‘We cannot remain silent’: Museums in Los Angeles brace for Trump’s immigration crackdown – The Art Newspaper

President Donald Trump’s focus on immigration and deportations has caused Los Angeles arts administrators, already taxed by efforts to support a community devastated by the Palisades and Eaton wildfires, to discuss best practices and policies should federal immigration officers show up at their institutions, and how to create programming to educate and protect their staff, visitors and constituents.

Concern escalated when the Los Angeles Times reported in February that a leaked government document indicated “large-scale” US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids in Los Angeles were imminent, and then again when the administration invoked the wartime Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which allows the government to deport non-citizens without giving them a hearing before a judge.

The trustees of the Japanese American National Museum (JANM) made their concerns public in a statement. “We are deeply troubled by the erosion of civil rights as evidenced in the attacks on birthright citizenship, the recission of workplace protections for marginalised communities, the rollbacks on protections for immigrants including mass incarceration and deportations, the resurgence of actions under the Alien Enemies Act and the systemic dismantling of diversity and other initiatives,” they stated. “We cannot remain silent while these policies attempt to strip people of their humanity and dignity and reverse course on our nation’s journey towards a more just and equitable future.”

Ann Burroughs, the JANM’s president and chief executive, acknowledges that the statement was not without risk. “We’re a cultural history museum, we’re also a civil rights museum and we’re a centre for the arts,” she says. “When you have executive orders that are attacking diversity, equity and inclusion, it felt as though it went to the heart of our mission. So, when we looked at the risk, we decided staying silent felt wrong. We see our role at JANM as being a space where people can feel safe, where they can come to reflect and where they can feel a sense of hope.”

Several prominent institutions contacted by The Art Newspaper, including the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Hammer Museum, either declined to comment or did not respond.

Communities in crisis

Leticia Rhi Buckley, the chief executive of Los Angeles’s Mexican American museum, LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes, says: “I do have colleagues who are hesitant to talk about this and I understand. But I’m not and I don’t think our institution should be. It is fact that these policies are happening, and as a trusted institution we need to talk about what we do when there is a crisis in our community.”

In March, LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes hosted an event with the California Migration Museum titled “Mass Deportations: Past as Prologue”. Around 70 people attended the panel featuring immigration policy experts, academics and activists who discussed the Mexican Repatriations of the 1930s—when more than one million people, many born in the US, were coerced into leaving California—and how that history informs the present cultural climate.

“Through storytelling, exhibitions and programmes we amplify lived experiences to ensure our voices are not silenced, especially when history is repeating itself,” Buckley said at the panel. “The unconstitutional deportation of American citizens happened right here in the 1930s and it’s happening again in our communities, so I believe as CEO of this institution it’s our responsibility to ensure no one forgets that history and we do everything we can to resist.” 

While “large-scale” raids in Southern California had not taken place as of press time, advocates for immigrants’ rights are not surprised by the threatening rhetoric and increased ICE activity. Apolonio Morales, the deputy director of programmes and campaigns for the California Immigrant Policy Center, says: “The reality is folks have been getting deported every single day in both Republican and Democratic administrations, but the level Trump 2.0 wants to do it would be unprecedented.”

Immigrant rights groups across California and the US are educating their communities about their constitutional rights should they be stopped or detained by federal immigration agents. “Reminding folks to know and understand their rights is an important piece,” Morales says. “The more the information is shared, the more people feel comfortable and confident. These are standard basic rights for everyone in the US. This is not a special thing for immigrants; these are rights that are fundamental.”

Arts organisations are also disseminating information about constitutional rights to their communities. During Trump’s first term, the Los Angeles gallery and arts education centre Self Help Graphics & Art began printing “Know Your Rights” posters in collaboration with the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, and this year it is doing it again. “Art as a tool for social justice is the core of our mission,” says Paulina M. Flores, the interim executive director of the gallery. “We’re both empowering artists by printing the posters and fostering a dialogue around the issues that affect our community.”

At the Vincent Price Art Museum, housed on the campus of East Los Angeles College—whose student population is 80% Latinx—the director Steven Wong says the school’s administration has sent out emails informing students of their rights. The school has also directed staff and faculty on best practices should ICE come on campus, which includes directing enforcement officers to the college president’s office, determining if presented warrants are valid and knowing the difference between private and public spaces, as enforcement agents cannot enter private areas like offices or lounges.

“All of this has been important information for me, to keep my staff and our student population safe,” Wong says. He has also provided “Know Your Rights” cards for distribution at the museum. “Everyone’s requesting them,” Wong adds. “Unfortunately, I’m sad to say they are a hot commodity on campus.”

Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric and deportation threats also impact undocumented artists. Erika Hirugami, the founder of CuratorLove and a PhD candidate at the University of California Los Angeles studying the “aesthetics of undocumentedness”, wrote a report commissioned by the advocacy organisation Arts for LA and her research suggested that Los Angeles County is home to around 200,000 artists and arts professionals whom she calls “undocreatives”.

“There are a ton of undocreatives who are wary of showing up publicly at events because they don’t want to harm our communities,” says Hirugami, who was formerly undocumented. “At the same time, they are removing their social media, deleting their web pages for fear that since they’ve been associated with undocumentedness for their entire careers, now this could be a massive flag to put their families at risk.”

Last month, a coalition of labour, education, housing and immigrant rights organisations held a march in downtown Los Angeles with more than 600 people. The artist Patrick Martinez arrived with protest placards featuring prints of his neon sign works that he gave away for free. One said “Deport ICE”, while another said “Then They Came For Me”. “I imagine I’ll be doing this a lot in the next couple of years,” the artist says.