Activists and undocumented people describe the chaos and terror of predawn deportation raids taking place across the US.
Los Angeles, United States - It usually begins with a startling knock at the door before dawn.
Most people in Los Angeles are asleep at around 4 or 5am. But in the undocumented community, many are already awake, preparing for longer-than-average workdays, making breakfast for their children.
This is also typically when immigration authorities arrive on doorsteps - often in predominantly Latino neighbourhoods, activists and undocumented people familiar with raids say.
"Police," the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers sometimes announce themselves as from behind the door, according to testimony from undocumented people interviewed by Al Jazeera.
Immigrant rights advocates - and also the Mexican government, which tells Al Jazeera it is redoubling efforts to support its people - say they're rushing to inform people that this part can be misleading: ICE officers are not the kind of local law enforcement charged with "protecting and serving" local communities; they are federal agents who deport people. They do occasionally work together with, but are not to be confused with, local police forces.
The activists and undocumented people who spoke to Al Jazeera say that sometimes undocumented people on the other side of the door assume there's a burglar or rapist in the neighbourhood, or perhaps a fire - and that the police are there to protect them, not to ship them back to their country of origin.
So, they open the door. And legally, that's when the agents are allowed to enter, apprehend the suspected undocumented person, potentially have them make declarations revoking their residency and eventually repatriate them to their country of origin.
A series of raids in a number of cities in at least six states across the country were launched late last week. More than 600 undocumented people were held. Of that number, ICE has told local media that 160 were from the Los Angeles area.
Never before, many say, has there been a nationwide sweep like the one conducted under the auspices of the newly inaugurated administration of US President Donald Trump. Even under former President Barack Obama, dubbed "deporter-in-chief" by many in this community for a record 2.5 million deportations of undocumented US residents, there had never been a nationwide campaign like this, they explain.
The raids mark the latest in a series of policy shifts targeting Mexican Americans, analysts say. In June 2015, Trump launched his campaign with a pledge to bar undocumented immigrants. "When Mexico sends it people, they're not sending their best," he said. "They're bringing drugs. They're bringing crime. They're rapists. And some, I assume, are good people."
'Nowhere to run'
Last month, Trump signed an executive order calling for the construction of a bigger, more impenetrable border wall across the US border with Mexico. He plans to deport as many as 8 million undocumented Americans, according to a Los Angeles Times newspaper report, citing calculations of presidential directives.
These bellicose developments - dismissed before as unconstitutional and highly improbable - are beginning to affect the everyday lives of Mexicans and other communities of Americans living without papers in Los Angeles and across the country.
Activists complain about a lack of transparency in ICE's proceedings - many are confused about whether the coordinated sweep across the country is a sign of more to come.
ICE did not respond to a series of questions on its practices at time of publication.
The only indication of what these raids look like comes from a composite of what undocumented community members describe as their and their neighbours' interactions with ICE. Al Jazeera spoke to a series of undocumented people and their advocates to better understand what it means to be swept up in a raid.
When ICE comes knocking, agents rarely break down the door unless the undocumented person behind it is considered armed and dangerous, activists say.
Many undocumented people do not know that they don't need - by law - to open the door at all.
"I know of cases of people who happened to answer the door when ICE showed up to their house. They describe it as the most horrifying moment of their life. Nowhere to run to, no one to scream to for help," said an undocumented young woman, who asked to remain anonymous. For the purposes of this article, she will be called Jenny.
"The raids target large neighbourhoods, particularly neighbourhoods with large amounts of Latinos," Jenny said. "We see people answering the door and although [ICE agents] are not there for that person, they end up taking them also."
And where ICE once only targeted undocumented people who had been convicted of criminal activity, now they are detaining those without criminal records, Jenny and a number of activists who deal with undocumented peoples' legal cases told Al Jazeera.
Before the knock
What comes before that unannounced visit from ICE is described by community advocates as chronic, all-consuming fear among undocumented people.
As a young undocumented American who usually campaigns for her community, Jenny said that this is "the first time in her life" that she has asked to remain anonymous.
"It's just been a roller-coaster with the Trump administration," she said.
Jenny came to the US when she was one year old, and is now a college student holding down two jobs and campainging for other undocumented Americans. She spoke to Al Jazeera via telephone, late in the evening, on a break from one of her jobs.
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