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Anarchism and Social Ecology

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How the Koreatown Popular Assembly Organized Neighborhood Power to Confront ICE (itsgoingdown.org)
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Members of the Black Rose Anarchist Federation speak with organizers of the Koreatown Popular Assembly (KPA), who worked to stop deportations and ICE raids during the first Trump administration.

This interview is a reflection on the successes and missteps of the Koreatown Popular Assembly (KPA), an attempt at neighborhood based organizing that existed from 2016-2022 and aimed to confront the first Trump administration’s deportation policies. With Trump now back in power, many are once again looking for models to defend themselves and their communities from an even more rabidly anti-immigrant agenda.

This article is the companion to a forthcoming “how-to-organize a popular assembly” guide based on lessons from KPA and other neighborhood organizing efforts that members of Black Rose/Rosa Negra have been embedded in over the years. Check back for that soon.

Two months into Donald Trump’s second presidential term, and so far, his administration has kept its campaign promises to terrorize immigrants, undocumented or otherwise. Vicious lies about invasive criminality plague press conferences and executive orders. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) seeks new collaborations with other state agencies to recruit personnel and execute mass deportations. Border Czar Tom Homan hints at caging kids once again.

As during Trump’s first term, communities across the country have refused to cower in fear. Residents ring tiplines around the clock to report impending ICE activity while community organizers sponsor trainings to defend against raids. Students, neighbors, and coworkers plaster their schools, towns, and workplaces with Red Cards and other Know-Your-Rights literature.

From 2016 to 2022, Koreatown Popular Assembly (KPA), a Los Angeles-based formation in an immigrant-rich multiethnic neighborhood, did all this and more. Most importantly, KPA’s members waited for no one to save them; they proactively organized collective resistance to ICE and Trump’s nativist agenda from the ground up alongside other everyday people.

Conducted and edited by Juan Verala Luz, this interview with Morgan, one of the project’s lead organizers, and Elizabeth Chi, who joined KPA when she moved to LA in late 2018, explores how KPA started, what it did, and the context for its success and later dissolution.

Amidst a popular upsurge, dedicated revolutionaries patiently encouraged one neighborhood to deliberately identify practical strategies to confront the state terror it faced, together. Despite skepticism towards making decisions and acting collectively, gentle onramps, multilingual support, and efforts to accommodate diverse work schedules translated an inclusive vision of direct democracy into a participatory experiment. Ultimately, familiar organizing difficulties—shifting political winds that temper interest, committed leaders stepping back, and struggles with recruitment—undid KPA.

However, the experience paints a picture rich with lessons for (re)building rooted organs of direct democracy and mass social movements for immigrant liberation, both of which can lay the groundwork for a popular power that can challenge the state and capital.

#Early Days Of KPA BRRN: Let’s set the stage for KPA. What was the social movement and broader political landscape like in the neighborhood, the city more generally, and even the country?

M: In contrast to today, there was just an explosion of people trying to figure out what we can do and there were a lot of people coming into the streets. If you called a meeting at that time, you’d get floods of people who just wanted to do something. There was also a huge amount of fear, particularly in immigrant communities. There were a lot of spontaneous marches. In Koreatown, a lot of the public schools that we were closely connected to, the teachers and students had a walkout on the day of the inauguration, I think.

There were a few scattered walkouts at other schools and places. There was sometime around that A Day Without Immigrants that was very poorly planned and communicated, but still going down Pico Boulevard I remember thinking, “Oh, there are actually a whole bunch of places that shut down because of this random call-out.” That was kind of the vibe in response to the election, and all that energy had no where to go. People wanted to do something, but it wasn’t clear what.

BRRN: What led to your decision to organize a popular assembly? Why not some other sort of organizational form or structure?

M: Basically, there was a citywide assembly called to talk about Los Angeles’s response to Trump. … After that, the meeting organizers said, “Okay, let’s go and form breakout groups and then go meet up and form a group for your neighborhood.” Koreatown was one of the breakout groups from that citywide meeting. Then I became involved, I think, in one of the first meetings of what had been a breakout group from that citywide meeting.

I believe the name “popular assembly” was there from the beginning, but almost nobody knew what a popular assembly was. I think it was NDLON, the National Day Labor Organizing Network, that gave the name popular assembly to, first, the citywide meeting and then the breakout groups that then became these neighborhood groups. My memory is that they were relying on an experience from Arizona where…there was a group they organized…that organized the immigrant community to form popular assemblies as a community defense tactic and hoped to implement something similar in Los Angeles. That wasn’t really communicated very well to most people. There was this term, “popular assembly,” and then this big meeting in the breakout groups, and there was not really any direction.

