News Desk
LOS ANGELES — As night falls over downtown Los Angeles, the city’s historic facades come alive—not with advertisements, but with defiant portraits of resistance. Projected onto landmarks like the Japanese American National Museum and LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes are the faces of Angelenos asking a chilling question: “Am I next?”
This public art campaign, led by the California Community Foundation, is a visceral response to the surge in federal immigration raids that have swept through Southern California since June. According to the Department of Homeland Security, more than 5,000 arrests have been made in Los Angeles alone.
Among the illuminated faces are those of veteran actors and activists Edward James Olmos and George Takei, both lending their voices to a movement that blends protest with public memory. “This is brutal because it’s just beginning,” Olmos said, comparing the current climate to the unrest of 1992. “People don’t understand. They think, ‘Oh, well, they came in here, they did their thing, and now they left.’ No, it’s just beginning”.
Takei’s participation carries a deeper historical resonance. As a child, he was forcibly removed from his home and incarcerated in a Japanese American internment camp during World War II. “The terror of that morning is seared into my memory,” he recalled, describing soldiers with bayonets ordering his family out of their home.
The campaign’s message—“Am I next?”—is projected alongside the names of individuals detained by ICE: Mauricio, seized while waiting for a bus; Juan, taken during his lunch break; Miriam, apprehended in court. These brief captions underscore the randomness and reach of the raids, turning everyday moments into flashpoints of fear.
Miguel Santana, president and CEO of the California Community Foundation, emphasized the campaign’s urgency: “When anyone’s rights are stripped away, everyone is at risk. When guilt replaces innocence, our constitution is under attack”.
The portraits are also being displayed at the Museum of Latin American Art in Long Beach and the Social and Public Art Resource Center in Venice. At LA Plaza, an accompanying installation features large-scale digital works by artists like Lalo Alcaraz and Brandy Gonzalez, telling stories of migration, resilience, and unity.
“These are not just visuals. They are voices,” said Leticia Rhi Buckley, CEO of LA Plaza de Cultura y Artes.
The fear etched into these portraits recalls another era of American paranoia. In the 1950s, Senator Joseph McCarthy led a campaign to root out alleged communists, branding dissent as treason and destroying lives with little evidence. Today, critics see echoes of McCarthyism in the way immigration enforcement targets communities based on nationality, religion, or political expression. The question “Am I next?” is not just about deportation—it’s about the erosion of civil liberties under the guise of national security.
As ICE operations continue, the campaign expands—onto homes, new institutions, and more city walls. It is a reminder that in the face of silence, art can speak. And in the face of fear, it can ask the question that no one wants to answer: Am I next?
