As immigration scholars, we have long studied policies and politics of how people cross borders, build communities and seek opportunities. We have interviewed families, analyzed survey data, worked with immigration organizations, informed local governments, and documented the complex ways immigration laws shape daily life.

But lately, our inbox has fewer questions about data and more pressing questions about travel, security and rights.

International students asked if we should leave the country this summer to visit our families or do research. After all, graduate students and student visa researchers have seen their No explanation or due process for revocation of legal statussometimes based on their political activities, social media posts and even Old parking tickets. State Council Call this policy "Catch and Undo" - But let's name it what it is: a tool for political intimidation and ideological surveillance.

Not only students and scholars. Throughout California, undocumented residents, legal permanent residents and their mixed-race family members find their lives torn apart by fear and uncertainty.

There are nearly one million undocumented immigrants in Los Angeles County, and more than 200,000 are next door. They are not new immigrants: According to our latest estimates at the U.S. Stock Institute, in Los Angeles, it has been more than 70% of the time in the United States for at least a decade. These may have unauthorized or overdue visas in Californians who may have no authorized or overdue visas outnumbered immediate family members of U.S. citizens and legal permanent residents.

These immigrants are not on the edge of society. them yes Our society. They are our neighbors, colleagues, community leaders and family. They are raising kids in our school district, running requires small businesses and helping to rebuild our area after a fire destroys our community.

Now they are detained or deported. Or, they simply slide into the shadows, afraid to drive, afraid to go to work, afraid to put their kids in school. It takes place in Highland Park. In Linwood. In Fullerton, our daughter alone is worried about what will happen to her friends and family every morning.

She seems to know what others need to know: the lives and destiny of these mixed state families are bound by daily interactions and broader reality.

At this moment, it is a moral crisis and a democratic crisis. Immigration enforcement has become a test of how far our government can go in terms of punishment, surveillance and silence. The federal government is converging a large number of big data sources from various agencies including the U.S. Postal Service, social Security,,,,, IRS and the Refugee Resettlement Office, targeting adults and children of various legal status. Immigration and customs enforcement are also quietly building large-scale detention infrastructure Recovery Agreement Local police and state agencies across the country can help find and remove immigrants.

Legal permanent residents and citizens Also swept. Just last week, Ice Deported three U.S. citizens children - One of them has a rare stage 4 cancer with the mother. In another case, Twenty armed hockey agents raided the home of a mother and her three daughters in Oklahoma City — all American citizens — to make them stand outside in the rain in the underwear while the ice confiscates their electronics and saves life.

Mechanisms for Immigration – unprecedented private data sharing across federal agencies, construction of detention troops, secret visa revocation and illegality Detain citizens - Can be used to suppress objections, limit freedom and punish anyone who challenges government power. Watch widely video Unidentified, masked agents occupied Tufts graduate student Rumeysa Ozturk walking along a street in Massachusetts, which brought us all to the attention: immigration enforcement is where authoritarian tactics are sharpened and tested.

That's why we support the momentum of a movement based on solidarity, resistance and collective care. Throughout Southern California, we see people rising in defending immigrant communities – not only in protests, but also in practical collective ways to transform immigrants’ daily lives. The school district is adopting a shelter policy. The principal refuses to let Bing enter the campus. The Mutual Aid Network provides legal support, emergency funding and community defense. Immigration Rights Organizations are attracting a large crowd for the Know Your Rights workshop. And the neighbors are Pay attention to each other.

This is what democracy looks like: people refuse to give up on each other.

Our public institutions, from the City Council to the school board to the university, need help. This means checking records and attendance daily to protect international students from wrong deportations. This means legal support, public education, protection policies at the local and state levels that are to improve immigration security, as well as quick response programs when the ice is active in nearby or regions. This means seeing people of all positions as their reality: a vital member of our community.

Research can work. As misinformation spreads quickly, carefully collected data enables us to challenge those who link immigration to crime to track the erosion of civil liberties to measure the human impact of law enforcement. Research can help us take charge of institutions, advocate humanitarian policies, and identify the dignity of the most threatened people when power is punished, excluded and eroded freedom.

But at this moment, the language of data and academic neutrality is not enough. Our region has always formed a frontline - for justice, resistance and possibility. We can allow fear and cruelty to rule, or we can continue to satisfy this moment with courage and clarity. In Los Angeles and Orange County, immigrants weave so strongly into our presence that we understand: If immigrants are attacked, we are all there. We defend our freedom as we fight for our freedom.

Jody Agius Vallejo and Pastor Manuel are professors of sociology at the University of Southern California, who direct the University’s Institute of Stock Studies.