When [I] and a couple other people saw the name, “popular assembly,” we got a little excited because obviously we have some political ideas about that and about the importance of neighborhood-based democratic decision making. So that neighborhood group then started meeting, and basically me, Sarah, who was a member of a Trotskyist organization and a public-school teacher in Koreatown, and David, who was a staffer for NDLON who was living in the area, were the main people who then said, “Let’s actually make this a popular assembly.”

Most of the other people who came to those initial meetings were more of the opinion of “Let’s have a picnic. Let’s just get connected and get to know each other.” They thought of it as a kind of ambiguous ‘community building’ effort. There was no vision for structure, or strategy, or specific goals. So, we proposed instead of just this little breakout group, let’s have an open assembly for the neighborhood and let’s make it a decision-making space.

There was actually a lot of debate about that. A lot of people were against making a decision-making space … [In the notes] there’s a proposal from someone where the outcome was we talk about projects we can plug into and how we’re going to stay connected. So, there’s actually nothing concrete; no decisions are made. I had been to plenty of “assemblies” like that before; people come, they share information, and then they leave and there are probably going to be more meetings scheduled with no clear purpose until people get bored of meetings and stop showing up. We actually had to really debate, propose, and put forward…[an] emphasis on it being open and a decision-making space [to] try to actually get something concrete coming out of this so people can feel like we’re actually doing a thing together.

BRRN: Do you remember the sorts of opposition and arguments that were raised against making KPA a decision-making body?

M: I remember a lot of the opposition was not so much ideological. I think maybe it was just not what people are used to.

One position may have been that the assembly should then fractalize into smaller and smaller groups. [After] we had a Koreatown General Assembly or popular assembly, [some people argued that] then we split up into breakout groups [by geography]. [People] in Northwest Koreatown [and] Northeast Koreatown [would go] set up separate committee meetings. I don’t think that’s really a debate on principles, so much of a debate on practicality and the purpose of repeated meetings. I think we did make a gesture [to that with] breakout groups by what part of Koreatown where we were in, but then we kept everyone coming back to one whole Koreatown organizing committee. Then we actually broadened it because there was no other group like this in LA. We basically made it “greater” Koreatown.

I think partly there was maybe a resistance to when you make a decision it means also saying no to things. I think some people want to have a space where people can just bring in their ideas and just say yes to everything and not have to choose and prioritize or develop a real strategy.

There was also a sense of people wanting to have breakout groups by…a tactic or affinity. For example, “we’re gonna break out for people who want to focus on queer issues, we’re gonna have a breakout for people who want to focus on immigrant issues” … We argued against that because we all ended up doing immigrant-based stuff, whether we were immigrants or not. Doing those kinds of breakout issues 1) tends to multiply the number of things you’re trying to do rather than building enough capacity to get enough critical mass behind one effort to make it sustainable and successful and 2) it defeats the purpose of having a neighborhood-based group because you’re not making decisions in the neighborhood at that point.

#Organizing In And Through KPA BRRN: Now let’s learn a little bit more about what KPA did. What were its major objectives and how did it land on them?

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago (1 children)

M: [At] the big General Assembly there were three decisions made: that we focus on building an all-volunteer rapid response network; creating sanctuary schools that were protecting against ICE raids; and educating the neighborhood about their rights.

We did a lot of work around sanctuary schools but there actually was not as much that needed to be done because ICE was not actually going into schools at that point. But we were organizing in the main public school in K-Town.

We very quickly became super focused on just providing a rapid response network. That took up so much time and effort because doing that as a volunteer project requires a whole team of people doing logistics and doing trainings. Then a whole separate group of people has 24-hour dispatchers answering phone calls at any time of the day. And then a whole team of 200-plus first responders who are trained and ready to [act]. It is a lot of work, so we very quickly became consumed by keeping those structures running.

Our objective as a rapid response network was to block ICE raids. A lot of the nonprofit rapid response networks, their only purpose is for people to call, and they give callers resources on how they can maybe access legal representation or tell you your rights—which, you know, how much are those worth? Our goal was to actually intervene as much as possible, and we didn’t really succeed in that as much as we might have. It’s very hard to actually block ICE raids. I followed the news and reports of this very closely when we were organizing because I was trying to figure out how we could do it better. During the first Trump administration, it happened a couple of times around the whole of the US.

