Two women hold up a Mexican, LGBTQ flag at the protest in Downtown Los Angeles on Sunday, June 8. (Photo credit Michelle Zacarias)
ICE raids have taken place across Los Angeles County over the last few days and tens of thousands of Angelenos have taken to the streets to protest against the raids and the police brutality involved in the arrests.
The Trump administration has threatened to arrest Governor Gavin Newsom and L.A. Mayor Karen Bass if they were to interfere with the ICE raids. In response, California has now filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration.
Early June 9, the U.S. Northern Command announced that it activated around 700 Marines, after the Pentagon and the Trump administration deployed around 2,000 National Guard troops to Los Angeles over the weekend. As of today, Trump has deployed double the amount of National Guard troops and ICE raids are said to continue for the next 30 days. The deployment is set to cost $134 million and last 60 days or more according to Secretary Pete Hegseth and a senior defense official.
Reporters have been hit with rubber bullets, batons and have been tear gassed while trying to document the protests. There are eyewitness reports and video footage showing police officers trampling people over with horses, running people over with squad cars and detaining people who have legal status.
In a broadcast interview with CNN, Mayor Bass stated that she believes that if ICE raids hadn’t happened on Friday, we would not be seeing the type of disorder we are seeing. The Los Angeles Police Department declared Downtown L.A. an unlawful assembly area after union president David Huerta was detained by ICE along with several undocumented immigrants. Huerta appeared in court on Monday and was released on a $50,000 bond.
LAPD Chief Jim Donnell says they have adapted their tactics to arrest people, but that they are ultimately “overwhelmed” by the number of protesters.
“We have adapted our tactics to take these people into custody and to be able to hold them accountable,” said Chief Donnell. “We are overwhelmed as far as the number of people out there engaged in this type of activity,”
Mayor Bass said she was “completely in sync” with what the police chief stated, adding that she believes there is enough video footage to prosecute protestors even if they did not get arrested on scene.
“Some people might think that just because they haven’t gotten arrested on the spot, that they’ve gotten away with it and the message I would send is: there’s ton of video tape and people who didn’t get arrested today for committing violent acts — don’t plan on the fact that you get off because you can get arrested in the next few days,” said Mayor Bass.
Mayor Bass doubled-down on her statement regarding the ICE raids and how L.A. is a city of immigrants and ICE raids will continue to affect the local economy.
There have also been reports that ICE raids are taking place across schools and graduation ceremonies.
Los Angeles Unified School District is set to deploy school police to set up safe zones around graduations and school campuses amid these raids targeting celebrations. According to the LA Times, school police will patrol and guard campus entrances when ICE and Border Patrol are seen in the area. Graduation ceremonies will become sanctuaries for families until immigration agents disperse from the area.
Medical providers like St. John’s Community Health released a statement on the issue.
“The aggressive increase in ICE activity is forcing already vulnerable people to fear going to the doctor, school, or even the grocery store — and putting countless families in danger,” said Jim Mangia, president and CEO of St. John’s Community Health.
Community leaders like Tony Hoang, executive director at Equality California stated that as a child of immigrants, it deeply saddens him to see the ICE raids take place across Los Angeles.
“Equality California joins Governor Newsom and Attorney General Bonta in calling for an end to National Guard deployment. We condemn the raids that have occurred and are continuing, which are xenophobic and traumatizing to families, individuals, and communities,” he said.
“We stand in solidarity with immigrant communities across Los Angeles and the state—and we call on every leader, at every level of government, to reject this assault on our values and take urgent action to protect those under threat.”
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