What happened Friday as Marines arrived in Westwood and U.S. cities braced for ‘No Kings’ protests

In the aftermath of last week’s ICE raids in LA’s Fashion District where immigration agents arrested two dozen workers at Ambiance Apparel, sales and foot traffic throughout the area have plummeted, leaving business owners deeply concerned about what to expect.

A week after protests in Los Angeles brought nationwide attention to Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids taking place across the Southland, a nationwide “No Kings” demonstration challenging executive overreach is expected to bring thousands of people to the streets on Saturday.

At least a dozen different groups are planning to protest in the Los Angeles area Saturday, following eight consecutive days of downtown demonstrations that have condemned federal operations aimed at chasing down and capturing unauthorized immigrants at their jobs and on city streets.

Here are the protest locations in L.A.

Despite local officials repeatedly stating U.S. Marines “do not have arrest power,” troops outside a Los Angeles federal building temporarily detained an U.S. Army veteran on Friday.

The U.S. military’s Northern Command confirmed that troops stationed at the Wilshire Federal Building, near the intersection of Wilshire and Sepulveda boulevards in Westwood, detained a man who later identified himself as a U.S. Army veteran.

VIDEO | 01:06

Man detained by U.S. Marines outside federal building talks about why

Officials first corroborated the incident to Reuters after the news organization showed the military images taken by a Reuters staff photographer of troops detaining a man.

The images showed Marine troops apprehending a man by restraining his hands behind his back with zip ties, as well as the man being handed over to Department of Homeland Security officials.

Marcos Leao, 27, was trying to access the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs office within the federal building when Marine troops stopped him for bypassing their checkpoint and the yellow tape between them.

The troops asked him to go back and then told him to get down on the ground.

Leao said troops believed he wasn’t following orders, which is what led him being detained. When asked how he felt about the treatment he received, Leao said it was just a procedure.

Leao said it’s a difficult time and that “we’re [in a] situation where people are becoming more aggressive with what’s going on.”

“But as long as you feel like you’ve complied in everything,” he said, “it worked pretty natural ... and now I’m free to come back home.”

U.S. Northern Command told The Times in a statement that “Title 10 forces may temporarily detain an individual in specific circumstances.”

“The temporary detention ends immediately when the individual(s) can be safely transferred to the custody of appropriate civilian law enforcement personnel,” the statement continued.

About 200 Marines are currently in Los Angeles, Army Maj. Gen. Scott Sherman said at a press briefing Friday afternoon.

Sherman is in command of 700 Marines and 4,000 National Guard troops that were deployed by the Trump administration amid protests over immigration enforcement raids in and around Los Angeles.

Earlier this week, Air Force Gen. Gregory Guillot told The Times that the Marines in Los Angeles were limited in their authority and were deployed only to defend federal property and federal personnel. They do not have arrest power, Guillot said.

At a news conference Thursday, Mayor Karen Bass made a startling claim.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents had appeared at a homeless shelter that day, among other sensitive locations in Los Angeles, she said.

Frame it as a call to action or a presidential campaign announcement, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s address to America on Tuesday has tapped into our zeitgeist (German words feel oddly appropriate at the moment) in a way few others have.

“Democracy is under assault right before our eyes,” Newsom said during a live broadcast with a California flag and the U.S. flag in the background. “The moment we’ve feared has arrived.”

Los Angeles city officials on Thursday carved out a curfew exemption for ticket holders of indoor events and performing arts venues downtown including the Music Center, paving the way for evening performances of Center Theatre Group’s “Hamlet” and Los Angeles Opera’s “Rigoletto.”

The news comes as Mayor Karen Bass’ 8 p.m.-to-6 a.m. curfew for the civic center area approaches its third night and arts organizations, restaurants and other businesses across the area report a drop in patrons. On Wednesday, Center Theatre Group canceled a second night of director Robert O’Hara’s world-premiere adaptation of “Hamlet” at a cost of roughly $35,000 in ticket sales per night. That’s in addition to what the company is spending on production expenses.

Brian Gavidia was at work on West Olympic Boulevard in Montebello at about 4:30 p.m. Thursday when he was told immigration agents were outside of his workplace.

Gavidia, 29, was born and raised in East Los Angeles and fixes and sells cars for a living. He said he stepped outside. And saw four to six agents.

On Friday morning, the area around MacArthur Park, a longtime immigrant hub west of downtown, was noticeably quieter than usual.

Gone were many of the vendors who once lined South Alvarado Street at all times of day, selling everything from baby formula to Lionel Messi jerseys.

A day after federal agents forcibly restrained and handcuffed U.S. Sen Alex Padilla at a Los Angeles news conference, leaders of the country’s two political parties responded in what has become a predictable fashion — with diametrically opposed takes on the incident.

Padilla’s fellow Democrats called for an investigation and perhaps even the resignation of the senator’s nemesis, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, for what they described as the unprecedented manhandling of a U.S. senator who was merely attempting to ask a question of a fellow public official.

Several high-profile sports events will coincide this weekend with ongoing L.A. protests over the federal government’s immigration enforcement.

At Dodger Stadium in Elysian Park, a three-night series against the San Francisco Giants kicks off Friday at 7:10 p.m. Saturday’s game also starts at 7:10 p.m, while Sunday’s game begins at 4:10 p.m.

The Dodger’s home games draw an average of 50,509 fans per game.

Despite the city’s ongoing curfew for parts of downtown, the Dodger’s express bus line will be accessible via Union Station, according to Metro officials.

“If you’re going back and forth from the Dodgers game that’s okay, but if you go downtown to protest, we’ll have to act,” an LAPD spokesperson said.

On Saturday, Mexico faces the Dominican Republic in the CONCACAF Cup at SoFi Stadium in Inglewood at 7:15 p.m. More than 50,000 tickets were sold for the game.

The Mexican team planned to stay in a downtown L.A. hotel ahead of the match in Inglewood, but moved to Long Beach because of security concerns, according to NBCLA.

And Sunday, Paris Saint-Germain will play Atlético de Madrid in the Club World Cup at the Rose Bowl at noon.

Dozens of “No Kings” demonstrations are planned throughout Southern California on Saturday to voice opposition at President Trump’s policies.

Protesters have gathered in downtown L.A. for the last week and other demonstrations have taken place in neighboring cities, including Pasadena.

Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna told reporters Friday that he was aware of 30 “No Kings” events in LA. County, and with the weekend soccer games, his agency is staffing at 170% of its usual level.

On social media, some users have expressed concerns about attending the various sports events because of the possibility that federal agents will detain people in or around the stadiums.

Many vendors also sell food and other goods around the venues.

Times staff writer Christopher Buchanan contributed to this report.

At least 14 protesters who participated in downtown Los Angeles protests against U.S. Customs and Immigrations Enforcement raids have been charged with several criminal offenses.

On Friday, Los Angeles City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto announced that her office has filed 10 criminal cases involving 14 defendants for various misdemeanors, including resisting an law enforcement officer, failure to disperse from an unlawful assembly and assaulting an officer.

Each of the misdemeanor charges carries penalties of up to one year in county jail and a fine of up to $1,000

“The right to peacefully protest and to free speech is protected under the First Amendment; however, protests must not cross the line into criminal conduct,” Feldstein Soto said. “This office will continue to prosecute individuals who violate our laws, especially when they threaten public safety, assault our police officers or damage property.”

The city attorney‘s office said it is is continuing to evaluate new cases for prosecution as they are referred.

Most weekdays the foot traffic and the din of business are constant in Grand Central Market, a food hall and staple of downtown’s historic core since 1917. In a way, the market, with its oldest stalls ranging from Mexican to Chinese to Salvadoran cuisines, is an embodiment of the immigrant experience in Los Angeles.

