Downtown Las Vegas businesses brace for weekend protests
'At first I was like 'ugh really,' but I came in, grabbed a razor blade, spray bottle, and just had to sit there and scrape slowly,' Lopez said. He is now preparing his business for the protests planned this weekend.
'I mean we're gonna prep as best we can, bring all our stuff inside, get stuff put away, possibly just take everything money-wise, valuable out of here,' said Lopez. The owner also plans to monitor the store's security cameras, since the business will be closed during those hours.
Other employees working at downtown businesses, who wanted to remain anonymous, told 8 News Now they are taking precautions. Many did not want to be named out of fear of retribution.
'The company we partnered with next door had to lock up their doors just as a precaution and for extra safety as well,' a woman told 8 News Now. She explained although they hope things won't get out of hand over the weekend, they are prepared to close their doors if it does.
'To close up early would impact our sales obviously, but we just want to make sure everyone's safe out there, especially our employees,' she said.
The downtown protest is expected to take place at the federal courthouse tomorrow from 5-7 p.m. According to a press release, it is meant to be 'peaceful protests against the Trump administration.'
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
38 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Government attempts to deport stateless Palestinian woman again
The federal government attempted to deport a stateless Palestinian woman on Monday for the second time, despite a court order barring her removal from a Texas district, according to court documents. The attempted deportation also came just days after the first stage of her green card application was approved, her husband Taahir Shaikh told ABC News, opening up a potential pathway for her to obtain permanent residency. Ward Sakeik -- a 22-year-old who is married to a U.S. citizen -- was detained by the government in February on her way home from her honeymoon in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Sakeik's family is from Gaza, but she is legally stateless and has lived in the U.S. since she was 8 years old. Her family had traveled to the U.S. on a tourist visa and applied for asylum, according to Shaikh. MORE: Newlywed bride's honeymoon ends with months of ICE detention and the prospect of deportation Sakeik was issued a deportation order more than a decade ago after her asylum case was denied, but she was permitted to stay in the U.S. under what's known as an "order of supervision," in which she was given a work permit and regularly checks in with federal immigration authorities, according to her attorney and her husband. After being detained in February, the government attempted to deport her once before. But last month, after that attempt, U.S. District Judge Ed Kinkeade in the Northern District of Dallas issued an order on June 22 barring the government from deporting Sakeik or removing her from the Texas district where she is being held as her legal case plays out. MORE: Newlywed bride's honeymoon ends with months of ICE detention and the prospect of deportation However, Sakeik told her attorney that she was awakened early Monday by an officer who told her that "she had to leave" and that she was being removed from Prairieland Detention Facility outside Dallas, Sakeik's attorney Eric Lee wrote in a court filing on Monday. "Sakeik informed me that when she arrived at intake, her belongings had been placed outside the door" and buses "were waiting outside to take her away," Lee wrote. "She was informed by officers that her departure from the facility was imminent." Sakeik told Lee that she attempted to tell at least one officer about the judge's order barring the government from moving her out of the Northern District of Texas but was told "it's not up to me," according to court documents filed by her attorneys. Sakeik was not able to contact her husband or attorneys Monday morning and Shaikh only discovered the government was attempting to remove her when another detainee called him and told him, he said. Shaikh and Sakeik's attorneys made a number of calls to Immigration and Customs Enforcement informing "multiple officers" of the order in place, her lawyers wrote in court documents. ICE officers told Sakeik's attorney that she would be placed on a flight scheduled to depart the facility but Sakeik and her attorneys were not informed where she was being taken, according to court documents. MORE: Mahmoud Khalil thanks supporters after release, vows to continue advocating for Palestinians At one point, as her attorney attempted to inform a detention facility supervisor about the judge's order, the supervisor said "she did not want to know about any court order, and then hung up before I could ask any additional questions," Sakeik's attorneys Hiba Ghalib and Lee wrote in court documents. After emailing the U.S. Attorney's Office about the attempt to remove her, Sakeik's attorneys received a response -- over 15 minutes after the flight's scheduled departure time -- that they were "looking into the matter and that the court's order would not be violated," according to court documents. Over an hour after the flight's scheduled departure time, an officer at Prairieland told Lee that "the notes in Ms. Sakeik's file indicated that there was a removal attempt [Monday]," according to court documents. Other detainees were also slated to be removed from the facility as well, including at least one individual who had been brought onto a tarmac with Sakeik in June, according to court documents. Last month, before the judge had issued his order, the government also attempted to deport Sakeik without informing her where she was being sent, her husband said. Sakeik told her husband an ICE officer told her she would be taken to the Israel border. After waiting at an airport for two hours, she was returned to the Prairieland Detention Center. She later found out this attempt to deport her was just hours before Israel launched airstrikes on Iran, Shaikh said. Asked about the attempt to remove Sakeik on Monday, a senior Department of Homeland Security official told ABC News again that she is in the country "illegally," sending ABC News the same statement it provided about her case last month. That statement read, in part, "The arrest of Ward Sakeik was not part of a targeted operation by ICE. She chose to leave the country and was then flagged by [Customs and Border Patrol] trying to reenter the U.S.," Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin said. When ABC News asked if the government's stance was that travel to the Virgin Islands, a U.S. territory, constitutes someone choosing to "leave the country," DHS provided an updated statement. "She chose to fly over international waters and outside the U.S. customs zone and was then flagged by CBP trying to reenter the continental U.S.," McLaughlin said in a second statement. "She overstayed her visa and has had a final order by an immigration judge for over a decade," McLaughlin said in the statement. "President Trump and Secretary Noem are committed to restoring integrity to the visa program and ensuring it is not abused to allow aliens a permanent one-way ticket to remain in the U.S." DHS did not acknowledge the judge's order barring Sakeik's removal from Texas or that she was previously under an order of supervision.
