U.S. immigration and customs law enforcement officers conducted a series of immigration sweeps in Southern California on Friday morning, raising fear and anxiety in the immigrant community.
At least one video posted on X shows federal agents following in the parking lot of Home Depot in Westlake, not far from downtown Los Angeles. A man recording a video can be heard warning the Spaniards that immigration officials are at the location and away.
Los Angeles Congressman Eunisses Hernandez, whose districts include West Lake, said in a written statement that her office received reports on immigration enforcement actions that were conducted in her area and other areas of Los Angeles.
“These actions are escalating: Agents arrive and leave quickly without warning, knowing that our community is mobilizing quickly,” she said. “I urge Angelens to stay alert.”
Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell said in a written statement that his department is aware that ICE operates in the city.
“I know these actions will cause a lot of Angelinos' anxiety, so I want to make it clear that LAPD is not involved in civilian immigration enforcement,” he said. [department] There will continue to be visible presence in all of our communities to ensure public safety, and we will not assist or participate in mass deportations of any kind, nor will we attempt to determine the individual’s immigration status. ”
McDonnell said that since 1979, the department’s policies have prohibited officials from launching police operations to identify a person’s immigration status and will continue to focus on reducing crime and enhancing public safety.
“I hope everyone, including our immigration community, can safely call the police when they need it and know that LAPD will be with you without considering one’s immigration status,” he said.
The raids are the latest in a series of high-profile immigration enforcement operations last week, part of President Trump’s pledge to deportation calm. A few days ago, immigration agents raided a popular San Diego restaurant and arrested a confrontation from an angry residents. Agents also arrested Chinese and Taiwanese nationals in an underground nightclub in the Los Angeles area.
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller has pushed the agency to start arresting at least 3,000 people a day, in a growing effort toward ICE’s detention, more than 50,000 times since Trump first took office as president, an effort to track federal government executions, according to a transactional record label visit, an effort by the company’s executive sales bureau.
This week, CBS reported that ICE recorded 2,000 arrests per day, a sharp increase from the average daily arrest rate of the agency's 660 arrests held at the White House in the first 100 days of Trump.
Yasmeen Pitts O'Keefe, a spokesman for the ICE branch, said federal agents in downtown Los Angeles were executing search warrants hiding with illegal people in the country. There are no other details, and I don't know how many operations are being performed.
Another video posted on Instagram shows six federal agents walking near the intersection of Towne Avenue and 10th Street in the fashion district.
There, as agents detain and question the workers inside, dozens of people began to gather outside a clothing store.
On the street, immigration rights advocates stand on the bed of trucks, use megaphones to talk to workers in the store, remind them of their constitutional rights, and instruct them not to sign anything or anything to federal agents. They also told agents that lawyers want to contact workers and sometimes yell.
“I want to talk to my clients Luis Lopez and Michel Garcia. We're here.” “The community is with you. Your family is with you.”
Their names include Marco Garcia. Outside, his daughter, 18-year-old Katia Garcia, stared at the store, and federal agents swept the site.
“I can't believe it,” she said. “I can't believe it's happening.”
U.S. citizen Katia Garcia said she notified her father's situation by phone and then left school to go to the fashion district. She said her father has no documents and has been in the United States for 20 years.
“We never thought it would happen to us,” she said.
The crowd kept peace, but photos and videos from the scene showed some unmarked vehicles used on the ice being destroyed by graffiti. At some point, federal agents from Riot Gear emerged to support agents in the store.
Ron Gochez, a member of Unión del Barrio, an independent political organization that advocates immigration rights and social justice, said his group was “submerged” and called for immigration seats in Los Angeles and Orange County.
“There are ice field agents in Cypress's home warehouses, and are construction sites in North Hollywood and South Los Angeles on Wilshire Boulevard and Union Avenue,” he said in a telephone interview. “They're everywhere.”
This is a developing story that will be updated.
