'They’re trying to intimidate us, but it’s not working': Amanda Trebach on her arrest by federal immigration agents
Trebach was violently arrested while documenting ICE's activities in San Pedro. Here’s why she’s not backing down.
Amanda Trebach was violently arrested while documenting federal immigration agents on public property outside a Coast Guard base on Terminal Island in San Pedro on Aug. 8. She spent a night in custody and her phone was confiscated before being released without charges. Trebach spoke to The Southlander about the arrest, which was caught on video, and why community patrols are so important right now.
She described being pinned to the ground and handcuffed while a masked, plainclothes federal agent kneeled on her head and back. “I heard my friends, other community organizers screaming and videotaping,” Trebach said. “I was feeling very scared and I didn't have any way to fight back, but I knew my comrades would help me. I knew that they would be there for me and I would be there for them. And that's really what community is because we keep ourselves safe, right?”
Trebach is a U.S. citizen, an ICU nurse, and a member of Unión Del Barrio, an immigrant rights group based in Southern California. Community patrols, organized by a coalition of over 60 community groups, have formed around the Southland to monitor the operations of federal immigration agents, whose terror tactics include racial profiling, busting car windows to snatch people off the street, and taking people from courthouses and workplaces–oftentimes without identifying themselves.
“If we do see them in the community, we alert the community so they can band together and make sure their neighbors are safe,” Trebach said, referring to why she started patrolling. “In the present, we want to help protect our neighborhoods but also help document for the future and to hopefully hold these people accountable.”
The work is not easy and not without risk: agents point guns, taunt, conduct invasive surveillance, and, in this case, arrest community patrol members.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection accused Trebach of impeding federal agents, but she was released the next day without charges. Trebach said they kept her cell phone despite not producing a search warrant for it and made several attempts to get her to unlock it.
“They’re trying to intimidate us, but it’s not working,” she said. Trebach has continued to participate in community patrols since her arrest.
You can sign up to participate in community patrols here and donate to the Community Self Defense Coalition here.
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Every day we see the ruling class and our pay-for-play government becoming more and more hostile to the truth and truth-tellers. Just last week, the Santa Ana Police Officers’ Association sent one of our reporters a cease-and-desist letter, demanding he stop questioning individual officers, i.e., effectively telling him to stop doing his job. We need local journalists in the Southland who have the freedom, resources, and sophistication to expose the wrongdoings of politicians, slumlords, corporate crooks, cops, and polluters.
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➡️ New research finds lack of local investigative news tied to government secrecy
A new peer-reviewed study published in the News Research Journal goes straight to the heart of why we are building The Southlander. For the first time, empirical evidence has demonstrated something that sounds pretty obvious: government secrecy festers without sunshine.
Researchers at the Brechner Center for the Advancement of the First Amendment at the University of Florida requested the same seven records from state-level agencies across the nation. They then compared compliance with those requests with several measures of newspaper vitality in each state. They found that the states with fewer newspapers per capita were more likely to deny or ignore public records requests.
Notably, researchers did not find a significant link between the density of digital-only local news sites and government transparency. David Cuillier, director of the Freedom of Information Project, told the Local News Initiative that these typically small start-ups can’t be expected to replace the work once done by large newspaper teams.
“They’re stretched so thin in trying to produce content that they often don’t have time to pursue public records, let alone sue for them,” Cuillier said of digital-only local news sites.
But that work is vital. Stanford economist James Hamilton has estimated that for every $1 spent by newspapers on public-records-based journalism, society benefits $287 in saved lives and more efficient government.
While The Southlander is a digital-only publication, we aim to fill the gap of intensive local investigative reporting left by declining legacy newspapers rather than focusing on day-to-day coverage. Since our launch, we have filed dozens of public records requests at the state, county, local, and university levels.
This aggressive pursuit for transparency is sometimes met with resistance, which is why we are forging a partnership with Lawyers for Reporters to bolster our legal firepower in case we need to go to court to make records public.
Just last week, one of our reporters pushed back against redactions to records related to evictions. This resulted in the agency agreeing to make public previously concealed portions of those documents — which will be part of an upcoming story. Solid evidence that this type of prying and prodding helps to keep government open and responsive for everyone only reaffirms our mission to build the first and only investigative news cooperative in the Southland.
🍻 The Southlander @ Barrio Fest: A community needs its journalists — and vice-versa!
We hit up Barrio Fest at Supply and Demand in Long Beach last month to get the word out about The Southlander. When we say this is a shoestring operation, we are not joking. We had to hang up our banner with a pair of shoelaces that our reporter, Kevin Flores, ran across the street to buy.
We spent the rest of the night meeting a lot of lovely people, chatting about the importance of local journalism, giving out some pins, and listening to a bunch of talented musicians. Special thanks to Frosty for giving us a shout-out on stage and to Sol del Cielo for helping to organize the event.
🔥Southlander journalists around the web
Ben Camacho
Military weapons in the hands of cops with little restraint resulted in dozens of protester injuries. Community members demanded accountability, but the Santa Ana City Council voted instead to expand its military arsenal.
Ben Camacho
Killer cops Luis Casillas and Isaac Ibarra are about to get sued alongside their employer. The family of slain Noe Rodriguez speaks out.
Ben Camacho
The Santa Ana Police Officers Association (SAPOA) wants Ben Camacho to stop asking questions and sent him a cease-and-desist letter.
inadvertent
A new database from Ben Camacho helps the public identify police officers in the Santa Ana Police Department. More departments to be added soon.
Abraham Marquez
In recent years, “Liberal Zionism” has emerged as a way to normalize the Zionist project. Liberal or not, Zionism is a colonial project.
Abraham Marquez
Despite the United Nations declaring a “stage five famine” in Gaza caused by Israel, House Democrats from the Southland like Gil Cisneros, Pete Aguilar, and Luz Rivas share Israel-friendly social media videos to downplay the severity of the situation during their AIPAC-led trip.
Abraham Marquez
Activists protested in front of the Egyptian Consulate, accusing the government of enabling genocide in Gaza.
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