A UCLA community service club paused its programming after federal agents performed an immigration raid at the organization’s volunteering site in the San Fernando Valley.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement performed a raid in January at the Refugee Children Center, where Pilipinos for Community Health – a student organization that provides health education and services to underrepresented groups – hosts community service events, said Liana Duque, the organization’s pediatrics director. ICE detained a father of a child who was at the center, added Duque, a fourth-year psychobiology student.

Pilipinos for Community Health, a project under the Undergraduate Students Association Council’s Community Service Commission, halted programming at the site after the ICE raid, Duque said.

The Trump administration ramped up immigration enforcement in Los Angeles starting in June as part of its mass deportation campaign. U.S. Customs and Border Protection and ICE agents arrested more than 10,000 people between then and Dec. 11, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

ICE did not respond to a request for comment on its raid at the Refugee Children Center.

The club’s pediatrics volunteers had provided children with health education and CPR classes at the Refugee Children Center since 2022, Duque said.

“Children lost access to early childhood education, youth development activities, ESL classes, and the wraparound support services they depend on,” said Mayra Medina-Núñez, the executive director of the Refugee Children Center, in an emailed statement. “For many families already navigating fear and instability, the disruption compounded an already fragile situation.”

Duque said the raid sparked fear among the club’s volunteers and the center’s users.

Despite Pilipinos for Community Health shutting down programming at the center, the club is still trying to support immigrant families by providing them with food and other donations, Duque said. The club dropped off basic needs kits for the organization in April, which Medina-Núñez said the community deeply appreciated.

“We’re trying to do our best right now, providing free hydrogen kits and doing a bunch of food donations. So that way, they don’t have to go outside and get those,” Duque said.

Duque added that the organization is also considering how it can help children at the center deal with the trauma of witnessing the raid.

Edison Chua, USAC’s Community Service commissioner, said the commission is supporting the organization amid the programming halt.

CSC projects have been halted before for events such as the COVID-19 pandemic and the January 2025 LA fires, Chua said. He added, however, that he believes Pilipinos for Community Health will eventually be able to resume their normal work at the site.

“Once everything returns to a relative normal, or when the situation improves, then these projects can go back to what they were doing initially and continue serving the communities that they are passionate about,” Chua said.