But this week, even at what are typically its peak hours, tables sat empty. The legendary market, like so many other restaurants and businesses across downtown, is losing business due to Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids and the neighborhood’s anti-ICE protests.

LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell spoke at a press conference on how local and federal enforcement is coordinating and working together during protests, demonstrations and ahead of “No King’s Day” demonstrations.

With Los Angeles reeling from immigration sweeps and unsettled by nightly clashes between protesters and police, Mayor Karen Bass was asked by a reporter: What did she have to say to President Trump?

Bass, standing before a bank of news cameras, did not hold back.

The Los Angeles Police Department has made more than 500 arrests since demonstrations over the federal immigration enforcement that started last week, according to command staff.

On Thursday night, the third night of a curfew in and around downtown L.A., LAPD made 26 arrests. The total was a far cry from Tuesday, when the agency arrested more than 200 people.

This weekend, more protests are planned in L.A. and other U.S. cities over President Trump and his administration.

An LAPD source said that the department plans to have as many as 3,500 officers on both its morning and evening shifts, along with hundreds of officers from the state, county and other law enforcement agencies.

The LAPD has racked up at least $5 million in costs for personnel, the source said.

On Wednesday morning, the 18-year-old drove an hour from her home in Ontario to downtown Los Angeles to protest ongoing federal immigration raids and President Trump’s deployment of the military to the city.

Gryphon Woodson, a new high school graduate, grabbed a pair of goggles and a black bandanna to cover her face. It was her first-ever protest. And after watching videos of chaos in the streets all week, she figured she would be joining throngs of passionate demonstrators.

U.S. Marines began taking up positions around the Wilshire Federal Building in Westwood on Friday, officials said.

Army Maj. Gen. Scott Sherman said at a press briefing that about 200 Marines are in Los Angeles.

Their arrival comes after a federal appeals court on Thursday paused a lower court’s order that President Trump return control of 4,000 National Guard troops to Gov. Gavin Newsom.

The Marines have completed civil disturbance training and “will not participate in law enforcement activities,” Sherman said, explaining that they are solely tasked with defending the Westwood building and federal law enforcement agents.

Sherman is commander of the 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 Marines that Trump has deployed to Los Angeles since protests broke out this month over immigration enforcement raids that have resulted in hundreds of arrests.

The protests, which generated dramatic scenes of showdowns with police have largely calmed since Mayor Karen Bass instituted an 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew downtown this week.

But the Trump administration has continued to characterize L.A. as an apocalyptic wasteland gripped by violent and organized protesters.

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem accompanied federal immigration enforcement agents on a raid in Huntington Park Thursday. Later in the day, Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) was handcuffed and forced out of a news conference in L.A. after attempting to ask Noem a question.

Newsom has been highly critical of Trump’s move to deploy military troops to L.A. against the governor’s wishes, calling it an unconstitutional and dangerous escalation.

Other governors are taking preemptive measures to protect lives and property during the “No Kings” protests planned for cities across the nation on Saturday, including Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who announced Thursday that he had deployed 5,000 National Guard members and 2,000 state police.

On Friday morning, the area around MacArthur Park, a longtime immigrant hub west of downtown, was noticeably quieter than usual.

Gone were many of the vendors who once lined South Alvarado Street at all times of day, selling everything from baby formula to Lionel Messi jerseys.

VIDEO | 00:56

Homeland Security agents arrest man in MacArthur Park

• Share via Close extra sharing options

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • X
  • LinkedIn
  • Threads
  • Reddit
  • WhatsApp
  • Copy Link URL Copied!

“There’s like sadness, maybe grief. I think a lot of fear, a lot of fear is going around these communities. And yeah, people are walking around just very cautious, very cautious,” said Cristina Serrano, who lives in Rampart Village.

Serrano, 37, was doing mitt work at Panda Boxing Gym, near the corner of Westlake Avenue and 8th Street.

Already, many vendors had left because of fencing the city put up earlier this year after a gang-related shooting wounded six people. Business owners also regularly complain about the throngs of people who use drugs day and night in the park.

At Panda Boxing, the gym’s owner now regularly walks up and down the block looking for signs of trouble and to make sure that people in the gym feel safe, said Serrano.

“I mean, most of us are U.S. citizens, but again, if there’s someone that we may know in the gym [who isn’t], we’re gonna make sure we protect them and keep them safe,” she said. “In general, that’s where we stand as far as this gym.”

Even though she is a citizen by birth, she says that she’s taken to carrying a copy of her birth certificate with her everywhere she goes as a precaution. She also has a lawyer on speed dial.

“I don’t know who they want to stop, who they’re targeting, to be honest, because they’re targeting people that look like me,” she said.

She also said the Mexican restaurant next door abruptly closed its doors for two days, without explanation.

Over at Tony’s Barber Shop on the next block over, one of the barbers dusted hair off her chair as her customer got up to leave.

The barber, who declined to give her name, explained in Spanish that business had almost disappeared.

Asked why, she exchanged an exasperated look with the customer, before saying that “La Migra” — slang for ICE — was popping up everywhere in the area, scaring off her customers.

On Friday morning, Julia Meltzer was on her way to work and had just turned left on Virgil Avenue from 6th Street when she saw a number of men in bulletproof vests. There was at least one vehicle, a silver Ford SUV with Arizona licence plates, parked on the driveway of an apartment complex.

As she pulled up closer to the vehicle, she said she saw men handcuffing a man wearing an orange shirt and white shorts. Meltzer said she pulled over and began taking photos and videos after realizing she had just stumbled upon a federal immigration operation.

As she and other residents continued documenting, Meltzer came across a distraught woman who was the wife of the man the federal agents had just arrested. Meltzer said the woman, Alejandra Gascon, identified her husband as Jeisson Gonzalez.

Videos and photos taken by Meltzer and other residents shared with The Times show masked federal agents in plainclothes wearing “police” vests with the three letter acronym for Homeland Security Investigations, a branch of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The vehicles, all of them unmarked, included a black Dodge 4x4 truck, also with Arizona license plates.

In another video taken by Meltzer, Gascon said her husband was on his way to work when they detained him.

“He had just left the house,” she said, crying before running off.

Meltzer said while the men were conducting their operation, people were driving by, honking and at some point she could hear people screaming out “ICE, ICE, ICE.”

Natalie Martino was in her apartment facing the street when she heard people screaming and couldn’t make out what they were saying, but could hear what sounded like “ICE.”

Martino ran to her balcony and saw that federal agents had detained her downstairs neighbor and began to use her cell phone to record the incident.

At one point, she went downstairs and saw a white van parked across the street, after the other agents had left.

“So I walked across the street to this white van with tinted windows to get a closer look to see who was sitting inside and of course it was another agent,” she said. “I could only see his vest, so I started yelling ‘ICE’ and banged on the hood of the [van] and then he left.”

After the operation was over, she began to post videos on her Instagram account and reported the incident on the building’s message board. She said she also tried to go live on the Citizen app, but it wouldn’t work.

Martino said her neighbor is a nice man.

“He walks this little Yorkie who wears dresses,” she said. “This is a parent, this is a family man [who] was literally walking to his car to leave for work.”

It was the first operation Martino has witnessed and she said it underscores the disturbing callousness of how they are being conducted.

“It’s very odd to me that someone has the capability to just walk down the street and pick someone up and just take them away and it’s just a big question mark of where they’re going, how they’re going to be treated and if they’re even going to be coming back,” she said. “There’s no answers, there’s no follow-up, there’s no accountability.”

“The whole thing is crazy,” she added.

On a game night in Los Angeles, 10-year-old Boomtown Brewery in the Arts District can host 500 fans just five minutes walking distance from the Dodger Stadium shuttle at Union Station.

With the Dodgers hosting its archrival San Francisco Giants over the weekend, one might expect the cavernous brew hall with giant projection screens to be packed with revelers.