We did block an ICE truck once, but that was when we had a protest actually at the ICE building.

EC: I feel like we were actually able to figure out ICE’s plans a bit in the neighborhood. I remember we were constantly canvassing the Ralph’s parking lot because there were reports of a staging ground there. We reached out to local businesses and just had people almost patrolling there and had sent out first responders there several times. We were able to report when ICE started using unmarked vehicles in the neighborhood or when there were patterns and shifts in their behavior.

sample protest

#Resolute Revolutionaries, Inclusive Structures Cultivate KPA

BRRN: In terms of organizing outcomes like campaign wins, organizer development, consistency of a project, KPA seems to have been one of, if not the most, successful experiments in popular assemblies during the first Trump administration. What contributed to it?

M: I agree that probably it was one of the most successful. That doesn’t mean that we actually had lots of big wins, though.

EC: Probably what contributed most to its success was a few very, very dedicated individuals, one of them being Morgan, but also some others that really went above and beyond and put in a ton of time and thought and heart into it.

M: There were a number of breakout groups aiming to become ‘popular assemblies’ from that first citywide General Assembly. KPA is the only one where there were basically revolutionaries who had a vision of neighborhood organizing and democracy who proposed “Let’s actually make this into an assembly.” Every single other ‘popular assembly’ from that initial citywide meeting died off very quickly. I think there were some similar efforts in other cities that died also either [because] they just didn’t take on a focus or they didn’t open themselves up as a neighborhood space and so they also didn’t really get on their feet. There may have been a couple of exceptions in, like, Portland.

EC: I think there was a lot of dedication to making [KPA] not just a typical organizing space [and] to making it as inclusive as possible, not just [for] academics or typical organizers but [for] everyday people.

There was the language justice component. By the time I was there, there was a designated interpreter with every meeting, notes were taken in both English and Spanish, and all statements were made in English and Spanish. But when did that get implemented?

M: I think from the beginning. From the beginning, all the notes are in English, but I see from who’s there [in the notes] that there are some people I remember being monolingual Spanish speakers. I also see that someone who was there was also a member of a group, Antena Los Ángeles, that provided movement interpretation services. I’m pretty sure the group was bilingual from the beginning, but I don’t remember exactly how we logistically did that in those very, very first meetings. The first General Assembly was trilingual, because it was in Korean as well, but we never had monolingual Korean speakers participate in the ongoing meetings.

EC: There was also an attempt to not just have meetings be centered around a nine-to-five schedule. They typically were, unfortunately, but there was at least a recognition that doesn’t necessarily coincide with the schedules of non-nine-to-five office workers. There would be some meetings and events that [were] at different times. I think just a lot of general statements of intention to that effect, right? I also think we could have done a better job, but the intent was there.

EC: The geography I think helps too: Koreatown’s not huge, so it just made it easier to meet and to keep the project rooted in the identity of the neighborhood.

M: [It’s] the only neighborhood in Los Angeles that actually feels like you’re in a city … Being a neighborhood group, we were able to do more social events than we would have if we were an LA-based group where we’re all two hours away from each other.

EC: I think there was a lot of trust, too, within most people of the organization. We had solid community guidelines and not just in a “let’s just do them” kind of way, but pretty strong commitment to them. I think it connects to the first thing, too, of valuing different perspectives and everyone’s experience is as valuable as the next person’s. By the time I got there, I think everyone had already built in relationships.

M: One part is that making a local practical group or project means it’s going to be less focused on some of the various left groups and activist personalities.

We didn’t really have to deal with a lot of that [in KPA]. We didn’t have to deal with people who were coming to try and stroke their own ego or get credit for something.

I also think that doing a lot of work together where you could see that [you were] having an impact and you knew what you were doing and what your purpose was also kept people focused and grounded. Being more of a neighborhood-based group kept things grounded [by] having a lot of existing connections prior to KPA, whether it’s members’ former high school students or co-workers. A lot of people worked together and knew each other from different workplaces or groups.

#COVID Complications, Biden In Office Stall KPA BRRN: KPA slowly wound down its activity before formally closing in 2022. Can you share what led to its slow decline and eventual end?