Yahoo
39 minutes ago
- Yahoo
ICE agents hurt as assaults surge 700% amid aggressive enforcement
Masked agents. Terrified suspects. Emotions running high as screaming crowds press in, cell phone cameras in hand. Amid surging immigration enforcement across the country, federal agents are being hurt and hospitalized as they make increasingly public – and risky – arrests of people they believe are undocumented immigrants. White House officials say there's been a 700% increase in assaults on agents, as President Donald Trump's massive deportation campaign ramps up. Administration officials say bold tactics are needed to repel what they call an "invasion" of immigrants. But policing experts say the aggressive approach is provoking unnecessarily dangerous encounters. In a recent incident in Nebraska, a female ICE agent was thrown to the ground and choked by an accused Tren de Aragua gang member who said he was formerly a Venezuelan soldier, according to court documents. The suspect escaped and was later captured with the help of local police. Bystander videos have captured agents wrestling suspects to the ground on crowded streets and chasing them through farm fields. One widely circulated video showed an agent grabbing a U.S. citizen by the neck in a Walmart parking lot as he resisted being taken; federal prosecutors charged the man with assault after he allegedly punched an agent. "Just this week, an ICE officer was dragged 50 yards by a car while arresting an illegal alien sex offender," Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told USA TODAY. "Every day the men and women of ICE put their lives on the line to protect and defend the lives of American citizens." Trump, who has promised to deport 1 million immigrants this year, ordered U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents "to do all in their power to achieve the very important goal of delivering the single largest mass deportation program in history." In a June 15 social media post, he also said: "Every day, the brave men and women of ICE are subjected to violence, harassment and even threats from radical Democrat politicians, but nothing will stop us from executing our mission, and fulfilling our mandate to the American people." Art Del Cueto, the vice president of the National Border Patrol Council, said the union's 16,000 members welcome Trump's tough new approach to immigration enforcement. Detainees are increasingly fighting back, he said, because they know there's no escape: "That's why you're seeing attacks on agents." But there's growing pushback from the public. Recent immigration sweeps in the Los Angeles area sparked widespread protests and small riots downtown, as people threw rocks at law enforcement and set patrol vehicles on fire, and federal agents responded with tear gas and pepper spray. In some cases, federal agents are getting into shoving matches with crowds trying to film or stop what they consider to be overzealous detentions, especially when the masked agents refuse to identify themselves. Policing experts say ICE agents are exacerbating tense situations with practices that many American police departments have largely disavowed. While there's little objection to detaining violent criminals, masked agents descending upon Home Depot parking lots to arrest day laborers and food vendors – most with no criminal record – sparks panic. "The aggressive police tactics being employed by the federal government are causing the issue," said longtime police supervisor Diane Goldstein, who now directs the Law Enforcement Action Partnership, which has spent decades working to develop trust between the public and police. "Their direction and their leadership is directly putting them in a horrific situation," she said. The ICE tactics on display are a dramatic departure from how cautiously ICE agents previously worked, said Jason Houser, a former Department of Homeland Security counterterrorism official. Houser is an Afghanistan combat veteran who was ICE chief of staff during the Biden administration. Previously, ICE agents prioritized serious criminal offenders for arrest, Houser said. A team of agents might work for days or weeks to surveil a single subject before making an arrest carefully timed to minimize risks to the public and to agents themselves. ICE agents are trained to "think about prioritization of public safety, risk and removability," he added. Internal Justice Department training programs stress that police agencies should focus on de-escalation whenever possible and avoid making arrests in public areas, especially when there's no imminent threat to public safety. "Now we have political quotas: 'Give me 3,000 arrests' (per day). And all gloves are off," Houser said. "It's not about public safety any more." An increase in assaults on officers and agents this year would reverse a three-year trend of declining incidents, according to internal Department of Homeland Security statistics. Despite millions of daily interactions with the public, it was rare for ICE, customs officers and Border Patrol agents to get attacked on the job. The agency logged 363 assault incidents in fiscal 2024, down from 474 incidents in fiscal 2023 and 524 in fiscal 2022, according to DHS data. U.S. Customs and Border Protection, which includes both customs officers and Border Patrol agents, has 45,000 law enforcement personnel and is the nation's largest law enforcement agency. Additionally, ICE has roughly 6,200 deportation agents on staff, though it's unclear how many additional federal agents have so far been re-assigned to immigration enforcement. White House officials declined to answer USA TODAY's questions about