LA mayor Karen Bass confronts heavily armed federal agents conducting apparent immigration sweep in park

New York Post

5 hours ago

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass confronted a group of heavily armed federal agents conducting an apparent immigration sweep at a local park on Monday, demanding law enforcement leave the greenspace.
Officers with Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection and the military units deployed by President Trump arrived at MacArthur Park in force, with the agents seen carrying rifles and traveling across the grounds on foot, horseback and in armored vehicles.
Bass, who was due to meet with California Gov. Gavin Newsom in the morning, showed up in the middle of the operation to yell at the agents to get out of the park, slamming the demonstration as a 'political stunt.'
6 LA Mayor Karen Bass confronted border officers operating a sweep across MacArthur Park on Monday.
AP
6 Officers on horseback rode around the park, disrupting services for its homeless inhabitants, according to the St. John's Community Health Center.
AP
'They need to leave and they need to leave right now!' Bass yelled after getting off the phone with someone coordinating the officers.
'What I saw in the park today looked like a city under siege,' she told reporters following the confrontation. 'It's outrageous and un-American to have armed vehicles in our American parks.'
Bass was only at the park momentarily after speaking with CBP Assistant Chief Patrol Agent David Kim, who handed her a direct line to 'the head of customs,' she added, noting that the agents left moments later.
Bass and members of the LA City Council said the sweep disrupted a children's summer camp, with the children corralled into a nearby basement while waiting for the agents to leave.
6 The armed forces arrived in armored vehicles, vans and SUVs in an apparent show of force.
Chelsea Lauren/Shutterstock
6 The agents were seen marching across an empty soccer field where a children's summer camp session was behing held.
X/@MayorOfLA
The raid also pushed out members of the St. John's Community Health Center who were conducting their daily check ups with homeless individuals at the park, officials added.
The mayor also went onto X to vent about the operation at MacArthur, posting time-lapse video of the agents marching across an empty soccer field inside the park.
'Minutes before, there were more than 20 kids playing — then, the MILITARY comes through,' she said of the raid.
6 Horse-mounted Border Patrol agents at MacArthur Park.
AP
'The SECOND I heard about this, I went to the park to speak to the person in charge to tell them it needed to end NOW. Absolutely outrageous,' Bass added.
It remains unclear if anyone was arrested during the sweep, as activists had gone around the park to warn people to leave before the officers marched through, the Los Angeles Times reported.
'I think the goal is to spread fear,' Bass said of Monday's raid at the park, as she vowed to uphold the city's status as a sanctuary for immigrants.
6 Bass condemned the deployment at the park as a 'political stunt' and vowed that LA would remain a sanctuary city.
AP
The LA Police Department said it was unaware of the federal operation going on at MacArthur Park.
CBP, which led the operation, did not immediately respond to The Post's request for comment. The Department of Homeland Security said it does not comment on ongoing enforcement operations.
Los Angeles has become a hotbed for the Trump administration's immigration policy, with the city seeing chaotic raids and protests unfold last month.
The Trump administration has since sued the city, claiming LA is obstructing immigration enforcement operations through its sanctuary city policies.
Bass said the city was mounting its own legal challenges against Trump over the raids and deployment of troops in LA.