The Long Beach International Tamales Festival will move forward on Dec. 7 at the Scottish Rite space in Downtown Long Beach—despite fears about the presence of ICE, which led to the city cancelling this year’s Dia de Muerto event in DTLB.
Organizer Sal Flores was initially planning to do the same, but second thoughts about holding one’s community up on the pillar it deserves—without fear—was far more important.
“One of the strongest ways we preserve dignity and identity during challenging times is through tradition,” Sal said. “Long Beach has shown up in many ways for our immigrant community: Letting folks know where ICE is. Publicly shaming the kidnapping of our neighbors and friends and family. As an immigrant—especially as one from Mexico—I felt there was nothing better to do than to say, ‘No, we are celebrating our culture, our community, and our traditions.'”
In this sense, the Long Beach International Tamales Festival is a bold Not-In-Our-House declaration against ICE and the terror it has inflicted on communities who never invited them in the first place.
How ICE operations have been considered illegal.
In recent months, federal judges have repeatedly ruled that ICE’s tactics — including warrantless arrests and detentions — violated existing legal protections. For example, a court found that arrests of 11 immigrant restaurant workers in the Kansas City area were unlawful because they lacked warrants, in violation of a 2022 consent decree.
Similarly, in a long-running class-action lawsuit Gonzalez v. ICE, courts concluded that ICE’s use of “detainers”—requests for local jails to hold individuals for ICE custody—often lacked probable cause, risking indefinite detention without neutral judicial review. Legal observers note that such detentions implicate the protections of the Fourth Amendment (against unreasonable searches and seizures) and the Due Process Clause under the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments.
Beyond the courts, civil-rights groups have documented how ICE’s enforcement practices as unfairly delegated. Raids, detentions, and deportations have disproportionately burdened immigrants and communities of color, undermining equal-protection guarantees and eroding trust in law enforcement. In some cases, people detained had no criminal records or posed no flight risk, raising serious due-process concerns. As these legal challenges mount and courts continue to rule against ICE’s overreach, the agency’s enforcement practices increasingly stand exposed as not just controversial but, in many instances, unconstitutional under U.S. law.
How Long Beach has been standing against ICE.
Long Beach has become one of Southern California’s most vocal battlegrounds against aggressive ICE enforcement, with both residents and city leaders publicly condemning the agency’s increasingly clandestine tactics. In June 2025, more than 500 people rallied downtown, urging the City Council to bolster the Long Beach Justice Fund after a wave of ICE arrests targeting local residents — including people with no criminal record. The protest noted how organizers framed the raids as direct attacks on community safety and stability, calling for expanded legal representation for those detained. Local immigrant-rights group ÓRALE added that at least a dozen Long Beach residents had already been taken by ICE since June, arguing that the city’s current policies “are not enough to protect the community.”
The response hasn’t been limited to street demonstrations. Across the region, Long Beach–adjacent leaders have begun crafting formal policy reactions to ICE’s conduct.
Reports from LAist have detailed how Los Angeles County Supervisors introduced a measure banning law-enforcement officers, including federal agents, from masking their identities during public operations; the law does not take effect until 2026. The move was prompted directly by masked ICE agents participating in controversial sweeps in Long Beach and surrounding cities, raising alarms about accountability and due process. These concerns mirror a larger trend: grassroots activists across Southern California have escalated “No Sleep for ICE” actions. Staking out hotels and other locations where ICE agents operate, agitators monitor, disrupt, or delay their enforcement. As Truthout reports, Long Beach organizers have been key participants in these efforts, stepping in where they say official protections fall short.
Together, these protests, policy pushes, and community-led interventions reflect a city unwilling to remain silent as its residents are detained — sometimes forcibly and without clear legal basis — by federal agents. Long Beach’s stance illustrates a local government and grassroots network attempting to fill the gap left by federal inaction and judicial ambiguity, asserting that the safety of its neighborhoods depends not on unchecked enforcement, but on transparency, legal protection, and the right of every resident to not simply live here, but belong here.
The Long Beach International Tamales Festival takes place on Sunday, Dec. 7, at the Scottish Rite Theater in Downtown Long Beach, located at 855 Elm Ave. For tickets and more information, click here.