EC: I think it was core members leaving, and not because of not liking the work, but [because of] life: people moving, people getting promoted, getting married, having kids. I went to law school [outside of LA], Morgan through his work had to move [out of LA], too, and there were other members who had to leave for various reasons.

M: We were [meeting] online [because] the pandemic scattered a number of us. At that point a number of us were out of LA. COVID meant we were meeting on Zoom and it was so much harder to bring people in and recruit people.

EC: At another level, all of these things ultimately led to its demise because of underlying issues around recruitment and retention. You had to have a lot of knowledge around how the group worked in order to not be bored at meetings or to not feel intimidated. And as much as I think we tried to have intros each time about the background and stuff, sometimes those meetings could get long, and so people skip them sometimes and forget to explain some things. It’s a small group, we were doing a lot, and there was not someone who’s actively always doing mass recruitment; it was just people connecting with people they already knew.

Even if there were recruitment efforts, to follow up with people to get them to really join was hard. On top of the meetings, there was actual first response stuff, too: taking shifts as dispatchers, planning the trainings, and responding to calls. Also, a lot of stuff started coming through Instagram instead of the call line. So, I think, in general, it was too much work for too few people and I think that leads to burnout. It also just makes it harder for new people to join because it seems so intimidating.

M: We consistently got recruitment and activity when there were things in the news around immigration-related stuff. During the Trump administration, there consistently would be like, oh, DACA is going to be repealed, for example, and children being separated at the border. We consistently [would] get pulses of activity. More people would come to our events or trainings and through the trainings, people would get involved with the planning committee, we build capacity, etc.

Under Biden, that stopped happening. It was much harder to recruit people after Biden was elected [even though] Biden was deporting just as many people as Trump did in his first term. But it wasn’t nearly as flashy in a way. It was much more of a bureaucratic process. So, there wasn’t the same attention on the issue.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 weeks ago

#Dream Big, Start Small, Prepare For The Long Haul BRRN: There’s lots of interest and excitement about popular and neighborhood assemblies now, as Trump has returned to office. Having gone through this experience, what advice and lessons would you want to share with organizers interested in experimenting with this kind of neighborhood structure in their backyards?

M: Don’t be grandiose. If you go out and just declare “I’m going to have a neighborhood assembly,” it’s probably not going to happen. I think if KPA had been called at any other moment, it would not have happened in the way it did. I think if we had tried to do it the same way after Trump’s election in 2024, it would not have happened. [Trump’s first election in 2016] was a unique moment when we could just flyer the streets and random strangers who had never come to an organizing meeting before would show up, all speaking different languages. Today it would take much more ground work.

You need to have built a lot of connections with people before you ever call a first assembly. If there are a bunch of churches or other social institutions on board and they can vouch and turn people out, that’s something. … There were people who had a lot of connections in the neighborhood, but [KPA] was put together without much background, without much organizing on the ground initially, again because of the moment we were in. We built connections to various churches later. If you have that kind of history and those kinds of connections, then you can build something like KPA. Otherwise, I think it’s quite hard in our present political context and in a context where people aren’t very used to neighborhood assemblies. If you’re going to do it, you have to start small and be prepared to put in years of work.

The other key lesson is that, if you reach a place where you have the capacity to actually call an assembly, you have to have a structure and decision making process in mind as you begin. Really, you have to make sure your spaces are democratic, open decision-making spaces and have a clear idea of what you’re going to do with that. I think that moment was also special [when] the first assembly was in February 2017, right around the inauguration, because the problems and the answers were both quite clear to people. The problem in the neighborhood was immigration raids and the solution was to stop them, to keep them out. Our task was to develop a strategy and set of tactics for how to actually do that.

In times when it’s more diffuse, when there’s a whole bunch of competing issues and nobody is quite clear on what to do about it, it’s a lot harder and it’ll take a lot more time. But it’s also, I think, the responsibility of revolutionaries to think through those and propose the key issues and the key solutions, which is what these spaces are for, right? Then from there you come to a concrete project. I think a neighborhood assembly, like any other meeting, is kind of pointless to most people unless it’s clear: this is what we’re doing, this is how, and this is what the purpose is.

If you’re interested in learning more about the Koreatown Popular Assembly, we recommend watching A Year in Popular Power #2: Stopping ICE Raids with Koreatown Popular Assembly and reading Koreatown Popular Assembly: Shutting Down ICE, Building Popular Power.