Along South L.A.’s bustling Crenshaw Boulevard is a new mural with an obvious message — “No I.C.E.” — in large red block letters. Organizers from the Crenshaw Dairy Mart, a community arts collective in Inglewood, gathered in front of the new art installation to honor immigrant communities in need of solidarity and healing, they said.

The former local dairy-mart-turned-art-center joined L.A.-wide actions on July 1, where people gathered to condemn ongoing ICE raids as part of the Trump administration’s ongoing mass deportation efforts, which advocates say have targeted vulnerable immigrant communities across Southern California.

As part of the city-wide movement to “Reclaim Our Streets,” organizers gathered in different neighborhoods, from Boyle Heights to Huntington Park, to condemn the ICE raids and call for separated families to be reunited. Over 1,600 Southern California immigrants have been arrested for deportation since the raids began in June, Department of Homeland Security officials said last week, with more round-ups promised in the name of protecting American citizens from “criminal illegal aliens.”

On Tuesday, Crenshaw Dairy Mart organizers called its visual demonstration an “act of defiance” against immigration enforcement – and a place where community members could bring their collective “grief, rage, and love,” they said.

“As soon as the first I.C.E. raids occurred, communities across L.A. have jumped into action. Rather than dividing us, Trump’s federal invasion has united Angelenos, who have come together out of love for one another to document the deplorable actions, alert the public, and support families in hiding,” organizers said before the event. “We are reclaiming our streets to honor our loved ones who have been stolen from our communities, for our children to play and for celebration and resistance… We will not stop fighting until every single loved one who has been stolen is home.”

Attendees gathered solemnly, at times pausing in reflective silence. People were invited to bring different flowers to place under the mural, forming the number 500 — which represents the growing number of immigrants across L.A. who were detained by ICE over the last few weeks, organizers said.

That number has since doubled, ICE data shows.

Some flowers had been purchased from downtown L.A., one organizer said, and encouraged attendees to support local businesses in the area, which currently looks like a “ghost town” due to recent immigration enforcement activity.

Artist Noé Olivas, who co-founded the Crenshaw Dairy Mart, said the mural was created during the early stages of ICE raids, feeling a “sense of helplessness and anxiety in my body.”

“I felt like I needed to at least somehow release it,” said Olivas. “Art is a way of releasing those things.”

The July 1 demonstration was held in collaboration with We Are California, a coalition promoting safety and inclusion, and the Social Justice Learning Institute, which seeks to educate and mobilize communities of color.

Organizers emphasized that the rally was also a “safe space” for undocumented people, and encouraged them to enter the art center property if ICE agents showed up.

Several organizers from the Crenshaw Dairy Mart and the Social Justice Learning Institute spoke to the crowd, many of whom wore shirts that read “We are California — come for one of us, come for us all.”

While attendees placed flowers on the ground, others stood in a circle and listened to organizers share stories of local immigrants who were detained by ICE – including a father of three, and a Culver City ice cream vendor who served the neighborhood for over two decades.

Melissa Rodriguez and her two young children were a part of that circle. Rodriguez, who called herself a “neighbor” of the Crenshaw Dairy Mart for eleven years, said she is trying to help her son understand what’s happening with immigration enforcement. But she fears her husband, a landscaper, may be at risk of being arrested by ICE at his job, even though he is a citizen. With some reports of ICE agents detaining U.S. citizens, including a local woman who was later released on bond in downtown L.A., Rodriguez said one can never be too certain.

Activist and co-founder Patrisse Cullors, who co-founded the “Black Lives Matter” movement in 2013, said that artists have the potential to “share something different” — and called the Crenshaw Dairy Mart collective a “place of imagination” and healing.

She added that current ICE raids conjure up memories of LAPD’s mass arrests during the 1992 L.A. riots, which targeted communities of color especially in South L.A.

Being “taken away,” Cullors said, is “something that a lot of Black people have experienced.”

“When I witness ICE chasing human beings, locking them up, separating them from their families — this is not something that’s far away,” Cullors said. “My heart goes out to these communities.”

ZinShu Spock, an artist and Inglewood resident since 1985, said she came to the protest prepared to “block traffic and scream and yell” — but was touched by the more mindful, artistic approach organizers had in the demonstration.

“I see how fabulously wonderful this take on a rally and a protest was,” she said. “It’s not at all what I expected.”

Alejandra Lemus, a program associate with Crenshaw Dairy Mart, believes artists play a key role in raising public awareness about immigration enforcement  – particularly for those who have been “picked up in the streets and then taken” by officers conducting business without alerting local police or identifying themselves.

Just as L.A. County residents supported each other through relief operations, donations and rebuilding in the wake of the January Eaton and Palisades fires, Lemus said that community solidarity can lead to positive change, as immigration fears heighten.

“As artists and cultural workers… we’re very powerful in being able to impact change and also change culture,” Lemus said. “In spite of all of these things we’re seeing in our community, our communities are also very resourceful. We can continue; we can lean into each other.”