A politician with a bend toward authoritarianism sending in armed troops in order to create the optics that will help him manufacture consent to further consolidate power. Unauthorized workers subjected to state-sanctioned terror from immigration officers. Everyday citizens, galvanized and radicalized by the presence of the military in their city, choosing to fight back.

No, I’m not talking about the second and final season of “Andor,” the critically acclaimed Disney+ show and “Star Wars” property that gives us the back story on how the Rebel Alliance came to be. What I’m describing didn’t take place in a galaxy far, far away. It’s currently happening here in Los Angeles.

With its stately homes and bustling business districts, Downey has long been known to some as the “Mexican Beverly Hills.”

But the Southeast L.A. County city of more than 110,000 people has been roiled this week by Trump immigration raids in Southern California, sparking both fear and outrage.

Former California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger criticized Republican and Democrat leaders as “political hacks” more concerned with finger-pointing and fundraising than passing new immigration laws.

Schwarzenegger, who served as governor from 2003 to 2011, was asked about the immigration raids and protests in L.A. on Wednesday at an event for his Netflix series “Fubar.”

“Well, I’m not so much interested in that as I am that the politicians have the responsibility to create immigration reform so we don’t have to have this crap going on in the first place,” Schwarzenegger told Variety.

“For decades now, they have been avoiding the subject because it’s an advantage to both parties to not do it. So they’re all political hacks, party hacks, rather than public servants.”

Schwarzenegger, a Republican, made similar statements this week during an appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!”

He said that politicians don’t have a real interest in passing immigration reform. At the same time, they blame the other political party and use controversies over immigration to “raise money.”

He also criticized the media for portraying L.A. as a “war zone” and said he is worried about tourists staying away.

As governor, Schwarzenegger supported legislation to stop human trafficking and barred driver’s licenses for non-legal residents.

Since leaving office, Schwarzenegger has continually called on both parties to pass new immigration laws.

VIDEO | 01:18

The country prepares for ‘No Kings Day’

• Share via Close extra sharing options

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • X
  • LinkedIn
  • Threads
  • Reddit
  • WhatsApp
  • Copy Link URL Copied!

Activists are preparing to hold marches throughout Southern California this weekend to protest the Trump administration. The coalition 50501 — which stands for 50 protests, 50 states, 1 movement — is urging people to turn out Saturday, the same day that President Trump attends a military parade in Washington, D.C.

The “No Kings” events — a reference to the group’s rejection of executive overreach — are meant to counter the “authoritarian excesses and corruption from Trump and his allies,” according to a website for the event.

Marches are planned across the nation. In Los Angeles County, events are scheduled in Woodland Hills, Beverly Hills, West Hollywood, Pasadena, Whittier, the South Bay and several other neighborhoods.

The D.C. military event will celebrate the U.S. Army’s 250th birthday. The president will “join veterans, active-duty troops, wounded warriors, Gold Star Families, and Patriotic Americans from across the country to celebrate our heroes,” according to a website for the event.

June 14 is also Trump’s 79th birthday.

When U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla was forcibly removed from a news conference held by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, it was almost as if Donald Trump’s most well-worn talking point came to life:

A bad hombre tried to go after a white American.

As looming fear over ongoing ICE raids in the greater Los Angeles area continues, one group of music enthusiasts is using their platform to call out for more visibility and support from famed artists — underscoring tense conversations about influence in the Latino music scene.

Since 2021, the “Agushto Papá” podcast — founded and hosted by Jason Nuñez, Diego Mondragon and Angel Lopez— has played a key role in chronicling the rise of música Mexicana by giving up-and-coming artists a platform to showcase their talent and personalities. Popular genre acts like Xavi, Eslabon Armado, Becky G, DannyLux, Ivan Cornejo and more have appeared on their YouTube channel, which has amassed over 635,000 subscribers to date.

SACRAMENTO — President Trump craves attention and will stoop to any depth to grab it — even pour gasoline on a kindling fire in Los Angeles. But this time he unwittingly provided priceless attention for an adversary.

Because Trump needlessly deployed National Guard troops and — more ridiculous, a Marine battalion to L.A. — California Gov. Gavin Newsom was granted a prime-time speaking slot on national cable television to respond.

Vendors were selling a variety of colorful national flags in downtown L.A. on Wednesday, but Axel Martinez settled on one with Old Glory on one half and the Mexican flag on the other.

The 26-year-old was born in the U.S., raised in Mexico City and returned to the States because of the opportunity, he said. On Wednesday, he stood among hundreds of other demonstrators outside the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown L.A. who were facing off with National Guard troops on Alameda Street. About a dozen other flags — from Mexico, the U.S., California, Guatemala and El Salvador — fluttered over the crowd.

“Everyone has a story here,” Martinez said. “I’m proud to be Mexican and to be born here.”

In a late-night order Thursday, the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals paused a court order that would have required President Trump to return control of the thousands of California National Guard troops in Los Angeles to Gov. Gavin Newsom.

The 9th Circuit’s emergency stay came hours after U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer of San Francisco ruled that Trump broke the law when he mobilized thousands of Guard members amid protests over immigration raids, and must return the troops to state control by noon Friday.

Gov. Gavin Newsom said President Donald Trump “can’t push this state any longer” after a federal judge ruled the president must return control of the California National Guard.

“Today’s order makes clear that he is not above or beyond constitutional constraints,” Newsom said in a press conference just minutes after the order was issued. “Today was really about a test of democracy and today, we passed that test.”

U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer granted a temporary restraining order Thursday evening and, in a 36-page ruling, questioned whether Trump exceeded his authority.

In an extraordinary move, the Trump administration took over the National Guard despite the objections of Newsom as protests over immigration raids spread throughout Southern California. The Trump administration used a statute that allows the president to federalize the troops if there is a “rebellion or danger of a rebellion.”

“There is no invasion, there’s no rebellion,” Newsom said Thursday evening. “It’s absurd.”

Breyer’s decision gave the federal government a stay until Friday to appeal the hearing, and Newsom said he expected to retain control of the California National Guard by noon Friday.

“It’s a federal judge with a federal order, period, full stop,” Newsom said. “It’s the rule of law. These are are the foundational principals of a constitutional democracy.”

California Attorney General Rob Bonta said that despite the ruling, it could still be some time before changes on the ground could be seen.

“It also takes time to mobilize, to issue orders, to have them handed down, for logistics to be planned for any movement there might be,” Bonta said. “The judge may have been giving some time to the federal government to move something that can’t be done immediately with the flip of a switch.”

Newsom also blasted Trump’s initial decision, calling it an overreach of power.

“He is not a monarch,” he said. “He is not a king, and he should stop acting like one.”

Sen. Thomas J. Umberg — chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, a former federal prosecutor and a retired U.S. Army colonel — described the Trump administration’s move to take over the National Guard as a “stunt.”

“This stunt was simply designed to create an unnecessary and dangerous confrontation – a reckless and disrespectful way to treat our men and women in uniform,” Umberg said. “I’m pleased that the court reached this same conclusion.”

In an interview with MSNBC, U.S. Sen. Adam Schiff applauded the court’s order and called it “an important win for the country.”

“This is hugely consequential,” Schiff said. The Democrat senator also criticized what he said was the Trump administration’s decision to use the troops “for their own purpose.”

“This ruling is a huge win for California, but also an important win for the country and for the idea of civilian control over the military,” Schiff said in the interview.

Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn said the federal judge’s decision returned control of the California National Guard “where it belongs.”

“This ruling is a step toward rolling back the Trump federal overreach that has caused so much chaos, fear, and pain in LA County this week,” she said.

L.A. County Supervisor Hilda L. Solis said the deployment of California National Guard troops, and deployment of Marines, had “sparked chaos.”

