No human is illegal… Donate to local Immigrant Rights Organizations.

While protests continue across the country, here in our hometown of Los Angeles we’re seeing the immediate effects of the ICE raids in our communities: restaurants closed down, streets empty, local vendors gone, friends & family members taken away, local businesses struggling. The fact the raids are happening during Immigrant Heritage Month feels even more twisted and cruel. Many of us here at In Sheep’s Clothing are the sons and daughters of immigrants and we stand in solidarity with all those who are coming together to protest this administration’s continued descent into cruel, racist, and simply inhumane policies.

As we continue to evaluate how we can best serve our extended communities through music and providing spaces to gather, we’re first sharing a few non-profit organizations that are actively working towards defending immigrant rights and those who have been affected by the Trump administration’s “Mass Deportation Program.” Los Angeles is built by immigrants and so much creativity flows from immigrant communities throughout the city and out into the world. Contemporary music in Los Angeles is deeply multi-cultural and many artists come from first and second generation immigrant families. Below, we’ve also highlighted a few of our favorite artists who bring their global influences into their sounds.

Central American Resource Center (CARECEN) – Los Angeles

CARECEN, the largest Central American immigrant rights organization in the country, empowers Central Americans and all immigrants by defending human and civil rights, working for social and economic justice, and promoting cultural diversity. We envision Los Angeles becoming a place where Central Americans and all other communities live in peace and dignity, enjoying economic well-being, social justice, and political empowerment.

Donate: https://www.carecen-la.org/donate

Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights

CHIRLA’s mission is to achieve a just society, fully inclusive of immigrants. CHIRLA was founded in 1986 to advance the human and civil rights of immigrants and refugees. CHIRLA became a place for organizations and people who support human rights to work together for policies that advance justice and full inclusion for all immigrants.

Donate: https://www.chirla.org/donatenow/

Esperanza Immigration Rights Project

Esperanza Immigrant Rights Project is a project of Catholic Charities of Los Angeles.  Over the past 15 years, Esperanza Immigrant Rights Project has become one of the leading immigration-focused public interest organizations in the country. Esperanza is made up of a team of passionate staff, interns, and volunteers who work together to advance the rights of vulnerable immigrants through education, representation, and advocacy.

Donate: https://www.esperanza-la.org/

Al Otro Lado

Al Otro Lado provides holistic legal and humanitarian support to refugees, deportees, and other migrants in the US and Tijuana through a multidisciplinary, client-centered, harm reduction-based practice.

We provide direct, free, legal services on both sides of the US-Mexico border and beyond. We engage in zealous individual representation,  medical-legal partnerships, and impact litigation to protect the rights of immigrants and asylum-seekers.

Donate: https://alotrolado.org/ways-to-give

The Immigrant Legal Resource Center

The increasingly complex legal and social challenges faced by immigrants in the 1970s created a growing need for expert assistance and training in immigration law and policy. Bill Ong Hing, a well-known immigrant rights attorney, recognized this need and founded the Golden Gate Immigration Clinic in 1979, which later became the Immigrant Legal Resource Center (ILRC). The ILRC seeks to improve immigration law and policy, expand the capacity of legal service providers, and advance immigrant rights.

Donate: https://www.ilrc.org/donate-now

Pachyman

Over four albums, Pachyman has proven himself a dedicated craftsman working in the lineage of dub reggae while mastering the methodology of masters like King Tubby and Scientist, using vintage gear, constructing glorious walls of sound, and developing an intuitive understanding of the power of repetition.  

Michi

In 2023, Michi moved from LA to a small seaside town, where she was able to grow into herself. There, she landed on a sound that felt authentic to her and the stories she wanted to tell – warm, soulful, and inspired by the R&B divas she idolized growing up. Michi’s first album on Stones Throw is Dirty Talk, a collection of songs reflecting on the modern forces that prevent us truly giving and receiving love.

El Keamo

El Keamo is the alias of Alfredo González-Martínez, a multimedia artist from Reseda, California, who works primarily in Canoga Park. El Keamo is a neo-cumbia project influenced by various musical styles such as cumbia sonidera, tribal, house, and acid. The result is a mix of familiar rhythms and digital textures that make you want to shake your booty.

Reyna Tropical

Reyna Tropical is led by guitarist, singer, songwriter and co-producer Fabiola Reyna (founder of She Shreds Media). Investigating landscapes of the tropical diaspora, Reyna Tropical is a musical exploration of intuition, transition, connection and continuation—a celebration of spiritual survival pulsing with the beat of all things tropical.

Chicano Batman

The layered, genre-bending sound of Chicano Batman has never been easy to pin down. Most articles about “LA’s House Band” lead with a list of their influences, which range from 1960’s Brazilian Tropicália and Delfonics-style soul to Afro-Cuban rumbas and the funk-jazz of Herbie Hancock’s Headhunters period. Put al that together in a socially conscious four-piece and what you get is a rock band that embodies Los Angeles circa 2020 – a sprawling map of Latinx communities and cross-cultural sound.