“It’s not riots happening in LA”: Summer Study USA programs grapple with anti-ICE protests

Students and teachers said protests have not impacted their experiences. Teachers ensure safety and encourage students to avoid areas where demonstrations would have taken place.

Photo courtesy of Elon University alum Brandon Talton '24.

On June 6, protests erupted in the second largest city in the United States — Los Angeles, California. These protests ignited after Immigration and Customs Enforcement raided and arrested those allegedly in violation of immigration laws. Downtown LA, among other major cities in the U.S., has seen protests pushing back against ICE raids. Just days after protests began, President Donald Trump deployed 700 active-duty Marines and 2,000 National Guard troops to downtown LA without California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s consent. 

Director of Elon Los Angeles Brad Lemack said that students’ safety is the program’s number one priority. The university program is located in Hollywood, California — almost six miles from LA Lemack said that Hollywood has not been impacted by protests. 

Some downtown LA businesses were vandalized and burglarized during protests. Among this vandalism, LA police cruisers were damaged with rocks. Dozens of arrests have been made in relation to these acts of vandalism. 

Lemack said that these protests are not riots and to not “call it what it isn’t”.

“It’s not riots happening in LA,” Lemack said. “It’s protests and demonstrations and some unruly behavior by people who are neither protestors or demonstrators. They were just out to cause some trouble in downtown LA.”

In January, LA was hit with a string of wildfires. Lemack said the Elon Los Angeles program worked through the fires differently than the downtown LA protests, though still with the goal of keeping students safe. 

“We evacuated students from Hollywood during the fires at one point in January,” Lemack said. “That's absolutely not the case at all with this situation.”

Lemack said that only one of his students completing an internship has been made remote, and other students working in LA are unaffected by the protests. 

Elon rising senior Devon Rocke is completing her internship through the Elon Los Angeles program. Rocke said that these protests are being painted differently through mainstream media.

“It's been interesting to see from afar because here you wouldn't guess that anything is wrong,” Rocke said. “You wouldn't guess that anything is happening because I think for the most part, the protests are peaceful. It's just the media is representing it as a war zone, which is only what really happened when the government got involved.”

Gov. Newsom is suing the Trump administration for deploying troops without state government permission. Rocke said that she expects these protests to continue. 

“There's no action being taken to amend the things that these people are protesting about,” Rocke said. “People's families, their friends, pillars of the communities are still being taken from them. So, I do think that the protests will continue and I feel like with increased military presence, there's only more that can go wrong.”

With protest making its way all over the country, the Elon New York program is also at the heart of these demonstrations. Professor of Religious Studies and faculty director of Elon New York Pamela Winfield said in an email to Elon News Network that they are far removed from where the New York protests were taking place. 

Winfield said that she and other instructors for Elon New York had strongly recommended students avoid “hotspots” within the city. But if students do choose to participate in the protests, Winfield suggests they share their location via cell phone for safety reasons.

“At the same time, however, we cannot categorically prohibit students from exercising their constitutional rights of assembly, speech, and petitioning the government,” Winfield said.