A quiet Monday morning in a Los Angeles neighborhood known as a hub for immigrants was disrupted by a surprise show of force by U.S. immigration officers and military forces.
Footage of the July 7 incident showed armed federal agents descending on MacArthur Park in Los Angeles’ Westlake neighborhood. Some rode horses, others came with armored military vehicles.
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Federal authorities have not explained the point of the exercise. But local authorities believe it was to sow fear as part of a continuing crackdown on the “sanctuary city” that has stood up to President Donald Trump’s anti-immigration agenda.
Los Angeles City Mayor Karen Bass visited the park pleading for the operations to end. At a conference later in the day, Bass said no one had been detained. She accused the Trump Administration of “ratcheting up chaos” and continuing an “all-out assault” on Los Angeles. “You can spin it any way you like,” she said, “but in my opinion, it’s a political agenda of provoking fear and terror.”
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, who has vocally condemned the Trump Administration’s immigration enforcement operations and excessive militarization in the state, said at a press conference that what was happening in MacArthur Park was a “disgrace.”
Speaking to a local Fox News outlet, Border Patrol El Centro Sector Chief Gregory Bovino said “the federal government is not leaving L.A.” and that the city “better get used to” their presence as “this is going to be normal very soon.”
National Guard still on duty
About 90 members of the California National Guard were deployed to the Westlake neighborhood park, though they were greeted by a mostly empty area because people were previously notified of the raid, according to the Associated Press.
Trump had federalized 4,000 members of the National Guard and deployed them in June in response to the protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids. Newsom and Bass have condemned Trump’s deployment of military forces for inflaming tensions in the city, but the Administration has argued that the deployment was necessary to assist ICE officials in carrying out operations.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth however, has since recalled around 150 of the guardsmen, so that they may assist with the state’s battles against wildfires.
ICE raids terrorize immigrant communities
ICE raids have continued in the city, even during the Fourth of July holiday. Officers arrested an unidentified number of people at a car wash in West Hollywood, which the city condemned in a statement, saying: “On a day meant to honor the ideals of liberty, democracy, and freedom from oppression, we instead confront a deeply troubling reminder of federal overreach. Independence Day should be a time for reflection and reverence, not fear and persecution.”
Bloomberg reported that some workers have disappeared—negatively impacting jobs and productivity at a time when the city’s economic performance is already under strain. Reuters reported that farms have lost their immigrant laborers amid the anxiety, leaving crops unharvested and prone to rot.
Legal challenges continue
Two legal challenges were recently filed against immigration enforcement in Los Angeles.
Five individuals and three groups sued the Department of Homeland Security in federal court on July 1, alleging that the department illegally arrested and detained people to meet arbitrary “arrest quotas.” The suit also claimed that the raids targeted people based on “their skin color and occupation” and alleged that arrested individuals are kept in “dungeon-like” facilities “often for days.”
DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin dismissed the claims in the complaint as “garbage” and denied supposedly poor conditions in those detention centers.
Meanwhile, a U.S. citizen who was arrested and detained while recording ICE raids is seeking $1 million in damages from the federal government. McLaughlin, in a statement to NBC News, said the man had assaulted and verbally harassed a federal agent which led to his arrest.
A case Newsom filed against Trump over the President’s deployment of the National Guard also remains ongoing.