“Judge Charles Breyer’s ruling is a necessary check on the Trump administration’s authoritarian federal overreach,” she said in a statement. “His decision reaffirms that protest is not rebellion, that the Trump adminitration must act within the limits of the law, and that state authority cannot be cast aside.”

California Sen. Alex Padilla was handcuffed by federal agents Thursday after he interrupted a press conference held by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem in Los Angeles.

About five minutes into a press conference at the Westwood federal building, Noem told the media that the Trump administration planned to “liberate the city from the socialists and the burdensome leadership that the governor and the mayor have placed on this country.”

Protesters in downtown L.A. celebrated after a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to return control of the California National Guard to Gov. Gavin Newsom.

“What we’re doing is working. The National Guard has been sent back home,” a masked protester said into a loud speaker. By 6:30 p.m., troops were no longer visible in front of the Municipal Detention Center.

Newsom in a press conference said he expected to retain control of the California National Guard by noon Friday.

Customs and Border Patrol agents bearing shields that said “police” and Department of Homeland Security agents lined the detention center.

“I’m out here with my two friends in protest of the unjust actions of ICE and the insane amount of LAPD, the National Guard and military that has been brought here for what has been like 99% peaceful protests,” said Santiago Lamas. “I think it’s insane. I think our tax dollars can go to literally anything else.”

He said he was happy the National Guard had been ordered to stand down and that it was “the right thing to do.”

At 7 p.m. a DHS agent used a megaphone to announce that an unlawful assembly had been declared and ordered all protesters to leave or face arrest.

A few minutes later a flash bang went off and a large group of CBP agents in military fatigues rushed forward and tackled a man to the ground. The scene briefly turned chaotic as protesters ran.

It was unclear what prompted the agents to detain the man. A few minutes later relative calm returned with many protesters choosing to leave the area and a small crowd remaining chanting, “Whose streets? Our streets.”

Everyone’s phones then starting buzzing, as those remaining downtown received an alert about the impending 8 p.m. curfew.

By 7:20 p.m. a large group of LAPD officers with zip ties, batons and less lethal munitions lined the end of Alameda street, closing of the exit route and telling protesters to exit South.

VIDEO | 02:20

Huntington Park resident describes illegal immigration enforcement operation

• Share via Close extra sharing options

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • X
  • LinkedIn
  • Threads
  • Reddit
  • WhatsApp
  • Copy Link URL Copied!

Sabrina Medina recounts an early morning illegal immigration enforcement operation in which Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem took part in at Huntington Park Thursday.

Sabrina Medina recounts an early morning illegal immigration enforcement operation in which Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem took part in at Huntington Park Thursday.

Seven of the Democrats running to replace California Gov. Gavin Newsom issued a rare joint statement Thursday to condemn the forceful removal of Sen. Alex Padilla from a Department of Homeland Security press conference, calling it a “dark moment for our democracy.”

“We are witnessing the rise of authoritarianism that threatens the foundation on which this nation was founded,” said a prepared statement jointly issued by former Senate President Pro Tem Toni G. Atkins, former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis, former U.S. Rep. Katie Porter, State Supt. of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond, former Los Angeles mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, and former state Controller Betty Yee.

After interrupting Secretary Kristi Noem during a press conference at a federal building in West L.A., Padilla was pushed backward by federal agents as he told them: “I’m Sen. Alex Padilla.” Three agents removed Padilla from the briefing room, forced him to the ground and briefly handcuffed him. Padilla and federal officials said he was not arrested.

Treating Padilla that way while he was “performing his congressional duty of oversight,” the California gubernatorial candidates said, “is not just an attack on one individual but on the principles of justice and checks and balances.”

“Let us be clear — if this can happen to a sitting U.S. Senator, if our governor can be threatened with arrest, if a respected labor leader can be detained without cause, then no one in this country is safe from this President and his administration’s abuse of power,” the candidates said.

“As Californians, leaders, and candidates for Governor, we stand in solidarity to condemn this alarming escalation,” they said. “We will not be silent in the face of injustice and as immigrant communities are denied due process. We support Senator Padilla and reaffirm our commitment to defending our democracy — for every person in this country.”

Several hundred people rallied outside of Pasadena City Hall on Thursday afternoon, salsa dancing to the tunes of a mariachi band and holding signs that read “ICE out of Dena”

The group came together for a peaceful protest through the streets of Pasadena, stopping outside of three local hotels where Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were rumored to be staying.

Pasadena Mayor Victor Gordo told the crowd he stood with them, saying he too is an immigrant born in Mexico. His parents brought him to California where his father worked for 50 years washing dishes at Pasadena restaurant and his mother worked as a “costurera,” a seamstress.

“I’m here to speak for them, I’m here to speak for all of our neighbors who can’t speak for themselves, and most of all I’m here to support our students and their families,” he said. “We are a part of this country, we contribute to this country and we are going to continue to do that.”

The protesters ranged from a three-year-old in stroller holding a sign that read “my abuelos journey, my future” to actual abuelos and abuelas marching side by side with the youth.

Many in the crowd were from local high schools, including Diego Galvan, a rising senior at Pasadena High School.

“As part of the Pasadena Community — and having parents that were born out of the United States and are scared to go out— it hurts,” Galvan said.

Galvan said his dad has been working two jobs for the last 15 years to support his family and that his mother and siblings work too. They are all afraid of what might happen next.

“Sometimes I wonder if my dad is going to make it home at night,” he said.

Jason Najera just graduated John Muir High School and said he has been unable to celebrate with his family because of the trauma that immigration raids are inflicting on his community.

“We want ICE out of Dena, they are putting fear into our Hispanic communities and we don’t want that in Pasadena,” he said. “We want peace.”

Najera said he also wants the National Guard out of Los Angeles, saying their presence serves no purpose.

“They send 2000 soldiers in for what? They’re doing unnecessary things,” Najera said. “Trump, he’s doing everything wrong. Everything.”

Narjera said he came to the protest to speak up for those community members who can’t be there.

“We work hard for what we have. We come for a better chance at life, for our families,” he said. “ICE doesn’t see it that way, they see us as criminals.”

“I’m here to speak up and to represent for La Raza,” he added.

The crowd continued to chant and dance as the protest wound through Pasadena pausing temporarily outside of the Dena Hotel, AC Hotel and Westin Hotel, where the group shouted “ICE out of Dena” and “Don’t make us come back.”

Protesters gathered outside a hotel near LAX Thursday, where Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents are believed to be staying, and demanded that the hotel cancel the contracts.

The HILL rapid response team — an organization that supports Hawthorne, Inglewood, Lawndale and Lenox — formed a line in front of the Westin Hotel at LAX on Century Blvd in an attempt to persuade the hotel to cease contracts with ICE and other federal agents.

“‘Many of our followers have successfully been calling the hotel & corporate office for the past 2 days, demanding Westin terminate their contract and leave immediately,” a HILL press release said.

A group of about 25 protesters gathered in front of the hotel, holding signs with anti-immigration enforcement slogans and a variety of national flags. The crowd grew to nearly 100 as the demonstration continued.

Representatives for Westin did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

“Westin, Westin, you can’t hide. We know you’ve got ICE inside,” the protesters chanted as employees and security gathered at the entrance to observe.

Brian Doherty, a protester, said he believed a directed, economic protest against Westin and ICE could provoke a response from federal officials and have an effect on the broader movement.

“You got to hit them where it hurts,” Doherty said. “Places like Westin have to know that they’re going to lose money if they cater to ICE.”

An organizer who requested not to be named said HILL organizers had an officer and traffic liaison to facilitate a safe demonstration.

Horns blared in support along Century Blvd, and some stopped to talk with protesters.

Alejandra Flores attended with her daughter and mother, who recently became a U.S. citizen . Three generations of her family marched, she said, to stand up for those who have been forced into hiding at home.

“I have family members that are terrified to go out,” Flores said. “We’re able to speak out for them, to give them a voice.”

