Federal immigration authorities executed raids across Los Angeles on Friday, resulting in the arrest of 44 individuals.
These actions sparked protests, particularly outside one location where law enforcement deployed flash bangs to disperse crowds gathered to express their outrage.
According to Yasmeen Pitts O’Keefe, a spokesperson for Homeland Security Investigations, agents executed search warrants at three sites.
However, immigration advocates reported that arrests occurred at seven different locations, including two Home Depots, a warehouse in the fashion district, and a local doughnut shop.
U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesperson Ciaran McEvoy confirmed that agents executed a search warrant at a fashion district business, citing probable cause for the employer allegedly using fraudulent documents for some employees.
Mayor Karen Bass of Los Angeles condemned the operations, stating that such actions intended to “sow terror” within the community.
In alignment with President Donald Trump’s commitment to aggressive immigration enforcement, federal authorities have heightened their arrest operations nationwide, with Todd Lyons, Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), claiming the agency has been averaging around 1,600 arrests per day.
Lyons defended his tactics against growing criticism that ICE has adopted excessively heavy-handed measures, arguing that the agency targets “dangerous criminals.”
Recent protests have emerged in response to similar immigration operations in San Diego and Minneapolis, where federal officials in tactical gear conducted actions within Latino neighborhoods, asserting those operations were linked to criminal cases rather than immigration enforcement.
Friday evening saw dozens of demonstrators congregate outside a federal detention center in Los Angeles, presuming that the individuals arrested were being processed there.
Chants of “set them free, let them stay!” resonated through the crowd, while many displayed signs proclaiming “ICE out of LA!”
Angelica Salas, executive director of the Coalition of Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA), addressed the audience, declaring, “Our community is under attack and is being terrorized.
These are workers, these are fathers, these are mothers, and this has to stop.” Salas emphasized that the ongoing immigration enforcement strikes fear into countless families throughout the nation.
Yliana Johansen-Mendez, chief program officer for the Immigrant Defenders Law Center, shared concerning news of a man who had already been deported to Mexico after being apprehended at a Home Depot on Friday morning.
The man’s family reached out to Johansen-Mendez’s organization, prompting one of their attorneys to wait hours to correspond with him inside the detention center.
Sadly, authorities later confirmed that the man had already been removed and he contacted his family to inform them of his return to Mexico.
Footage captured by bystanders and news crews revealed scenes of individuals being escorted across a Home Depot parking lot by federal agents amidst the chaos at various detention sites.
Aerial views broadcasted by KTLA depicted agents leading detained individuals out of a clothing warehouse in the fashion district, directing them toward awaiting vehicles while binding their hands behind their backs.
Agents in vests labeled with FBI, ICE, and HSI branding conducted searches of the detainees before loading them into large white vans.
To maintain distance from the unfolding operations, armed agents employed yellow police tape to keep the crowds confined to the street and sidewalk.
Adverse interactions ensued as KABC-TV aerial footage captured officers using smoke bombs or flash bangs in an attempt to clear the streets for departing vehicles.
One alarming moment showed a protester running backward in a bid to block a moving SUV, ultimately falling backwards onto the ground.
As the SUV maneuvered around the individual and sped away, onlookers retaliated by throwing objects at it.
Immigrant rights advocates took to using megaphones outside the operations, alerting the workers nearby of their constitutional rights and advising them against signing any documents or making statements to federal agents.
The unexpected developments prompted Katia Garcia, an 18-year-old U.S. citizen, to leave school upon learning that her undocumented father, Marco Garcia, aged 37, might be among those targeted.
Expressing her dismay, Katia shared with the Los Angeles Times, “We never thought this would happen to us.”
In a follow-up statement, Pitts O’Keefe noted that an additional individual had been arrested for obstruction during the operations.
The California branch of the Service Employees International Union reported that its president was also taken into custody while exercising the right to observe and document the federal activity.
image source from：https://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory/federal-authorities-arrest-dozens-immigration-violations-los-angeles-122594791
