ICE raids put a chill on L.A. high school football teams
On the day immigration agents swooped through MacArthur Park in armored vehicles, wearing tactical gear and riding on horseback, Contreras Learning Center football coach Manuel Guevara said more than 20 of his players skipped summer practice.
“Kids were messaging me their parents don’t want them to leave their house,” Guevara said.
The fear among families with students attending three downtown Los Angeles high schools minutes apart — Contreras, Roybal and Belmont— is real.
“Everybody’s on edge,” Guevara said.
Players don’t know if their parents will feel safe enough to watch games from the school bleachers this fall.
As official football practice begins on Monday, three downtown Los Angeles head coaches — Guevara, Roybal’s Michael Galvan and Belmont’s Kenneth Daniels — have been in constant communication and united to help their players and parents deal with ICE raids. No one knows when the raids might subside or how the ongoing anxiety might affect teams this fall.
One of the first raids happened outside an elementary school across the street from Contreras. A 17-year-old Contreras cross country and track athlete, Nory Santoy Ramos, was detained and later deported to Guatemala with her mother after showing up for an immigration appointment. Families in the area rely on afterschool programs that are facing budget cuts. Students continue to deal with issues involving homelessness, gangs and drug use at nearby MacArthur Park.
Even though all three coaches said players feel safe on campus, with Los Angeles Unified School District Supt. Alberto Carvalho vowing to make schools “safe havens,” coaches are most concerned about students’ commutes to and from school.
Federal immigration agents near MacArthur Park in the Westlake area on July 7.
(Carlin Stiehl/Los Angeles Times)
“A piece of me worries about them getting home safe,” Roybal’s Galvan said.
Guevara said one Contreras player told him he’s 80% certain his mother is going to leave and take him with her because of ICE fears. He’s had kids message him this summer that they couldn’t come to practices because their parents feared for their safety.
The Times has confirmed U.S. citizens are among those who have been detained during immigration raids in Southern California that have continued for more than six weeks. More than 2,700 people have been arrested during the raids and more than two-thirds of those detained had never previously been convicted of a crime.
“I understand their plight,” Guevara said. “I was brought here when I was 1. I became a citizen when I was 17. It’s not like you can tell anyone in this situation, ‘Suck it up.’ It’s a completely different animal. Our area is targeted.”
Students at Miguel Contreras Learning Complex in downtown Los Angeles continue to be affected by ICE raids.
(Eric Sondheimer / Los Angeles Times)
Belmont is struggling to field a football team this fall. School enrollment is down to less than 700 after once being a school of more than 6,000 — the largest in the county — until Contreras and Roybal were built. Athletic director Carlos Calderon said four sports that have been practicing on the Belmont campus this summer — cheer, girls volleyball, cross-country and football — have been affected by parental safety concerns.
“We’ve seen a deduction in kids coming to practices and increase communication with parents and having them call us [to say,] ‘We don’t feel comfortable in kids coming to practice,’” he said.
Calderon, who helps coach cross-country, has had athletes train on the school track instead of running the hills at Elysian Park to assuage parental fears.
Daniels said after one summer practice, when he learned an ICE raid was unfolding nearby, he instructed players to leave school from the back entrance instead of the front entrance.
“It’s really affecting us,” he said. “We’re not getting the numbers we need to get the workouts in.”
Belmont has 20 football players signed up, but only about half have been showing up for workouts. The team usually adds players once classes begin Aug. 14. Daniels, a walk-on coach, is already consumed by the challenge of building a new house in Altadena after his burned down during the Eaton fire.
“Nothing has been easy in 2025,” he said.
Galvan said he’s had players miss practices to go shopping for family members who feel they have to stay home. Others had medical appointments delayed because parents didn’t want to leave their homes.
“In all of my 25 years of teaching in the area, I’ve never experienced anything like this,” he said. “You just don’t know. It’s hard to explain. How do we get through one day? … We’re taking it day by day.”
The Garfield-Roosevelt game, known as the East L.A. Classic, draws the largest L.A. high school football attendance each year. It’s scheduled for Oct. 24 at a site to be determined and officials want to make sure fans attending feel safe, so a decision on the site and security arrangements in light of continuing ICE raids are being taken into consideration along with budget.
“We will continue to follow district guidelines to ensure the well-being of our entire school community,” Garfield athletic director Lorenzo Hernandez said in a text message. “Our priority is — and will always be — to keep students and families safe, informed and supported.”
Said Galvan: “We definitely have to approach this season differently and see who we can accommodate and support the kids and balance understanding the situation and keeping them safe. It’s going to be on a weekly basis how we approach each game.”
Skipping summer practices won’t prevent a team from going forward. But if players start missing practices this fall, that will cause problems, because practices are needed to help prevent injuries and get athletes into the proper physical condition to participate.
Guevara still remembers July 7, the day of the MacArthur Park show of force. He addressed players who showed up to practice and were going home.
“Be vigilant, be careful,” he told them.
It’s a message likely to be repeated again and again this fall.
