Los Angeles Councillor Eunisses Hernandez is calling on the city to develop clearer protocols on the Immigration Sanctuary Act after Los Angeles police officers were found during enforcement work in Southern Los Angeles on Friday.
In a video circulating on social media, the federal government of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency, a neighbor cried out, calling “dog” “dog” in Spanish in the apartment building in the 400 block of East 41st Street. The Coalition of Humanitarian Immigrant Rights, which operates hotlines to report attacks, said it also submitted calls for several enforcement actions across the county.
ICE spokesperson Yasmeen Pitts O’Keefe said there was “continued investigation into human smuggling.” She did not provide details of the surgery, including how many individuals were arrested or how widespread it was.
At least one resident – Jessica, 22, refused to give her last name for fear of law enforcement retaliation, said she saw at least two people in custody. She said LAPD officials are helping with the surgery by blocking traffic to the neighborhood.
The Sanctuary Act in Los Angeles prohibits the use of city employees and city property in “investigation, citation, arrest, arrest, transfer, detention or detention” for the purpose of immigration enforcement. But that excludes law enforcement investigations into serious crimes.
On Friday evening, Chief of Los Angeles Police Department Jim McDonnell said officers were in Newton Division.
“I absolutely want to be clear. The LAPD is not participating in citizen immigration enforcement,” he said. “This has been a divisional policy since 1979 and remains the same today.”
LAPD CMDR. Germany’s Hurtado said federal immigration officers have requested assistance in today’s enforcement activities in the city, but the department declined due to years of policy on such actions. The department works with federal authorities in cases where arrest warrants for certain violent crimes are included.
After watching the Tiktok video of the case, Hernandez introduced a city council motion and asked city counsel to outline “clear guidance and understanding of their responsibility under the city’s sanctuary city ordinance.”
“If these federal agencies exist, it is the responsibility of city councils and other city leaders to alleviate confusion and panic within our community, stating the rights of resources they have available and the motion that they need to go before the full council to vote.
In an emotional plea to her colleague, Hernandez said some of her enforcement activities were taking place in her district on Friday.
“We have to put everything on the line to protect our families, in order to protect a significant portion of the population in Los Angeles and Los Angeles,” she said. “I’m asking you to prepare. My field office is available to anyone who needs to know your rights information.”
The woman told Fox11 that an immigration agent had entered her home and took the 18-year-old guest. Video broadcast at the station shows that the walls were damaged in the house and the mattress capsized.
Council Chairman Markey Harris Dawson, who represents parts of South LA, said at a meeting Friday that Ice Agent and his district of trustee Karen Price knocked on the door, pulled the car and “doing a lot of things that are suspicious of legality.”
“I was on the street where my neighbors were helping my neighbors,” Harris Dawson said. “People who didn’t know their rights, their neighbors were telling them their rights.”
Harris Dawson said ice agents were found in an area surrounded by Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in the north, Florence Avenue in the south, Avalon Boulevard in the east and Vermont Avenue in the west.
“People are sending us photos, people are sending us videos,” he said. “I have staff. There’s no official announcement, so it’s fragmented.”
Since President Trump took office and pledged to “a massive deportation,” immigration rights activists have been strengthened.
Ron Gosches, a member of the community’s Self-Defense Coalition, is a group of over 60 organisations patrolling the city in search of immigration enforcement measures, said they arrived at the South Central Apartment building around 7:45am.
“We got there and there were a lot of federal agent cars out there, and that wasn’t surprising,” he said. “But what’s surprising is that there were multiple LAPD vehicles right next to the federal agent vehicle.”
He got on the megaphone and began telling people not to come out, to talk to ice agents, not to sign anything. He saw people in his apartment.
“They heard me, and they all saw me,” he said. “I saw the kids.”
This claim will be sent to the Public Safety Commission before going to the full council for consideration.
Times staff writer David Zanizer contributed to this report.
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