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Members of the SEIU 721, representing 4,000 social workers, were asking for the county to reduce caseloads to approximately 15 cases per social worker in order to process cases more quickly and protect families and children. Many of them were social workers handling cases that involved transferring children from foster care into permanent housing. These adoption social workers can be assigned up to 55 cases per worker, according to David Green, SEIU Local 721 union president.

While the United Farmworkers have not backed the farmworkers strike, SEIU California has backed a strike of immigrant workers on August 12th. “We need to send a strong message that this country runs on immigrants,” said SEIU 721 Organizing Director Martin Manteca at an event this week announcing support for the strike.

The advocacy groups, including labor unions SEIU 721 and United Teachers Los Angeles, urged all community members to keep protesting as part of the “Summer of Resistance.”

The event was organized by 50501 SoCal in partnership with SEIU Local 721, CARECEN, NDLON, and the Community Power Collective as part of the broader Summer of Resistance coalition.

“El mensaje que queremos dar al presidente Trump es rotundo: Dejen de secuestrar a nuestra gente, saquen al ICE de Los Ángeles y dejen de ocupar militares en nuestra ciudad”, clamó Martín Manteca, director de organización externa del local 721 del Sindicato Internacional de Trabajadores de los Servicios (SEIU), uno de los organizadores de la Carrera contra el ICE.

Speakers throughout the event included Fayia Ramage, founder of Run Against ICE; Martin Manteca, external organizing director for SEIU Local 721; and Julita Galwa, founder of Run Club Girls.

The 15-mile route encompassed Koreatown, all the way down to the Metropolitan Detention Center, and then with stops along the way to some of the well-known spots where ICE raids have occurred. Finally, it finished at the historic Olvera Street.

Runners expressed a mix of outrage, heartache and defiance as they jogged in the hot sun for 15 miles through neighborhoods where raids have happened or that are important to immigrants, from streets lined with sidewalk vendors in Koreatown and MacArthur Park to Dodger Stadium, Chinatown, the Fashion District and the city’s historic core, a few blocks from the Metropolitan Detention Center where immigration detainees are housed.

Organizers call it a “non-violent journey of resistance through Los Angeles” and said it is part of a 30-day “Summer of Resistance” campaign designed to push for an end to ICE raids and deportations they say have “tore families apart.”

“We are here for [unauthorized immigrants],” said SEIU 721 Organizing Director Martin Manteca. “We stand with them and we will continue to fight for them.”