the numbers underlying the 700% increase in assaults, including the total number of injuries and their severity. However, DHS told FOX News there have been 79 agent assaults since Trump took office, through June 30, compared with 10 assaults during the same period a year ago. In Huntington Park, California, authorities in late June detained a man they said appeared to be pretending to be an ICE agent ‒ a situation they said was possible because real ICE agents are refusing to properly identify themselves as they aggressively detain people. Mayor Arturo Flores said the way ICE agents are acting does not present "the image of a just and lawful government." He said he can understand why people are angry and scared, especially knowing there are potential vigilantes and impersonators operating in the area. In response to the accused impersonator's arrest, Huntington Park leaders asked local police to verify the identity of anyone claiming to be an ICE agent. The suspect was found with multiple police radios, official-looking federal paperwork, flashing lights and a 9 mm handgun in his otherwise unmarked vehicle, according to city police. "When people cannot trust who is enforcing the law, public safety is undermined and fear begins to take hold," Flores said in a June 27 news conference. "What we are saying is simple: If you are acting with federal authority, show it. ID yourself Do not hide behind unmarked vehicles, face masks and vague credentials." Underlying the tension between ICE and members of the public is a fundamental fact: ICE is arresting a record number of people who have no criminal record. An analysis by the Libertarian Cato Institute shows ICE is arresting four times more people with no criminal convictions or criminal charges per week now than the agency did during the same period in June 2017, when Trump was also president. "This is a radical tactical shift compared to Trump 1.0," David Bier, Cato director of immigration studies, in a post on X. ICE officials said they are responding to interference by the public. They say advocacy groups are stalking agents as they try to make arrests, putting the agents at risk and allowing their targets to escape. Federal agents testifying before a Senate committee on June 26 said that during a recent enforcement operation, bystanders photographed an officer and posted the photo online with a threatening message. There have been a small but growing number of incidents, too, in which people called their local police department to report the presence of armed, masked men bundling community members into unmarked vehicles. ICE officials also often say that if hundreds of "sanctuary" jurisdictions around the country would hand over immigrants after they've completed a criminal sentence, that would reduce the need for agents to make risky, public arrests. But prior to Trump's enforcement ramp-up, about 70% of people arrested by ICE were transferred directly from the prison system into ICE custody, according to the nonprofit Freedom for Immigrants. Trump's new approach has pushed agents to make more arrests in the community at places like Home Depot. The push to meet a quota is driving agents toward raids and round-ups that expose them to greater risk in the field, says Goldstein of the Law Enforcement Action Partnership. She worries that aggressive tactics combined with masks will eventually lead to a shootout. Twenty-eight states have "Stand Your Ground" laws that allow citizens to shoot if they feel threatened. "If you have masked people running out at you, someone's going to pull a gun out and someone's going to get hurt," she said. Trump's Homeland Security leadership appears to have no plans to back down. "Federal law enforcement is facing an ever-escalating increase in assaults," DHS posted to X, "but we will not be deterred." This story has been updated to include new information. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Trump's aggressive immigration crackdown is getting ICE agents hurt
Yahoo
39 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Late-night noise latest tactic used in LA immigration protests: ‘No sleep for ICE'
The clanging of pots and pans. The steady thud of beating drums. The honking of passing cars with waving flags sticking out of the window. Bands playing traditional Mexican songs. Speakers shouting into megaphones. Chants coming from dozens of people. All unfolding into the middle of the night outside the Home2 Suites by Hilton in Montebello, California, in late June. The goal of this latest protest? Make as much noise as possible to try and keep U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers from sleeping and force them elsewhere. 'They were just making noise, playing music, and some people were dancing,' said Verita Topete, a leader of the immigration committee with Centro CSO, who took part in the protest. 'A lot of people were holding signs saying, 'ICE is not welcome here.'' She said she arrived by 8:30 p.m. on June 20, and before she knew it, a crowd began to show up on the sidewalk outside the hotel. By 10 p.m., dozens more protesters joined the group, and they didn't disperse until 3 a.m. Topete said that the next day, they returned with enough people to take over the two-lane street to block people from going into the front of the hotel. The protests were part of a nightly 'No Sleep for ICE' campaign in and around Los Angeles County, where protesters gather outside the hotels where ICE agents are staying and make noise to put pressure on the hotel staff to kick ICE out and prevent agents from sleeping. Topete said the protest is important 'to apply pressure and let city and state officials know that we don't agree with this' at a time when 'ICE agents are hunting down our working class community members as if they're criminals, throwing them to the pavement and taking them away from their workplaces.' During the second night in Montebello, Topete said a band showed up with drums and guitars and many people were dancing to traditional Mexican songs like "Caballo Dorado" and "La Chona." Others attended with their families. While most people were on foot, others passed by in their cars, waving Mexican flags and honking their horns. 