Irina Park
We continue our coverage of the LA uprisings here and encourage readers to study our Editorial on the same topic.
Over the past few days, mass mobilizations and protests have erupted in Los Angeles in response to several immigration raids. Eyewitness news in L.A. stated that despite the attempted show of force by federal agents and the National Guard, and hours of protest in areas of Los Angeles, the crowd of resistance only got larger.
Protests began on Friday (06/09) and continued into Saturday after ICE and other federal agents conducted immigration raids at two clothing stores in downtown Los Angeles and a Home Depot in the Westlake District, resulting in 44 arrests. Among those arrested include president of the California Service Employees International Union (SEIU), David Huerta, who was charged with obstruction. Dozens of federal agents in tactical gear, helmets, camouflage, and armed with rifles arrived at the scene in armored vehicles and were quickly met by a crowd of immigrant activists and supporters. Protesters clashed with ICE agents outside of the Federal Detention Center on Saturday evening where some detainees were being held.
On Saturday, President Trump issued a Presidential Memoranda calling for 2000 members of the National Guard to be deployed in Los Angeles to respond to the people’s resistance. This is the first time in decades that a state’s national guard was activated without a governor’s request, pointing towards an escalation against those who seek to hinder mass deportation efforts. Governor Gavin Newsom of California sent a letter to Pete Hegseth, Trump’s defense secretary, who threatened to deploy Marines “if violence continues”, objecting to the deployment. The Democrat Governor has used the uprising to blame Trump for inflaming the situation as an electoral ploy while actively collaborating with the Republicans to violently suppress demonstrators. Meanwhile, local and state agents like LAPD provided a perimeter to enable ICE to complete their dragnet operations and even fired rubber bullets to attempt to disperse the crowd. The raids are proof of the false liberal “solution” of a so-called sanctuary city, which the LA city council voted on less than a year ago following Trump’s presidential victory.
300 federal troops arrived on Sunday and were met with hundreds of protesters, shouting “Shame!”. Protesters continued to escalate, taking over a major freeway in downtown LA and countering state forces with concrete blocks, rocks, bottles, commercial-grade fireworks, and driving motorcycles into police cordons. In spite of using tear gas, flashbang grenades, crowd-control ammunition and other chemical weapons to stifle the energy, the protests have grown increasingly militant and continued through Sunday night. Protests are scheduled to continue Monday at noon.
This is a developing story.
Photo: Protesters stand on top of a burned vehicle in LA, allegedly used by ICE.
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