Federal agents executed a significant immigration raid in downtown Los Angeles on Monday, despite opposition from Mayor Karen Bass, who was present at the location to protest.
“We are accompanied by hundreds of federal agents and military personnel as a large-scale federal immigration enforcement operation is taking place in the MacArthur Park area of the sanctuary city of Los Angeles, which has a substantial MS-13 presence,” reported Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin on the X platform.
“Mayor Bass has called for an end to the raids, yet the federal agents have responded with one of the largest operations to date, including Border Patrol agents on horseback. Protesters are already arriving,” he further noted.
Melugin also posted a video showing Bass conversing with a Border Patrol agent, who appeared to make a call and subsequently handed the phone to her.
Local Fox affiliate KTTV-TV reported that the Democratic mayor could be heard on the phone stating, “They have completed their mission here,” and asking, “What’s the timeframe before they leave?”
When a reporter inquired if she wished to make a statement, Bass replied: “They need to leave and they need to leave right now, because this is unacceptable!”
The raid on Monday followed a series of anti-ICE protests and riots in Los Angeles last month in reaction to ongoing immigration enforcement. Tensions heightened further last month when U.S. Senator Alex Padilla, a California Democrat, was forcibly removed from a news conference in Los Angeles led by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.
She stated that immigration enforcement operations would continue in Los Angeles and other locations.
“We are not going away. We are here to liberate this city from the socialists and the burdensome leadership that this governor and mayor have imposed on this country and what they have attempted to instill in this city,” she declared.
At that point, Padilla abruptly interrupted Noem’s comments, approaching her and speaking loudly over her. Most individuals in the room were unaware of his identity until security personnel intervened and escorted him out.Later, Noem stated, “I had a discussion with the senator following this. We sat down for approximately 10 to 15 minutes and discussed the fact that no one was aware of his identity. He did not reveal who he was until he had already lunged forward, and individuals were attempting to detain him for a considerable amount of time.”
Border czar Tom Homan declared on Monday his commitment to persist with immigration enforcement operations in New York City and other sanctuary cities, even as the Trump administration readies legal action against Los Angeles and other areas that refuse to collaborate with federal authorities.
“We will be present in New York City, and President Trump mentioned this two weeks ago,” Homan informed reporters. “We are going to intensify our efforts on sanctuary cities. Why? Not due to their political affiliation as a blue city or blue state… but because we recognize that is where the issue lies.”
“They are releasing threats to public safety and national security onto the streets daily,” he remarked. “We are aware of this. We do not encounter such issues in Florida, where every sheriff in the state collaborates with us. I have stated it previously, we will inundate the area concerning sanctuary cities.”
“I have reiterated that we will inundate the area with sanctuary cities. If they refuse to allow us to apprehend a criminal in the county jail, we will apprehend them in the community; we will arrest them at a work site,” he continued.
“We are determined to apprehend the criminals, so if they do not wish to assist, they should step aside; we are coming to take action.”