the installation includes illustrations by over 30 large-scale digital images created by nine Los Angeles–based artists: Brandy González, Ernesto Yerena Montejano, Joel García, John Fleissner, Lalo Alcaráz, Las Chicas Peligrosas, Lilia Ramírez "Liliflor," Man One and Mario Hernández. The project at LA Plaza, titled "We Belong Here" and displayed indefinitely, also features a display of 13 neon artworks by Los Angeles–based artist Patrick Martinez.

Leticia Rhi Buckley, CEO of LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes, spoke about the powerful role art plays in building bridges, fostering dialogue, nurturing empathy, strengthening the community's social fabric – and building resistance to injustice. The artists' work, she said, aren't just visuals but also voices speaking truth about migration, struggle, resilience and unity. 

"We must make visible what has been ignored. We must stand shoulder to shoulder with communities," she said. "Together, we remind Los Angeles and the nation that silence is not an option at a time when diversity is under attack." 

The Japanese American National Museum will intersperse images of those incarcerated with Angelenos standing against the ICE raids. The museum's historic Little Tokyo location and plaza is where more than 37,000 Japanese Americans from Los Angeles boarded buses bound for America's concentration camps in 1942.

"Few people stood up for Japanese Americans when they were unjustly incarcerated, which is why we have the moral responsibility to stand up for others today to ensure that what happened back then never happens to anyone again," says Ann Burroughs, JANM president and CEO. "As our immigrant brothers and sisters face the terror of ICE and [border patrol] raids across the country, the parallels between the state-sanctioned exclusion of 1942 and today are immediate and real.

"Through this project, JANM helps the public reckon with being participants in shaping civic life. It is also a strong reminder to all that memory is not passive. It is an act of resistance, a tool for resilience, and a moral responsibility to defend the principles that define a free and just society."

CCF will project the images at 6 p.m. nightly on the facade of its building at 717 W Temple St, Los Angeles, CA 90012. To join the campaign, visit https://www.aminextla.org.

Media Contact: Gilien Silsby, 213-500-8673

SOURCE California Community Foundation