The protesters then began a small, circular march on the sidewalk in front of the hotel. A drummer and trumpeter played marching songs as protesters continued their chants.

“Westin kick them out!” protesters said.

At a press conference in Oxnard, immigration organizers called on elected officials to take action after people were detained by federal immigration authorities during raids in farm fields and packing houses along the Central Coast.

The raids, organizers said, have led to a steep drop in the number of farm workers showing up to work this week.

Immigration organizers who coordinate a rapid response network to respond to sightings of Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, began receiving numerous calls on Tuesday. As many as 35 people were detained, and all had been in the U.S. for at least 10 years, according to information provided by the Mexican consulate.

“We haven’t seen workplace raids at this scale in many, many years, and never this militarized, with mass agents in unmarked cars intended to strike fear in the hearts of our people and undermine human rights and due process,” said Lucas Zucker, co-executive director of CAUSE, the Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy.

Raids continued in Ventura County fields Thursday as well, Zucker said.

The fear among farmers that the raids would result in people not showing up for work was proven true. Farmers saw a drop in workers coming in, with some saying that 25% to 45% of workers were missing, according to the Ventura County Farm Bureau.

In a statement read at the press conference, Maureen McGuire, chief executive of the Ventura County Farm Bureau, criticized the enforcement raids along the Central Coast as undermining constitutional rights and threatening the state’s agricultural economy.

“These actions have eroded community trust, and harvests are being directly impacted ,” McGuire said in her statement.

Standing alongside a hundred civic leaders as police sirens blared in the background, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass delivered her most impassioned critique of the federal response to anti-ICE protests to date Thursday.

The mayor — flanked by faith leaders, business leaders, immigrant rights advocates and others — defended the city’s ability to handle the sometimes chaotic protests that have swept across downtown L.A. for the last week, while accusing the Trump administration of deliberately misrepresenting the city as overwhelmed by violence.

Federal agents stormed a Huntington Park home on Thursday morning and were accompanied by Homeland Security Sec. Kristi Noem.

Sabrina Medina, 28, was cleaning her patio Wednesday night when she saw a silver minivan slow down in front of her home in Huntington Park.

She said she saw the driver recording her and her brother-in-law at the home.

“I screamed at them: ‘Why are you recording me?’” she said. “I started screaming because I thought, you know, something bad was going to happen to me.”

• Share via Close extra sharing options

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • X
  • LinkedIn
  • Threads
  • Reddit
  • WhatsApp
  • Copy Link URL Copied!

Sabrina Medina recounts an early morning illegal immigration enforcement operation in which Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem took part in at Huntington Park Thursday.

She said the people in the van didn’t respond. Scared for her four children, Medina went inside the house and called her husband, Jorge Saldana, 30, who was at a nearby laundromat washing clothes. She told him what happened and that he needed to come home.

She and her husband got into an argument about his immigration status, she said. Medina worried immigration officials were now targeting him and their house. At one point, she told her husband she didn’t want him attending his 10-year-old daughter’s graduation.

She said the argument ended with her husband storming out of the house.

“He was upset,” she said. “He wanted to go to the graduation but I told him no and that I was going to take my sister.”

Medina’s husband, Saldana, was wanted for being in the country following his deportation. Eight years ago, Saldana was arrested for a violent crime, but the criminal charges were dropped and he was subsequently deported, Medina said.

Early Thursday morning, Medina was rattled by several loud knocks on the front door. When she looked through the window she saw men in fatigues carrying assault rifles. One of them was pointing his weapon at her and ordered her to come out of the house, she said.

She explained she had just finished showering and needed to get dressed, as well as wake up her kids. Medina asked the soldiers to put down their guns and they did, she said.

Eventually, the family walked out and stood in the driveway as the men in fatigues searched the house for her husband, Medina said. He was not home at the time.

As she, her brother-in-law and her kids waited in the driveway, Medina said she spotted Noem watching the operation. She said she also spotted a video crew and someone she believed to be Dr. Phil McGraw — the TV personality — sitting in an SUV.

The site of Noem in a baseball hat and ballistic vest was startling, and Medina said she began to record her with her phone.

“I got scared. I did recognize her. I was like what is she doing in my house. So I started recording her,“ Medina said.

The pregnant mother said Noem was laughing and appeared as if she was “waiting for something to happen.”

Cameras inside and outside the home captured the men in fatigues walking around and searching the house. The men left shortly after, Medina said. There were at least a dozen men in fatigues, according to Medina and videos reviewed by The Times.

She hasn’t spoken to her husband since the raid on their home and is now worried how she will be able to pay this month’s $3,000 rent. Her husband was the main bread winner.

The incident has traumatized her four kids whose ages range from 2 to 10, according to Medina. She said she is four months pregnant with twin boys.

“My daugther is very sad, she wanted to go to her graduation,” she said. “ My 7-year-old has been asking where her father is, they’re very close to one another.”

“This is no way of living,” she added.

Francisco has been working as a taquero for over a year, but he’s never felt as worried as he does now, in the shadow of a week of ongoing sweeps in Los Angeles by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

“We can’t go out to work as much on the streets now,” the 23-year-old said in Spanish. “We’ve heard from some colleagues who work in other positions, and they’ve even arrested a couple of them. We go to work afraid they might arrest us.”

Tensions over President Trump’s immigration crackdown boiled over Thursday as Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Calif.) was forcibly removed from a Homeland Security news conference and immigration agents swept across the region arresting people suspected of living in the United States illegally.

Outrage over the operations has sparked a week of protests, with California officials going to court in an attempt to roll back Trump’s deployment of the National Guard to Los Angeles without the consent of state or local leaders.

WASHINGTON — When Donald Trump promised on the campaign trail to unleash the largest deportation campaign in U.S. history, he said his second administration would start by going after people with criminal records.

But now, disappointed with the pace of arrests, the Trump administration is casting a wider net by targeting anyone deportable.

Shock and outrage were just some of the reactions from elected officials over U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla of California being forcibly removed from a news briefing and handcuffed at a federal building in Los Angeles.

“I just saw something that sickened my stomach, the manhandling of a United States Senator,” Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said in a statement. “We need immediate answers to what the hell went on.”

Schumer called for a full investigation into the episode in which Padilla was pushed, shoved to the ground and handcuffed by federal police and U.S. Secret Service accompanying Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. In the video shared on social media, Padilla can be heard identifying himself before he was pushed out of the room.

“It’s despicable. It’s disgusting,” Schumer said from the Senate floor. “It is so un-American, so un-American, and we need answers. We need answers immediately.”

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass called the incident “absolutely abhorrent and outrageous.”

“He is a sitting United States Senator. This administration’s violent attacks on our city must end,” Bass said in a post to X.

U.S. Congressman Jimmy Gomez (D-Los Angeles) said Padilla was conducting oversight “over the lawlessness” of the Trump administration.

“This isn’t just shocking, it’s a threat to the rule of law and democratic accountability,” Gomez said in a post to X.

In a statement, U.S. Congresswoman Luz Rivas (D-North Hollywood) called the incident against Padilla “appalling and horrifying.”

“Throughout his career, Senator Padilla has been a champion for all Californians. As a son of Mexican immigrants, he knows the struggles and the fear that many families are facing today,” Rivas said. “Americans watched in horror as this Administration quickly resorted to violent actions to silence Senator Padilla, erase our democracy, and rewrite our nation’s values.”

“The Trump Administration and DHS continues to operate with intimidation and instill fear in our communities whether you are a U.S. Senator, a U.S. citizen, or an immigrant. Everyone should be outraged at how this Administration is treating anyone who dares to stand in their way.

Hillary Clinton, former senator from New York, called the situation “chilling to watch and utterly unacceptable in the United States of America.”

“As a former Senator, I’m calling on all current members to speak out on behalf of Sen. Padilla and defend him and the Senate against these outrageous attacks,” Clinton said in a post on Instagram.

