Ice officers have been conducting raids in Los Angeles as part of Donald Trump’s continued crackdown on immigration, sparking defiant protests all across the city. Here’s a rundown of the ongoing situation in LA right now
Since Donald Trump’s election to power, he has introduced a heartless slew of draconian immigration restrictions. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agents have been targeting people inside their homes, children have been detained, and asylum seekers have been cruelly exiled and detained in a prison in El Salvador.
This brutal crackdown on immigration dramatically escalated on Friday (June 6), after Ice officers conducted searches and arrested immigrants in Los Angeles, triggering a wave of protests across the city. Here’s everything you need to know.
WHAT TRIGGERED THE PROTESTS?
On June 6, Ice officers began searching premises and arresting immigrants in Los Angeles. One search led by federal agents was carried out outside a clothing warehouse in the city’s Fashion District after a judge determined that an employer was using fabricated documents for some of its workers. Masked agents were also recorded pulling people out of two Home Depot stores in the city. According to the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), the arrests were carried out without judicial warrants.
At a press conference on Friday afternoon, Angelica Salas, executive director for the Coalition of Humane Immigrant Rights, spoke out against the brutal Ice crackdown. “Our community is under attack and is being terrorised. These are workers, these are fathers, these are mothers, and this has to stop,” she told the crowd. “Immigration enforcement that is terrorising our families throughout this country and picking up our people that we love must stop now.”
Crowds attempted to stop Ice agents from driving away following their arrests and by Friday evening, hundreds of people had assembled around the federal building in LA where, according to lawyers, those taken into custody are being held in the basement. Protests then erupted across the city, including in Paramount, where federal law enforcement officers were conducting another raid.
HOW HAS TRUMP RESPONDED?
Unsurprisingly, Trump’s response has been characteristically heavy-handed. On Saturday, Trump ordered the deployment of at least 2,000 National Guard troops to LA. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth also suggested that in addition to the 2,000 guardsmen, the government would consider sending in as many as 500 marines.
The president wrote on his right-wing social media platform Truth Social: “If Governor Gavin Newscum [sic], of California, and Mayor Karen Bass, of Los Angeles, can’t do their jobs, which everyone knows they can’t, then the Federal Government will step in and solve the problem, RIOTS & LOOTERS, the way it should be solved!!!”
California Governor Gavin Newsom described the move on social media as “purposefully inflammatory” and argued that responding to protestors with brutality “will only escalate tensions.” He also described Hegseth’s suggestion that the government could send the marines to LA as “deranged”.
Agents in riot gear have attacked protesters with tear gas and flash bang grenades. An Australian news reporter was hit by a rubber bullet while delivering a piece to camera, while a British news photographer has undergone emergency surgery after also being hit by a rubber bullet while documenting the clashes. One video shared on social media showed protesters retaliating by throwing fireworks at officers.
Among the protesters arrested was popular Californian union leader David Huerta, president of SEIU-USWW and SEIU California. LA Times columnist Anita Chabria wrote in an op-ed on Saturday that seeing “a middle-aged Latino man in a plaid button-down be roughly pushed by authorities in riot gear until he falls backward, and seems to strike his head on the curb” has galvanised many LA locals into action and hardened their stance against anti-immigration officials.
WHAT’S HAPPENING NOW?
At present, the protests are showing no signs of slowing down. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) have announced an event taking place at midday PST today, to demand “the immediate release of David Huerta and other unjustly detained individuals”, “humane treatment and access to lawyers for all detainees”, and “an end to Ice raids that devastate immigrant families and communities”.
Meanwhile, Trump’s “border czar” Tom Homan told NBC News that more raids are coming. “I’m telling you what – we’re going to keep enforcing law every day in LA,” he said. “Every day in LA, we’re going to enforce immigration law. I don’t care if they like it or not.”
It’s still unclear when the LA raids will end – but it’s evident that locals aren’t going to stand back and let Ice officials intimidate and brutalise their communities.