Shortly before the June 5 I.C.E. raids in the Los Angeles Fashion District and arrest of 45 workers, President Donald J. Trump explained that when he speaks about his goals to move more manufacturing to the USA, “We’re not looking to make sneakers and T-shirts.” His remarks reflect the reality that, according to theAmerican Apparel and Footwear Association this year, 97% of clothing sold in the U.S. is actually manufactured overseas. The remaining 2-3% is manufactured in garment sweatshops in L.A., New York City, and Houston, Texas, along with a few other U.S. cities.
Some may wonder how U.S.-based garment sweatshops can stay competitive in the global low-wage labor market. The answer is simple: hire people who won’t complain about getting underpaid. One way to suppress complaints is to rely upon undocumented labor and workforces not authorized to work. Ambiance Apparel, one of four businesses raided by the I.C.E. in early June, heavily rely upon immigrant workers, many of whom are from the Zapotec Indigenous communities in Mexico.
But the undocumented and unauthorized workforce is not the only explanation for how Los Angeles is still able to produce competitively-priced clothes.
Two Korean American groups also have played roles in sustaining the garment industry in Los Angeles: Brazilian Korean contractors and business owners who emigrated from South Korea to Brazil and other South American countries and made fortunes with their fashion business before recently relocating to L.A., which represented at least one third of the businesses in the L.A. garment industry, and the Korean American fashion designers who left non-creative digital works in N.Y.C. for LA, where they can work in more creative fashion works. These Korean American groups rely upon Latino and other immigrant garment workers to respond to ever-changing demands for fast fashion.
As some protester groups entered Koreatown one night after June 6, the ways in which inter-ethnic dynamics are building up in L.A. recall a similar tension between minority groups: non-Korean protesters frustrated with the government and upset with Korean business, and Korean communities who have accumulated something to lose.
This tension is not new. In 1992, African American protesters in downtown L.A. looted more than 150 Korean businesses, which suffered roughly $400 million in damages. In response, many Korean business owners defended their properties by arming themselves and taking to the rooftops of local businesses. In 2025, days after the public protest in L.A., Donald Trump Jr. called back to that moment with a photo on X. The photo portrayed a Korean male on a roof during the L.A. riots of 1992, with his provocation: “Make Rooftop Koreans Great Again!”
The Korean American Federation of Los Angeles responded “We strongly urge that the past traumas of the Korean American community—particularly those experienced during the 1992 LA Civil Unrest—never be exploited for political gain, humor, or provocation.” As protesters faced the LAPD in Koreatown in 2025, memories of 1992 loomed large for some local Korean Americans.
A better historical comparison for the current moment happened 43 years ago this month in NYC. On June 24, 1982, nearly 20,000 garment workers in Chinatown, many of whom were immigrant women from Southern China and Hong Kong, walked out, joined by their supporters and allies. Many women held signs both in English and Chinese.
The strikers were members of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union marched to demand garment contractors to accept the latest contract negotiation. Chinese contractors, who employed workers on behalf of the garment manufacturing companies, had rejected the newest contract and tried to undercut existing rules, including holiday and overtime pay, and to promote non-union manufacturing.
After this first rally, many but not all contractors agreed to the negotiation. After a second rally on June 29, all contractors agreed.
Union membership wasn’t the only thing that contributed to solving the contract-worker conflicts. It helped that Chinese contractors/employers and Chinese garment workers are connected by family and kinship network.
In 1987, Bernard Wong, an urban and economic anthropologist and Emeritus Professor at San Francisco State University, argued that “solving economic and production problems with ethnic means is a common trademark of the successful garment contractors in Chinatown.” Those ethnic means included providing employees’ family members with jobs, presenting gifts in ethnic holidays, or donating a lot to charitable events to save face and retain good workers after some disputes.
Interestingly, Ambiance Apparel’s Korean management, despite different ethnicities between employers and employees, treated its Latino workers with quasi-kinship relations.
Following an investigation in 2014 that led to charges against the company and its owner, Sang Bum “Ed” Noh, its workers wrote letters to the judge to stand with the owner. “When I needed help financially, the company lent me money and allowed me to pay it back little by little,” Jose Ortiz wrote “Because of this, my children were able to continue studying at college and when they come by the company, Mr. Noh welcomes them like family.” Ortiz is among 45 workers arrested in the June 6 raids.
Protesters in 2025 L.A. are demanding federal accountability—and rightly so. Nowhere is this more urgent than in the city’s Fashion District. But for the local community’s resilience to last, federal action must be paired with long-term policy changes that improve working conditions, support unionization, and protect workers’ rights. These macro practices, however, might not suffice.
“Rooftop Koreans” is a poor comparison for this triangular situation, where both Korean garment industry business owners and Latino garment workers are being pressured by the anti-immigration administration. The Asian immigrant workers’ movement—and Asian immigrant contractors’ cooperation with workers—existed as far back as and 43 years ago, still resonates today. When external, unjust pressures add up, local communities can look across ethnic lines and find a larger coalition to help rebuild the community.