Pablo Alvarado, co-director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, said the incident was a wakeup call for all Californians to peacefully protest and nonviolently condemn the administration’s abuses.

“This unjust attack on Senator Padilla is also an attack against all the people he represents, especially the immigrant communities who have been suffering the most under the Administration’s lawless onslaught of aggression and terror,” Alvarado said in a statement.

California Democratic Party chair Rusty Hicks called the attack against Padilla “another gross abuse of power by the Trump Administration and its accomplices in the Department of Homeland Security” and said he views this latest incident as a dangerous escalation in political discourse.

“We firmly believe the power of the people is stronger than the people in power,” Hicks said in a statement.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom called Padilla “one of the most decent people I know.”

“This is outrageous, dictatorial, and shameful,” Newsom said in a social media post. “Trump and his shock troops are out of control. This must end now.”

He then posted an image of Padilla on the carpeted floor of the federal building in Los Angeles as federal police handcuffed him.

“If they can handcuff a U.S. Senator for asking a question, imagine what they will do to you,” Newsom said.

The official X account for the Department of Homeland Security responded to Newsom’s post by claiming that Padilla did not identify himself. Secret Service thought he was an attacker, according to the agency. Video posted on social media showed Padilla identifying himself as federal agents started to push him out of the room.

“Mr. Padilla was told repeatedly to back away and did not comply with officers’ repeated commands,” the statement said. “Secretary Noem met with Senator Padilla after and held a 15 minute meeting.”

Things were looking tense in Los Angeles on Thursday even before federal agents took down U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla.

We had the Marines, slightly trained in domestic crowd control, heading out to do crowd control. We had ICE raids, sweeping up a man from a church. Or maybe it was ICE — the armed and masked agents refused to say where they were from.

Times photographer Luke Johnson captured the moment when authorities tackled and handcuffed Sen. Alex Padilla on Thursday when he interrupted Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s news conference in Los Angeles.

Johnson’s images document many of the key moments of an encounter that has sparked controversy amid President Trump’s immigration crackdown.

President Donald Trump responded to reports of how his administration’s immigration policies are hurting hotel and agriculture industries by going after immigrant workers.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents chased farm workers in Ventura County on Tuesday morning, according to video from ABC 7.

On Thursday, Trump said in a Truth Social post that he’s heard from the agriculture and hotel industry how federal immigration sweeps are “taking very good, long time workers away from them, with those jobs being almost impossible to replace.”

Gov. Gavin Newsom responded to Trump’s social media post with his own post on X.

“Turns out, chasing hard working people through ranches and farms and snatching women and children off the streets is not good policy,” Newsom said.

Trump blamed the Biden administration in his social media post and claimed people with criminal records have found jobs in those industries. He promised to protect farmers, but also remove criminals from the country.

“Changes are coming,” Trump said, without elaborating.

Hours after Trump’s post, Newsom claimed victory and said that public outrage over the federal government’s immigration policies was having some impact.

“Trump just reversed course on immigration,” Newsom said in a social media post. “We’re watching closely — and we’ll hold him to it. This happened because you spoke up. Keep it going. Keep it peaceful. It’s working.”

The Dodger Stadium Express is scheduled to operate normally this weekend, even as the bus departs from and arrives at an area subject to curfew restrictions.

The service, which provides fans a free ride between Union Station and Dodger Stadium, “will be running per usual,” Metro senior director of communications Missy Colman said Thursday.

While publicly chastising groups protesting immigration raids, Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell has offered support to officers in his Latino-majority department who may have mixed feelings about the Trump administration‘s crackdown.

In a department-wide missive sent out earlier this week as protests ramped up, McDonnell acknowledged some officers were “facing criticism from the community or wrestling with the personal impact” of recent events and needed support.

The Los Angeles Police Department arrested 81 people Wednesday and early Thursday morning in connection to protests in downtown Los Angeles.

Police arrested 71 people on suspicion of failure to disperse and seven on suspicion of violating an 8 p.m. curfew that extends around several city blocks on downtown, the LAPD announced in a news release. LAPD officers also arrested two people on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon on a police officer and one person arrested on suspicion for resisting a police officer.

Police responded to reports of criminal activity after the curfew and found large crowds of people near Temple and Los Angeles streets. The majority of the crowd dispersed, police said.

Two LAPD officers were injured during their response to the protests. They received medical treatment, according to police. There was no estimate to how many civilians were injured when police used less-lethal munitions.

“No firmes nada,” a union organizer shouted into a bullhorn as he stood atop the flatbed of a truck outside Ambiance Apparel, doling out battlefield legal advice not to sign anything. “You have a right to a lawyer. You are not alone.”

Advocates and lawyers had arrived at the downtown store minutes after tips began to pop off at the hotline set up by the Los Angeles Rapid Response Network, a coalition of 300 volunteers and 23 labor unions and immigrant rights and social justice groups that was organized last year to respond to enforcement.

Masked federal agents detained at least 12 people from Downey businesses on Wednesday, but community members were able to discourage them from taking away one man.

The immigration sweep rolled across a gym, a car wash, Home Depot and even at some homes, Downey Councilman Mario Trujillo told news station KABC.

But one man was spared when residents intervened, according to video of the encounter. The unidentified man can be seen sitting on the ground, surrounded by masked men who chased him in several unmarked vehicles. The man spotted ICE at his job and rode away on his bicycle, but one of the masked men grabbed his tire, causing him to fall, according to reporting from KABC.

Melyssa Rivas, a local resident, recorded community members questioning the ICE agents, asking them why they were chasing after the man in the first place. They shouted that the man should not sign anything.

It’s unclear what prompted the agents to leave the man.

“It looked like a full on kidnapping scene out of a movie, it was scary,” Rivas told the station.

Trujillo said the immigration sweeps are taking a toll on the local economy as businesses are closed and people are too afraid to go out.

“I think this places my community in fear. Instead of providing public safety. We’re creating chaos and fear which will definitely impact the economy of my city,” he said.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement conducted a series of immigration sweeps starting Friday afternoon and into the weekend that sparked an outpouring of protests in the heart of Los Angeles and caused a flurry of disinformation online.

Over the last several days, rumors of extreme scenarios have seeped into the public discourse about ICE raids at school graduations, local Home Depots and at hotels where agents are staying.

A Los Angeles man faces federal charges after he allegedly passed out face shields to demonstrators in downtown Los Angeles earlier this week, according to court records.

Federal agents arrested Alejandro Theodoro Orellana in connection to a video allegedly showing him distributing face shields to protesters in Los Angeles. On Thursday, evening, the U.S. Department of Justice filed federal charges against Orellana, including conspiracy to commit civil disorders and aiding and abetting civil disorders.

During a press conference Thursday, United States Attorney Bill Essayli claimed Orellana is part of an organized and coordinated group behind the civil unrest in Los Angeles.

“We have made it a huge priority to try and identify, locate and arrest those who are involved in organizing, supporting, funding, or facilitating these riots that have been going on,” Essayli said. “So we want to understand who these people are and where this organization is coming from. Today was one of those first arrests — key arrests — we did.”

U.S. National Guard troops assisted in the arrest, according to Finn.

A sworn affidavit written by an FBI agent in the case made no mention of Orellana being part of an organized or coordinated group, but federal officials allege he drove a black truck into downtown Los Angeles Monday afternoon with an unidentified woman and passed out face shields to people who were “dressed similarly” to those who local police later identified as being involved in violence or vandalism.

The face shields were designed to protect from chemicals and flying debris which, according to the complaint, “would help protect violent agitators from less-than lethal weapons deployed by local police.”

Orellana allegedly met with several people on 1st street, near Boyle Avenue.

Several men and women then began to unload white boxes off the truck, which are believed to have been “Uvex Bionic Shield” masks.

