Yesterday, news broke that an immigration judge dismissed the deportation case against Narciso Barranco, an undocumented landscaper who was violently arrested on June 21 My colleagues @kevin-flores.bsky.social & @bencamach0.bsky.social sat down w/ Barranco shortly after for @thesouthlander.com 👇

"Hope is like when you fall into an emptiness, and you have hope that you're going to float, you're going to float. It's like how I always said, 'we're in a hole, but we need to dig. Find a way to move forward.'" - Narciso Watch @thesouthlander.com's doc www.youtube.com/watch?v=J6x2...

🎥 Here is a clip from an interview with Leo Martinez, an organizer with Ventura County Defensa (VC Defensa), as he reflects on ICE retaliating against him and on how his organization is prepared to fight You watch the whole interview on our website: thesouthlander.com

The Southlander is honored to receive support from the Immediate Needs Fund established by Tiny News Collective. We will be using the funds to obtain media liability insurance, which is essential before we publish our first investigations of 2026. Subscribe to stay up to date on the latest!

For The Southlander newsletter, I interviewed Leo Martinez from VC Defensa about the day an ICE agent T-boned his truck while he was patrolling an industrial area of Oxnard on October 16. Check it out! And subscribe to our newsletter!

An ICE agent slammed into his pickup truck twice then lied to cops about it. Check out @abemarquez.bsky.social's interview with Leo Martinez of immigrant advocacy group VC Defensa.

In October, I attended the @empirefiles.bsky.social LA film premiere for their new documentary, Earth’s Greatest Enemy. By far, one of the most crucial topics & reporting of our lifetime. A must-watch! For The Southlander newsletter, I wrote about the film ⬇️

For our most recent newsletter, journalist Morgan Keith spoke with Abby Martin about her documentary, "Earth's Greatest Enemy." The film chronicles how the escalation of climate catastrophes across the world are deeply entwined with the carbon footprint of the U.S. military-industrial complex.

Martha married her husband, Narciso Barranco, in 2023. Just a few short years later, their family sat around the dinner table on a seemingly normal night, waiting for him to return home and eat dinner together. Narciso never got the chance to go home that night.

Narciso Barranco arrived to the U.S. in 1994. He spent 24 days locked up in a detention center after being violently arrested by a snatch squad of federal immigration agents in Santa Ana on June 21.

Check out our latest newsletter. Our reporters @bencamach0.bsky.social and @kevin-flores.bsky.social sat down with Narciso Barranco, who ICE targeted. thesouthlander.com/documentary-...

Check out our latest newsletter: In October, the government’s new fiscal year begins, & it will bring billions of dollars in increased funding for immigration enforcement Kevin Flores sat down with Alvaro Huerta, who represents the Immigrant Defenders Law Center thesouthlander.com/huerta-on-th...

A shoutout to many of our members who are part of this trend: @51st.news, @coyotemedia.org, @505omatic.bsky.social, @theshout.shoutwichita.com.ap.brid.gy, @tayohelp.bsky.social, @thesouthlander.com, @newsrelaynetwork.bsky.social

We are back with another #WorkerWednesday! For almost a year before our soft-launch, we worked to lay the groundwork for this project. A lot of that labor involved conversations about how we can build a newsroom to better serve our needs, not the ruling class.

We are a few weeks away from publishing our first investigative piece! Can you chip in to support LA’s only worker-owned investigative newsroom? To meet our halfway goal for fundraising during our soft launch period, we need $29 in additional subscriptions. More fiscal support = more stories.

The Southlander is ONE PERCENT away from halfway to our funding goal. We only need $29 to get to halfway yall. We’ve already been doing some critical coverage and providing our analysis on what’s happening. Help us get to 50% tonight yall. 🙏 thesouthlander.com @thesouthlander.com

We paused our weekly intros while our reporters have been working to cover the state-sanctioned kidnappings in communities across the Southland, but we’re bringing Worker Wednesday back to continue sharing our perspective with you. #WorkerLed #WorkerWednesday #TheSouthlander

When Robert Luna was the LBPD chief, I covered the violence his officers unleashed on peaceful protesters during the BLM uprisings in Long Beach. He’s at it again as Sheriff. This time his deputies injured two of my colleagues and other members of the public and press. forthe.org/journalism/i...

Here’s the complaint: www.documentcloud.org/documents/25...

We just filed a lawsuit against the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department for violating our First Amendment rights. Subscribe to thesouthlander.com and read our latest newsletter, which gives a more in-depth account of the ICE protests in LA and the injuries our reporters sustained on the ground.

my thread from twitter: yo @newsmanzach i hope you never get hit by one of those projectiles you’re saying on tv that “won’t hurt”. Those are the same projectiles that are injuring people and press. journalists shouldn’t lie, much less on air. Do better, stop making propaganda that serves to

I spoke too soon. Here’s what the scene look like before. There was just a lot of rubber bullets that were fired. The second Photo is now on second and Broadway.

Zach Boetto was at the Compton/ Paramount protest, and I overheard him and his entire crew say how scared they were going into the crowd to cover the protest. I took a selfie of the moment because KTLA has a massive budget while I’m there with my cellphone.

