The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement conducted a series of immigrant sweeps Friday afternoon and over the weekend, blew out protests in the heart of Los Angeles, causing gusts of disinformation online.
Over the past few days, rumors of extreme scenarios have permeated public discourse about school graduation, local Home Depots, and ice attacks at hotels where agents are staying.
Here are some rumors about the ice behaviour in Los Angeles and what we know about the protests in the area:
Are protesters clashing with ice throughout Los Angeles?
Out-of-California media and social media users are calling Los Angeles a war zone after protesters and law enforcement clashes since Friday.
Fact check: Los Angeles is a vast Southern California city that includes over 500 square miles.
The demonstrations and skirmishes between law enforcement and protesters are primarily staying at the Civic Center in downtown LA. This is an area spanning several urban blocks, home to courthouses, federal buildings and LAPD headquarters. Several protests have also spread to the spread of the 101 highway near the downtown immigration detention center.
Protesters gathered in other parts of Los Angeles County where ice attacks and ice personnel were present outside the Pasadena Hotel in Paramount, near Home Depot and Santa Ana.
“There is no emergency, widespread threat, or out of control violence in Los Angeles,” said Rick Caruso, a Los Angeles real estate developer and former president of the LA Police Commission.
Protesters in front of law enforcement officials near the federal building in downtown Los Angeles on Monday.
(Jason Armand/Los Angeles Times)
Did Ice attack school graduation?
In a tearful Instagram video on Friday, user @heymrhowie escaped from the graduation ceremony on Gratts Elementary, saying she heard they left the children behind because they didn’t have paperwork.
“And the kids are grabbing the teacher and crying their legs because they don’t know if they’re going to see their parents when they get home,” he said in the video. “What is this??”
Fact check: Monday, Supt, Los Angeles Unified School District. Alberto Carvalho said there has been no confirmed threat to Friday’s pinnacle at Gratz Elementary School, just west of downtown.
“We investigated that,” Carvalho said at a press conference:
He said, “What is possible is that, given the level of fear and awareness in our community, if you drive three unmarked vehicles, three minivans, three SUVs and a neighborhood, you’ll suspect that’s possible.
The director urged families whose children attended LAUSD schools to update their school contact information and emergency information.
He also advised families to prepare a backup plan if caregivers are detained.
Ice stayed at a hotel in Pasadena and asked the workers questions?
There were reports of ice workers operating in the area staying at a hotel in Pasadena, where they questioned the immigration situation of hotel staff. The protesters reportedly destroyed government vehicles parked at the site.
Fact check: Pasadena City spokesman Lisa Derderian confirmed that federal agents were staying as guest rooms at least two hotels and were found at a local coffee shop, but local officials were unaware of the “raid.”
“You know, ICE doesn’t coordinate with our city,” says Derderian.
Protesters dance in the streets as the Los Angeles Police Department attempts to surround a crowd of protesters in downtown Los Angeles.
(Jason Armand/Los Angeles Times)
More than 100 people held a rally outside the AC hotel to protest the presence of federal agents.
City officials also attended protests, including Councillor Rick Cole, who called for the necessary meetings to send messages.
“In Pasadena, people gather across the street from the AC Hotel to clarify the malicious attacks on workers and families,” he said in a Facebook post. “I stand with them. While reasonable people can oppose federal immigration policies, the attack is an attack on American values as a policy designed to terrorize their neighbors and often deport them to hellish states.”
On Monday there was a quiet ham of traffic passing through Colorado Boulevard outside the AC hotel. A hotel employee who refused to give his name said there was no additional protest outside the building and was quiet overnight.
A lonely flyer reading “Ice Out of LA” was placed on the balcony on the third floor.
Pasadena has been hosting federal officials for several months since the Eton Fire burned nearby Altadena, Deldarian said.
“We have a long way to support communities deeply affected by the fire, so ask the public not to assume that all federal vehicles marked are connected to a ‘raid’,” Darderian said.
Is the virus X posts in multiple police cars a flame of fire?
Images of the Flames in Los Angeles police cars were ramped over the weekend with X, but the video footage is realistic, but not during the anti-ice protests.
On Sunday, the former actor, conservative critic James Woods, shared a video of a police vehicle burning to nearly five million followers on X, saying, “If I hear another leftist sill in mainstream media that uttered the word ‘peaceful protest’, I’ll throw it.”
Wood’s post has received over 9 million views and was reposted by at least 16,000 other X users.
One of the X users who reposted the video was US Republican Sen. Ted Cruz, referring to the suspect’s actions by protesters in Los Angeles, with the comment, “This is… not peace.”
Fact check: Video content from both posts has been removed from X. Because images and clips of the police car are from the 2020 protests in Los Angeles and are not recent anti-ice demonstrations.
During the current protest, the windshield of a Los Angeles police vehicle was smashed, heavy items were thrown at it, and windows behind others were destroyed by protesters.
A video posted on social media shows protesters along 101 highways throwing concrete and other heavy items at California Highway Patrol cruisers. The only burning vehicle was a group of autonomous Waymos burning out on Sunday evenings.
What happened on Paramount on Saturday?
Fact check: Assembly member Josell Is Solash Jr., representing the Paramount area, including Home Depot, in the heart of Saturday’s conflict, was driving to a community event in nearby Lakewood when he spotted a caravan of US customs and border protection vehicles off the Alondra Boulevard highway.
Solache Jr. tracked the vehicle down to the Paramount Business Centre office park across from Home Depot, where federal law enforcement is located.
He posted information on social media, urging the arrival of protesters.
Protesters and authorities allegedly clashed several days and evenings all day, causing the Trump administration to send 2,000 National Guard troops to Los Angeles, overwhelming local law enforcement.
Tensions rose in the afternoon as ice agents tried to clear the road to Alondora Boulevard and other unmarked vehicles leaving the business park.
Officials fired tear gas and flash bang hand rena bullets at demonstrators who threw rocks and other objects at federal vehicles departing from the gates of the business park.
One of the most important people who allegedly throw rocks at law enforcement and injuring officers is currently on the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s most wanted list.
The FBI is currently seeking public help in identifying men.
The conflict began to end by midnight when demonstrators began leaving the area.
Times staff writers Reuben Vibbs and Rachel Ulanga contributed to this report.