Orellana then drove to North Los Angeles Street and East Temple Street near a federal building, where the unidentified woman and others unloaded more boxes of the face shields.

The affidavit alleges the face shields were to “weaken the effects of less-than-lethal law enforcement devices.”

“In other words, these face shields would be effective in aiding the obstruction, impediment, and interference with law enforcement officers’ execution of their lawful duties,” the affidavit states.

The affidavit also alleges that the masks are “not common amongst non-violent, peaceful protesters.”

“Rather, this is the kind of item used by violent agitators to enable them to resist law enforcement and to engage in violence,” the affidavit states.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth refused to say Thursday whether he would abide by a possible legal ruling about the federal government’s authority to deploy the Marines to Los Angeles.

“We should not have local judges determining foreign policy or national security policy for the country,” he said in response to repeated questions by Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Fremont) during a House Armed Services hearing.

OXNARD, Calif. — At 6 a.m. Wednesday, Juvenal Solano drove slowly along the cracked roads that border the fields of strawberry and celery that cloak this fertile expanse of Ventura County, his eyes peeled for signs of trouble.

An eerie silence hung over the morning. The workers who would typically be shuffling up and down the strawberry rows were largely absent. The entry gates to many area farms were shut and locked.

Still, Solano, a director with the Mixteco Indigena Community Organizing Project, felt relieved. Silence was better than the chaos that had broken out Tuesday when immigration agents raided fields in Oxnard and fanned out across communities in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties that grow a considerable portion of the state’s strawberries, avocados and celery.

A number of Latinx musicians have expressed their solidarity and support for immigrant communities via social media in the wake of immigration raids that have resulted in the arrest of 330 people in Southern California and the Central Coast.

The clashes between National Guard troops, police and protesters in recent days have evoked memories for some Angelenos of the deadly riots that erupted after LAPD officers were acquitted of brutally assaulting Black motorist Rodney King in 1992.

But leaders who were involved in dealing with the uprising more than three decades ago say what has unfolded with President Trump’s deployment of soldiers to Los Angeles and surrounding communities bears no resemblance to the coordinated response that took place then.

• Downtown Los Angeles remained under an overnight curfew for a second night at the behest of Mayor Karen Bass in an effort to quell violence and vandalism from the protests. As the night darkened, the streets of downtown L.A. were calmer and quieter than earlier in the day when hundreds rallied. Law enforcement cleared protesters lingering in downtown Los Angeles around 9 p.m. Tuesday — an hour after the mayor’s curfew in the area came into effect.
  

• A court hearing set before U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco is scheduled for Thursday to hear arguments over the Trump administration’s deployment of both state National Guard forces and U.S. Marines to Los Angeles amid mass protests over sweeping federal immigration enforcement efforts. California asked the court Tuesday for a temporary restraining order blocking the deployments.

• At least five car washes in Los Angeles and Orange counties were targeted by immigration raids in recent days, according to CLEAN Carwash Worker Center, a local labor advocacy nonprofit. Chaos also broke out Tuesday when immigration agents raided fields in Oxnard and fanned out across communities in Ventura and Santa Barbara counties that grow a considerable portion of the state’s strawberries, avocados and celery.

WASHINGTON — The mission of President Trump’s extraordinary deployment of U.S. Marines and National Guardsmen to Los Angeles depends on whom you ask — and that may be a problem for the White House as it defends its actions in court on Thursday.

The hearing, set before U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco, will set off a rare test over the legality of a military deployment on American soil.

VIDEO | 01:39

How has protesting shaped Gen Z’s coming of age?

• Share via Close extra sharing options

  • Email
  • Facebook
  • X
  • LinkedIn
  • Threads
  • Reddit
  • WhatsApp
  • Copy Link URL Copied!

404 Gen Zer Rebecca Castillo talked to some of the Gen Z crowd in downtown L.A. to learn more about their relationship with protesting.

Law enforcement cleared protesters lingering in downtown Los Angeles around 9 p.m. Tuesday — an hour after the mayor’s curfew in the area came into effect.

One of the remaining protesters was seen bolting down 2nd Street as officers chased after him, tackling him to the ground and placing him in handcuffs.

The evening’s arrests came on the sixth day of protests against ongoing federal raids targeting immigrants without documentation.

As the night darkened, the streets of downtown L.A. were calmer and quieter than earlier in the day when hundreds rallied. A column of LAPD officers on horseback marched away from the scene as police drove detained protesters toward jail.

Some groups of protesters continued to gather later in the night. Around 10 p.m. in Koreatown, police cornered about 50 people, targeting two who had allegedly pointed a laser at a helicopter, according to reporting from KTLA.

A handful of residents were spectating nearby.

“This is like wasting tax money — for what?” Hines Buchanan, 48, said to The Times as he gestured to officers clutching weapons as they stood in the parking lot of a Korean supermarket. “It’s kind of silly.”

The Department of Homeland Security released a poster on social media Wednesday urging members of the public to report “foreign invaders.”

The poster depicts Uncle Sam hanging up a sign that reads, “Help your country ... and yourself ...” and includes an Immigration and Customs Enforcement hotline.

In the caption, DHS asks people to use the phone number to report criminal activity and help the government “locate and arrest illegal aliens.” The graphic was also shared on the White House Instagram account.

“It’s disgusting that they are turning this image of the nation into an anti-immigrant spokesperson,” said American cartoonist Lalo Alcaraz, who created “La Cucaracha,” the first nationally syndicated, politically themed Latino comic strip. He said the poster took a symbol that is meant to symbolize all Americans and turned it into a “white supremacist meme.”

Uncle Sam posters were originally employed as a tool to urge Americans to enlist in the Army during WWI. The posters were revived during WWII to once again recruit soldiers and spread other government messages such as promoting war bonds and warning against foreign espionage.

Veteran California GOP strategist Mike Madrid described the image as “pretty horrible, but kind of where we’re at, right?”

Madrid has studied the Latino electorate for more than three decades and recently wrote a book on how the Latino vote is transforming American politics.

“It reminds me of the America First movement of the 1930s. Clearly. Blatantly. They’re not even hiding it. That’s the overt message now,” he said. “There’s no design to be civilized or human anymore. It’s designed to be the personification of the U.S. turning on itself.”

Despite Madrid’s disillusionment with the Republican Party under the Trump administration, he remains a registered party member and says his fundamental conservative values have not changed.

“I have not changed one bit of who I was when I joined the Republican Party,” he said. “The fact so many of those folks have proven to lack character doesn’t change that fact.”

The Department of Homeland Security did not respond to a request for comment on the origin of the Uncle Sam poster.

As the sun set on the sixth consecutive day of protests against the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, the Los Angeles Police Department geared up to arrest the remaining protesters gathered downtown.

The first unlawful assembly of the day was declared and protesters ordered to disperse about 6:25 p.m. Officers began firing rubber bullets into the crowd at 7 p.m., prompting many to flee.

At 7:30 p.m. the LAPD announced they would be arresting all protesters who remained downtown. Fifteen minutes later, the protest had dwindled to a few dozen demonstrators corralled outside the county courthouse.

Protesters, seemingly resigned to their fate, began to sit on the road and write the number of bail support on their arms. More than a hundred law enforcement officers surrounded them on the block.

On Tuesday, Mayor Karen Bass enacted a curfew from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. for most of downtown L.A. in an effort to quell violence and vandalism from the protests. That night, 17 people were arrested on suspicion of violating curfew, police said.

The first dispersal order of the night in downtown Los Angeles came around 6:20 p.m.

After hundreds of protesters had marched Wednesday evening from Pershing Square to City Hall, L.A. police warned protesters to leave the area. Dozens of LAPD officers, backed by L.A. County sheriff’s deputies, declared the gathering an unlawful assembly.

