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Gov. Gavin Newsom filed a request from the Trump administration on Sunday to explain why Border Patrol agents phalanx appeared outside a press conference held by major California Democrats last week.
Newsom has submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for “all documents and records” related to the August 14 Border Patrol operation in downtown Los Angeles. At a press conference, Newsom announced a campaign seeking voter approval to redraw California’s congressional map to increase the likelihood of robbing the House in the 2026 midterm elections and obstructing Trump’s agenda.
“Trump’s use of military and federal law enforcement to blackmail his political opponents is another dangerous step towards authoritarianism,” Newsmom posted on X on Sunday.
Newsom announced the “Election Rigging Response Method” at a press conference. This mapped Congress independently to support Texas and other GOP-led states, supporting people sketched by Democratic strategists to gerrymand their districts in support of the Republic in the middle of 2026. Meanwhile, a large number of armed federal agents gathered on adjacent streets wearing masks, helmets and camouflage.
Newsom and other leading Democrats, including La Mayor Karen Bass, dismissed the border patrol actions as threatening tactics. In response to questions from the Times on Sunday, Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said the agents were “focusing on law enforcement.” [Newsom]. ”
McLaughlin said the two were arrested during Little Tokio’s operation. McLaughlin said the other was a member of Venezuelan gangster Tren de Aragua, who was the focus of the Trump administration’s efforts to speed up deportation efforts using alien enemy laws.
She did not answer questions about the number of agents deployed in the August 14 operation or which specific agencies were involved. Border Patrol chief Gregory Bovino, who has led the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration operations in California, was on the scene and briefly spoke to reporters.
McLaughlin did not respond to any of the names of those arrested to requests for further information or evidence of the link between the arrest and the Venezuelan gang.
“Under President Trump [Department of Homeland Security] Secretary [Kristi] Noem, if you break the law, you will face consequences,” she wrote in an emailed statement.
The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
On Thursday, witnesses at the scene identified one of the men arrested as Angel, a delivery worker who was carrying strawberries when he was captured.
“He was making the usual delivery to court,” said the man’s colleague Carlos Franco. “I’m pretty sad because the Angels aren’t there because I have to go to work tomorrow.”
In the FOIA request, Newsom Attorney General David Sapp called the deployment of the Border Patrol “an attempt to intimidate Californians from advocacy for a fair election process.”
In addition to documents relating to the planning of the attack, the FOIA request calls for “records referring to Governor Newsom or any scheduled gatherings” and communications between federal law enforcement officials and Fox News.
Trump’s increasing use of military and federal law enforcement against his political rivals has sparked growing concerns over the past few months. The president deployed the National Guard and the US Marines earlier this year to quell protests against immigrant raids in Los Angeles. Last week, Trump sent a pack of federal law enforcement officials to Washington, D.C., to fight what he considers as a contrasting crime, despite most crime statistics showing violence in the country’s capital being the first in 30 years.
Newsom requested an answer by early September, but the federal government is notoriously slow to respond to FOIA requests, often delaying responses for years. A Newsom spokesman did not immediately answer questions, if any, about other legal measures the governor was ready to take.
Voters will need to approve Newsom’s plan to redraw the parliament’s map in the November special election. The new map, drawn by Democratic strategists and lawmakers, is drawn behind closed doors instead of voters’ previously chosen independent committees, focusing Republican voters in several deep red pockets in the state, eliminating the Internal Empire districts that the GOP has been holding for a long time.
In total, Democrats could have won five California seats in the middle of the redrawn map, possibly countering or overtaking Republican efforts to redraw Texas’ maps. Other states are already beginning to consider redrawing their maps along more partisan lines in response to growing unrest over the fight to control the House of Representatives in 2026.
Times staff writer Seema Mehta contributed to this report.
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