Federal officials, including the president, appear to want to step up enforcement activities in democratic cities like Los Angeles, as many Southern California communities are terrified by the ongoing immigration and customs enforcement raids.
The onslaught of ice raids in Southland have prompted more than a week of massive protests throughout the region, some of which have become violent, leading to more than 500 arrests and a square mile curfew in downtown, surrounded by 5, 10 and 110 highways.
On Saturday, one of the most popular swap events across LA County was attacked by around 60 heavily armed federal agents with tactical equipment, and it could also be running with customers and vendors.
The attack, which includes a Department of Homeland Security helicopter, led to the arrests of two individuals, both said they had criminal records other than illegally entering the United States. This is a misdemeanor.
In another example, the four pregnant mothers, a US citizen and her children were forced by heavily armed agents to leave their Huntington Park home while Ice searched the residence room in the residence room for the husband of a female, an undocumented man who held criminal records, according to federal officials.
The raid unfolds with DHS secretary Christy Noem, watching from the street as the agent could not find the man.
Dozens of Heavy Armed Masked Ice Agents (KTLA) saw them raid on Santa Fe Springs Swap Meat on June 14, 2025
A new report from CNN shows that internal government documents obtained by the outlet show that less than 10% of the estimated 185,000 people arrested on ice between October 2024 and May 2025 have been convicted of serious crimes, including rape, murder, assault and robbery.
More than 75% of those detained during that same period were not criminally convicted beyond immigration or traffic-related crimes, according to ICE documents.
In a Sunday post to his social media platform, Truth Social, President Trump called “Do everything in their power to achieve the very important goal of providing the single largest, massive deportation program in history.”
Ice Agent and the Wrong LA Deputy Cause Tension Neighborhood Conflict
Trump continued his posts in LA, New York and Chicago, calling them “the Democratic Power Centers that “are home to millions of illegal foreigners.”
In Canada, at the G7 conference, the president doubled his inflammatory rhetoric.
“Yeah, the city is where you really have what you call a sanctuary city and that’s where people are,” he told reporters. “New York and LA- Looking at LA, those people aren’t from LA, they’re not from California, they’re most of those people, a lot of people.”
Locally, demonstrators gathered in Santa Fe Springs to protest the swap meet raid that occurred over the weekend.
“The worst thing is the way they treat people, the inhumanity, the cruelty,” Emilia Garcia told KTLA.
The time period for federal immigration officials to make a massive deportation effort in Southern California is unknown, with some estimates suggesting that it could be between 30 and 60 days.
In the meantime, LA Mayor Karen Bass reduced downtown curfew times as conditions stabilized a week after civil unrest.
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