As they rushed toward the protesters, they fired less-lethal munitions, causing the crowd to scatter. Police on horseback charged into the crowd, and several demonstrators fell to the ground. Officers pushed hundreds of protesters into Gloria Molina Grand Park, where they gathered and began chanting, “Shame.”

Saul Barnes, 22, had wandered up to see the spectacle from the hotel his family owned downtown. It had been an impossible week. The hotel workers, many of whom were Mexican, were terrified of the ICE raids. Many of the businesses next to him had been destroyed in the protests.

“It’s very disruptive to day-to-day life,” he said as he jogged away from a police officer on a horse.

“The raids, the protest — everything is destroyed,” he said. “Who the hell wants to work in a state like this?”

Meanwhile, in nearby Boyle Heights, the atmosphere was radically different.

After some opening remarks at Salazar Park, about 100 demonstrators took to the streets, passionately condemning federal immigration enforcement in Los Angeles with music, dance and chants.

“Migra [immigration authorities] out of East Los,” chanted community members as they entered the crosswalk of Whittier Boulevard and Alma Avenue.

Centro CSO, a grassroots immigrant-rights organization, organized the protest Wednesday after an individual was arrested by federal agents on suspicion of assaulting an agent. Federal agents rammed and trapped the car, which held a man, a woman and a child.

Matthew Hunter, who has been involved in Centro CSO demonstrations before, said the organization had been preparing to organize protests since President Trump’s election.

“Trump is obviously increasing the fascist pressure on these communities,” Hunter said. “It’s definitely one of those things where the entire community across L.A. County is feeling it — everybody is feeling it.”

“Whose streets? Our streets,” the demonstrators chanted as they crossed into the road and blocked traffic on Alma Avenue. A sheriff’s helicopter circled overhead briefly but quickly left.

At times, the Boyle Heights action resembled a celebration more than a protest.

Organizers and demonstrators The Times spoke with said they sought to maintain a peaceful atmosphere to combat media depictions of violent protests.

“The media is only depicting us as being negative like we’re criminals,” said Verica Topete, an organizer with Centro CSO.

The mood of the demonstrators remained positive, with some holding signs that read “ICE out of LA,” and “We’re all here illegally” as they accommodated passing vehicles. Cheers sounded as cars passed by honking in support of the protests.

“I think it’s very beautiful that everybody’s getting together,” said Julieta Cruz, her words nearly drowned out by music. “This is people’s getaway here in Boyle Heights, East L.A. … We feel comfortable here.”

“All eyes are on Los Angeles right now,” Topete said. “A lot of our family members and friends, some of them are still undocumented. … it’s really important for us to show our community that they’re not alone.”

Abraham Márquez, a reporter with the nonprofit investigative news startup Southlander, was filming a tense standoff between Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies and immigrant rights protesters in Paramount on Saturday night when he saw a deputy aim a “less-lethal” launcher in his direction.

Sensing a confrontation, Márquez said, he raised his press credential and “kept yelling press, press, press,” even as he turned and began running in the opposite direction. He barely made it a few feet before he felt a stinging pain as first one foam round, then another slammed into his buttocks and his back.

On Wednesday afternoon, hundreds of protesters near the federal building at Aliso and Temple streets in downtown L.A. seemed determined to avoid what happened in the early afternoon on Tuesday, when chaos descended.

Around 4:30 p.m., Najee Gow, 27, began leading hundreds of protesters far away from the federal building, which was lined with National Guard troops, and away from the freeway exits, blocked off by law enforcement.

“We’re going to remain peaceful,” warned Gow repeatedly as he led a crowd of a few hundred around downtown’s Civic Center and into Chinatown.

“F— these agitators.”

Gow, wrapped in a Mexican flag, said he was determined to put a stop to the stone-throwing and theft that he believed played into President Trump’s plan to flood the area with armed forces.

“We need to be smarter than him and out-think him, right? He wants us to be violent, so he can have an excuse to send more military, more Marines in here.

“But we’re too smart that,” Gow said as he led the crowd away from any signs of law enforcement.

The Mermaid hasn’t turned a profit since Saturday.

The aquatic-themed Little Tokyo bar is typically open daily and a hub for regulars, community events and off-duty workers of the hospitality industry, all bathed in soft blue lighting meant to replicate the ocean’s waves. But the Mermaid is closing. Many restaurants and bars in downtown’s hot zones for anti-ICE protests who are coping with an 8 p.m. curfew are closing or pivoting to other business models, or trying new hours of operation to weather the fallout from ongoing unrest spurred by widespread immigration raids.

If you are looking to support families that have been affected by the recent U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids as well as local immigrant communities in need, you have a number of donation options, including organizations that can accept monetary contributions, supplies and volunteer time.

The ICE raids over the past several days have impacted several communities in Los Angeles County, including the city of Los Angeles, Paramount, Culver City and Boyle Heights.

The Department of Homeland Security said federal agents will provide security for Saturday’s FIFA Club World Cup opener between Inter Miami and Egyptian club Al Ahly at Hard Rock Stadium in Miami Gardens, Fla.

“Let the games begin,” U.S. Customs and Border Protection wrote in a social media post Tuesday. “The first FIFA Club World Cup games start on June 14 in Miami, FL at the Hard Rock Stadium. CBP will be suited and booted ready to provide security for the first round of games.”

Roberto Recinos, a 21-year-old downtown Los Angeles resident, works at It’s Boba Time right by the Metropolitan Detention Center, where protests have been going on for six days.

Recinos said the demonstrations and curfew had resulted in far less foot traffic in recent days. By 2 p.m, the shop usually would have sold around 120 drinks, but on Wednesday, fewer than 40 had been sold.

Los Angeles County’s top prosecutor brought charges against eight people who allegedly attacked police, vandalized buildings and robbed stores during recent protests against immigration sweeps.

At a news conference Wednesday afternoon, Dist. Atty. Nathan Hochman vowed to “fiercely protect people’s rights to peacefully assemble” but also warned that those who engaged in violence, theft or property destruction would face severe consequences.

Hundreds of eighth-graders in freshly ironed button-down shirts and flowing dresses filed into Andrew Carnegie Middle School with their families Tuesday morning in high spirits.

But the graduation festivities at the school in Carson had an ominous undertone, as word had spread ahead of the event that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement might make an unwanted appearance.

When Mayor Karen Bass on Tuesday issued a curfew for downtown L.A. after the chaos of some ICE protests over the weekend, an unwelcome side effect took hold: Arts organizations inside the curfew zone had to cancel performances, notably “Hamlet” at the Mark Taper Forum and the final night of the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s Seoul Festival — which also happened to be the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s last evening at Walt Disney Concert Hall this season.

The curfew remains in effect Wednesday, and Center Theatre Group has again been forced to cancel director Robert O’Hara’s world-premiere adaptation of Shakespeare’s classic, starring Patrick Ball from the hit Max show “The Pitt.”

Driverless Waymo vehicles, coated with graffiti and engulfed in flames. Masked protesters, dancing and cavorting around burning American flags. Anonymous figures brazenly blocking streets and shutting down major freeways, raining bottles and rocks on the police, while their compatriots waved Mexican flags.

The images flowing out of Los Angeles over nearly a week of protests against federal immigration raids have cast America’s second most populous city as a terrifying hellscape, where lawbreakers rule the streets and regular citizens should fear to leave their homes.

Maj. Gen. Niave F. Knell, the deputy commanding general for the U.S. Army North, said in a court filing made public Wednesday that the California National Guard’s presence in the Los Angeles area included 2,112 troops and 256 vehicles.

Knell said the troops are protecting federal workers and property “through security patrols, observation posts and outer cordon security perimeter of buildings.”

“They are not performing law enforcement or any other functions,” Knell said.

The U.S. Marines are under her command, she said, and are “currently training in preparation to conduct similar protection operations.”