Tense standoffs erupted between U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and protesters in Downtown Los Angeles on Friday, as people attempted to thwart illegal immigration sweeps.
Viral video showed ICE agents escorting handcuffed people into vans as protesters shouted them down, with one individual throwing eggs at the moving vehicles. In one video, a man could be heard yelling in Spanish to warn the people nearby about the impending raids. Per the Los Angeles Times:
Another raid occurred at a business in the Garment District, with agents in riot gear detaining workers at a clothing store as dozens of people began to gather outside. As workers were hauled off in cuffs, throngs of people yelled at the agents and held up cellphones to record them, according to videos of the showdown. One person threw eggs at one of the vehicles as agents pushed members of the public back, the videos showed.
In the street, immigrant-rights advocates stood on a bed of a truck, using megaphones to speak to the workers inside the store, reminding them of their constitutional rights and instructing them not to sign anything or say anything to federal agents. They also told the agents that lawyers wanted access to the workers, and sometimes called out specific names.
Officials from the Service Employees International Union said in a statement that its California president, David Huerta, was detained and injured during a downtown raid “while exercising his First Amendment right to observe and document law enforcement activity.” The union said he was receiving medical care while in custody and called for his immediate release.
In one particularly harrowing scene, a protester backpedaled in front of a van as it attempted to slowly move forward with people swarmed around the outside. When the man fell back, the van high-tailed it from the area:
Yasmeen Pitts O’Keefe, a spokesperson for Homeland Security Investigations, a branch of ICE, said federal agents were executing warrants of people being harbored in the United States illegally. Los Angeles officials, including Mayor Karen Bass (D), denounced the operation.
“These actions are escalating: agents arrive without warning and leave quickly, aware that our communities mobilize fast,” Los Angeles Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez said in a statement. “I urge Angelenos to stay alert.”
Mayor Karen Bass said the raid sow “terror in our communities and disrupt basic principles of safety in our city… We will not stand for this.”
Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell said in a written statement his department had no hand in the operation.
“I’m aware that these actions cause anxiety for many Angelenos, so I want to make it clear: the LAPD is not involved in civil immigration enforcement,” he said. “While the [department] will continue to have a visible presence in all our communities to ensure public safety, we will not assist or participate in any sort of mass deportations nor will the LAPD try to determine an individual’s immigration status.”
“I want everyone, including our immigrant community, to feel safe calling the police in their time of need and know that the LAPD will be there for you without regard to one’s immigration status,” he added.
***UPDATE 9:10 p.m. Pacific***