'It was a very peaceful protest, just very noisy,' she said. An ICE spokesperson pushed back on the protests when asked for comment about the demonstrations outside of hotels. 'This violence is fueled by a disinformation campaign, which includes dangerous rhetoric by local elected officials," the ICE spokesperson said. "Our brave officers are out there every day enforcing the laws set by Congress, removing public safety threats from communities.' A spokesperson for Hilton Hotels did not return a request for comment. Other noise protests include one on June 8, two days after ICE began its raids in Los Angeles. Community members rallied outside the AC Hotel in Pasadena, about 10 miles from Los Angeles, to protest ICE agents' staying there. Hundreds of people had shown up outside the hotel in the early afternoon after a photo of ICE vehicles parked outside the hotel circulated on local group chats and social media pages. When some of the first protesters arrived, they learned that many of the hotel workers had left in fear. They chanted 'Chinga la Migra' and 'Fuera ICE,' and by the evening, the agents were kicked out of the hotel. Since then, protesters have continued rallying together outside hotels every night. 'The point is to drive ICE out of these hotels, and make their existence impossible here,' said Andrew Guerrero, a law student at the University of California, Los Angeles and PhD candidate at Harvard University. 'We don't want them to be able to access these amenities. We don't want our local neighborhoods to be harboring what a lot of us consider kidnappers.' Guerrero said he has attended multiple protests outside hotels in Los Angeles County, including ones in Hacienda Heights, Downey, Long Beach and Montebello. He said the protests 'let it be known that they cannot sleep peacefully when they're in our neighborhoods.' He attended a protest outside the Hilton in Montebello the day before Topete. When he got there around 11 p.m., he said there were already dozens of people, significantly larger than some of the other hotel protests he had been to. He said he brought pots and pans, a speaker, and a case of water for the protesters. 'It's like a little community building around it,' Guerrero said. 'Folks are going to multiple protests in one night and sharing resources and knowledge about what's happening and trying to keep each other informed.' Guerrero said the protests have also drawn support from those staying at the hotel. He said one man who came out of the hotel was nodding at the protesters, and another family going into the hotel gave them a thumbs up. He said that he sympathizes with anyone else staying there who might feel like 'it's creating a hostile environment,' but he believes 'it is a legitimate and just reason that this disruption is occurring.' 'It feels like we're under an occupation, and you just hear back-to-back stories, like, 'They took this person, they took this person,'' Guerrero said. 'They're literally disappearing people.' Some protests have been met with law enforcement resistance. When Kuali Aleman, an indigenous organizer and artist, arrived at a protest outside the DoubleTree by Hilton in Whittier, California, on June 11, she saw many people marching up and down the street with flags and signs. Other protesters stood huddled by the entrance of the hotel, chanting 'no one is illegal on stolen land' and 'get the f out of LA.' People were also blasting music through speakers and their cars or revving their motorcycles. But not long after that, Aleman said the Whittier police came out of the hotel and began launching less lethal weapons into the crowd. She said the protesters ran for cover, but not long after, they came back and resumed the protest. 'We just continued to protest and raise our voices because we don't like what's happening,' Aleman said. 'We demand answers because our friends or their relatives, neighbors, kids, adults, everyone of all ages, of all backgrounds, are being abducted.' The Whittier Police Department did not respond to requests for comment. Aleman said the decision to send federal agents to hotels in Los Angeles is a waste of resources that could otherwise have been put into community resources. 'It just doesn't make any sense to concentrate all our resources and manpower or people power on capturing hardworking people, people who are just trying to survive, selling fruit on the street or working in construction or on the fields or working anywhere, just not committing any crimes,' Aleman said. Topete said it is 'crazy to see how many cities are allowing ICE agents' to stay in their hotels. However, she said she is proud to see people taking to the streets to protest peacefully. 'I love seeing that the community is coming out and speaking up for undocumented community members that are being kidnapped,' Topete said. 'We have power over authority if everybody were to unite and come together, they just need to be fearless and not be scared to stand up for our people.' This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Los Angeles immigration protests: Noise outside hotels latest tactic