CBS/KCAL reporter Zach Boetto saying on live TV that “less-lethal” rounds “won’t hurt but it might be enough to push you back.” People have lost eyes, teeth, fingers, and more from being shot by these projectiles. Police use these types of weapons for what they call “pain compliance.”

Protests against the ICE terror are facing violent repression from the LA county sheriffs department and LAPD just outside of LA City Hall at grand Park now. Chemical, kinetic and stun weapons are being used against crowds that are chanting and holding signs and flags. #LA

Our reporters are out in the field again this weekend! If you could ask them any question about what it's like for journalists to cover ICE protests, what would you want to know? Don't forget to subscribe or donate at thesouthlander.com, which supports our ability to bring you breaking news.

I'd missed this incident with @abemarquez.bsky.social from @thesouthlander.com last Saturday. Glad LA Times brought it to light. Not so happy with LASD repeatedly shooting him. This isn't "crowd control," this is "press attack." www.latimes.com/california/s...

@thesouthlander.com co-founder and journalist @bencamach0.bsky.social was shot with crowd-control munitions twice — in the knee and then the elbow — while covering protests in the LA suburbs of Compton and Paramount on June 7.

Did you read our latest newsletter? If not, it's not too late! Visit thesouthlander.com/ice-terror/ for a recap on how the military occupation of Los Angeles unfurled. Make sure to subscribe to our newsletter so you don't miss out on more reporting from our team this weekend!

If you want to support independent media. Please consider financially supporting @thesouthlander.com - a new investigative news cooperative based in greater LA and help them reach their goal. thesouthlander.com/about/

my colleague @abemarquez.bsky.social was targeted by LA sheriff's deputies while yelling "press!" and showing his press pass. The police agencies we are dealing with during the ICE terror are ignoring press freedom.

Take a moment to read more about the experience of our reporter, @abemarquez.bsky.social, who was on the ground in Downtown Los Angeles this weekend covering the protests.

🚨NEW EPISODE🚨 We wanted to find out what it's like in LA, so @jacobjarvis.bsky.social spoke with @thesouthlander.bsky.social's Ben Camacho, who's been shot twice with rubber bullets covering the situation, about what's happening ➡️ linktr.ee/americanfriction

Will be on KPFA at 10a talking about the raids and protests: kpfa.org

Are you curious about the experience of journalists on the ground at the protests in Los Angeles this weekend? Tune in to kpfa.org at 10 a.m. to hear from @bencamach0.bsky.social about his perspective.

Ben (@bencamach0.bsky.social) put it all on the line to get coverage this weekend. Make sure to follow his Substack, subscribe to our newsletter, or donate at thesouthlander.com!

Polite request to please credit the photographers whose L.A. photos you’re sharing. They’re out there risking getting their shins exploded by police munitions to get those shots.

While some of our reporters will be on the ground at City Hall covering the protests, we will also be hosting our first tabling event in the South Bay. Drop by the event to chat with some of our members about the state of local news and how we can better serve the communities we cover.

Another Southlander reporter, @bencamach0.bsky.social, has joined Abe to cover the protests and deployment of the National Guard tonight in LA. More updates TK.

From @abemarquez.bsky.social, who’s on the ground covering raids near Alondra Blvd. “ICE/LASD can all leave the community and everything could stop. But they’ve decided to stay and terrorize the community. The people came out once the word got out that ICE was going to raid a Home Depot.”

In the coming weeks, we hope to show you why worker-led newsrooms are the only model that can meaningfully rebuild trust with the communities we cover. Subscribe to our newsletter to learn more: thesouthlander.com.

While you've only seen a little bit of our journey creating The Southlander, this newsroom has been in the works for almost an entire year. Here's a little peek behind the scenes. We hope you enjoy. www.youtube.com/watch?v=-H9M...

Our very own @abemarquez.bsky.social is on the ground covering a local march for Noe Rodriguez, an unarmed man who was shot and killed by the Santa Ana Police Department in December.

Our worker-owned newsroom exists to serve communities throughout the Southland, many of which are poorly covered or excluded by mainstream media. We want to change that, but we can't do it without your help. Fill out our audience survey to help guide our coverage! thesouthlander.com/audience-sur...

Introducing Worker Wednesday, a weekly spotlight on the past experiences of The Southlander team. We hope to show our audience how our backgrounds as journalists and freelancers have shaped the way we are building our own workplace. Sign up for our weekly newsletter here: thesouthlander.com.

We’re starting LA’s first and only worker-led newsroom dedicated to investigative reporting because we cannot have billionaires and hedge funds dictating the flow of our information. Subscribe & donate: thesouthlander.com #TheSouthlander

Our website is live. In a few weeks, we'll tell you more about our new investigative journalist project. If you can, become a paying subscriber. We do not believe in paywalls, especially for stories using FOIA records. To do that, we need funding! www.thesouthlander.com

Our website is live! Subscribe! Donate! Tell your friends! We'll be telling you more about us very soon! www.thesouthlander.com

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