Latest news with #MarqueeceHarrisDawson
Yahoo
12-07-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
‘Staging for a TikTok video': Mayor Bass, council members decry federal raid in L.A.'s MacArthur Park
Federal agents descended upon MacArthur Park in the Westlake district of Los Angeles on Monday as part of an apparent immigration raid that was quickly condemned by local leaders. KTLA's Rich Prickett reported that Department of Homeland Security and military vehicles were positioned at the park late Monday morning. He also counted at least four white vans similar to those used by federal agents to transport people to jails and detention sites. L.A. Mayor Karen Bass shared footage on social media of officers, including some on horseback, traversing a soccer field. 'Minutes before, there were more than 20 kids playing — then, the MILITARY comes through,' she wrote. '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.' Children in the park were attending a summer day camp around the time of the raid, Bass said. One of the officials in the raid told the Associated Press that the raid was 'going to be more overt and larger than we usually participate in,' though the news organization added that raid ended abruptly with no explanation. Bass, City Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez and Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson later decried the raids at a press conference on Monday afternoon. Bass said it 'was another example of the [Trump] administration ratcheting up chaos by deploying what looked like a military operation in an American city.' 'It's outrageous and unAmerican that we have federal armed vehicles in our parks when nothing is going on in the parks,' Bass said. 'It's outrageous and unAmerican that the federal government seized our state's National Guard.' 'We will continue to have each other's backs, and we will continue to demand the immediate withdrawal of federal troops and ICE from our city,' added Hernandez, who also said that she believes Los Angeles is a 'canary in a coal mine' for other cities. 'What you saw happening in MacArthur Park is coming to you,' she said in a message to leaders of other cities. The Los Angeles Times identified the agents as members of the Border Patrol and confirmed that Bass spoke via phone with someone she identified as 'the head of customs,' asking 'you're getting ready to leave? Can you leave ASAP?' Presumably, she was referring to Rodney Scott, commissioner of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, though the Times did not name him. KTLA reached out to the Department of Homeland Security, which responded Tuesday afternoon with a one-sentence statement: 'We don't comment on ongoing enforcement operations.' The Los Angeles Police Department told KTLA they are not assisting in the federal actions, though officers were present for crowd control. The National Guard has deployed approximately 90 troops to support the federal agents, according to the AP. While the number of people detained on Monday was unclear, more than 1,600 people were arrested between June 6 and 22, according to the Times. Monday's incident, however, appears to be more for optics than an actual crackdown, Harris-Dawson said. 'This morning looked like the staging for a TikTok video,' he said. 'And what we say to Border Patrol as the Council, if you want to film in L.A., you should apply for a film permit like everybody else and stop trying to scare the bejesus out of everybody in this great city.' Sofia Pop Perez and Luis Zuniga contributed to this report. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
CBS News
30-06-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
Department of Justice files lawsuit against Los Angeles, Mayor Bass over sanctuary city policies
The Department of Justice has filed a lawsuit against Mayor Karen Bass and the city of Los Angeles over sanctuary city policies, claiming they "interfere with the federal government's enforcement of its immigration laws," the department says. In the lawsuit, the DOJ alleges that days after President Trump won the November 2024 election, the city of LA and its officials worked to "thwart the will of the American people" by beginning to codify sanctuary city policies into law. The DOJ claims that LA's sanctuary city ordinance, Prohibition of the Use of City Resources for Federal Immigration Enforcement, signed by Bass on Dec. 9, 2024, prevents Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents from carrying out their obligations under federal law. "Today's lawsuit holds the City of Los Angeles accountable for deliberately obstructing the enforcement of federal immigration law," said U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli for the Central District of California. "The United States Constitution's Supremacy Clause prohibits the City from picking and choosing which federal laws will be enforced and which will not." Court documents name the city of Los Angeles, Mayor Karen Bass, the Los Angeles City Council and Council President Marqueece Harris-Dawson as the defendants. CBS Los Angeles has reached out to Bass, Dawson and the city attorney for a comment and is awaiting a response. The lawsuit adds that the U.S. is currently facing a "crisis of illegal immigration" and claims the government's efforts to address the crisis are "hindered" by LA's sanctuary city policies. The lawsuit comes weeks after immigration operations across Southern California began ramping up, prompting demonstrations that mainly started peacefully but escalated into clashes between protestors and law enforcement. As a result, Mr. Trump ordered members of the National Guard and U.S. Marines to deploy to the region. A section of downtown LA was also affected by the violent demonstrations, including businesses being looted and public property being vandalized. Bass issued a curfew for a portion of downtown, which was lifted seven days after when safety conditions started to improve.
CBS News
23-05-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
LA City Council approves $13.9 billion budget that reduces layoffs to 600
The Los Angeles City Council approved a $13.9 billion budget, which has revisions that spared 1,000 jobs while also closing the city's nearly $1 billion deficit. Tensions at City Hall boiled over in the heated debate leading up to the 12-3 vote as council members expressed their anger and frustration over the situation. Councilman Marqueece Harris-Dawson described the spending plan as "the least bad we could do," while Councilwoman Traci Park called it "a bottomless pit and taxpayer boondoggle that doubles down on failure." "The idea of cutting a billion dollars, there's just not a good way to do that," Harris-Dawson said. "You can try to be responsible. You can try to be forward-looking. You can try to do harm reduction. But, there isn't a good way to do that." Mayor Karen Bass' original proposed budget included 1,647 layoffs and the elimination of 1,074 vacant positions. However, the revised plan that the council approved reduced the number of layoffs to roughly 600, in part by slowing down police hiring. The Los Angeles Police and Fire Departments will not receive increases in their budgets either. Council members who voted against the budget were unsatisfied with the changes, especially given that the city will soon host the World Cup and the Olympics. "All of our residents and taxpayers want is a fully-funded police and fire department," Park said. "They want the sidewalks fixed. They want the streetlights to work and they want their kids to be able to play at the local park without having to step over drug and trash camps." Council members who voted in favor of the budget defended their decision. "We took a horrible budget proposal and made it into one that's very bad," Councilman Bob Blumenfield said. "But that's an accomplishment. But it is better, and we did save jobs, but the fundamentals are still very bad."
