After hearing testimony at one of six public hearings One LA-IAF has held since November 2025, Congresswoman Luz Rivas introduced the HEART Act, a bill to redirect $76 billion to mental and health services for communities impacted by ICE raids.

Since launching its award-winning Freedom School strategy, One LA has organized public hearings for residents to testify publicly on how ICE raids have upended daily and communal life — more than 1,000 people have attended. The hearings have surfaced the consequences of raids beyond the moment of detention: trauma, fear brought into every moment spent in public, and lost jobs, healthcare, and housing.

The hearings have stirred leaders to support their neighbors in crisis. When a car wash raid in October led to the detention of eight workers — including Mr. Acuña (pseudonym), a parishioner at a One LA member institution — leaders connected his family to legal aid and mobilized letters from community members supporting his case. The felony charge was reduced to a misdemeanor. Months later, when Mr. Acuña was faced with a choice between a year in prison or five years of federal probation, his priest, fellow parishioners, and One LA leaders filled the courtroom. The judge asked to hear directly from the people present before thanking them for offering a fuller sense of Mr. Acuña and ordering restitution with an $800 fee instead of prison time or probation. The parish covered the fee.

On May 5th, One LA organized a public hearing in Pacoima that allowed residents to share their experiences with ICE and publicly question Congresswoman Luz Rivas on how she is working with the community to address ICE raids and what more she can do.

One immigrant leader shared that her mother, who struggles with dementia, was recently given a deportation order due to administrative difficulties in securing her green card status. Another resident, a tamale vendor, described being put in a chokehold by ICE agents during a raid on her business, hospitalized for a heart attack, and left too traumatized to leave her house for six months, shutting down her business operations.

Shortly after, Congresswoman Rivas introduced the HEART Act to create the Office of Immigrant Community Mental Health and Resilience within the Department of Health and Human Services, redirecting $76 billion in ICE funding from H.R. 1 to provide mental health services to communities impacted by immigration enforcement activities. The press release states:

Congresswoman Rivas introduced the HEART Act after hearing from constituents at a town hall in Pacoima on May 5 about the mental health impacts of ICE raids in the San Fernando Valley.”

The Congresswoman committed to continue meeting with One LA to address this crisis. One LA leaders plan to keep organizing public hearings and adapting their freedom school curriculum to respond to what’s happening to immigrant families.

Congresswoman Luz Rivas Introduces Bill to Support Communities Impacted by ICE Raids, Congresswoman Luz Rivas