A new protest art project in downtown Los Angeles is using billboard-sized portraits projected onto buildings to challenge the Trump administration’s immigration enforcement. Titled ‘Am I Next?’, the campaign began on 6 November and features black-and-white images of local residents, alongside the question: ‘Am I Next?’.
The project is a collaboration between the California Community Foundation, LA Plaza Cultura y Artes, and the Japanese American National Museum. It aims to highlight the fear and trauma caused by federal immigration raids, which have intensified since June. Organisers say the raids have changed daily life in a city where nearly half the population is Latino.
Among those featured are actor and activist Edward James Olmos, actor George Takei, and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass. The other portraits were taken by Pulitzer-winning photographer Barbara Davidson, who met subjects in neighbourhoods such as East LA, Venice, and Echo Park. Some individuals declined to participate due to concerns about their immigration status.
Miguel Santana, president of the California Community Foundation, said: ‘I carry my passport around, which I never imagined as a native Angeleno. I know people who are afraid to leave their homes.’ The project’s website allows others to submit their own photos in solidarity.
The Japanese American National Museum, located in Little Tokyo, has a particular resonance: it was from this site that over 37,000 Japanese Americans were sent to internment camps during World War II. In August, federal agents conducted an immigration raid there during a press event with Governor Gavin Newsom. James Herr, director of the Democracy Center at the museum, said: ‘The same xenophobia and racism that Japanese Americans faced then is what current immigrant populations face now.’
More than 65,000 immigrants are currently held in federal detention across the US, a two-thirds increase since January, with 74% having no criminal convictions. The project’s projections will continue nightly, with organisers describing it as a mirror to what is happening in the country.
