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Federal authorities arrest dozens for immigration violations across Los Angeles
Federal authorities arrest dozens for immigration violations across Los Angeles

Toronto Sun

time07-06-2025

  • Politics
  • Toronto Sun

Federal authorities arrest dozens for immigration violations across Los Angeles

Published Jun 07, 2025 • 4 minute read Law enforcement officers gather as tear gas fills the air during a protest after federal immigration authorities conducted an operation on Friday, June 6, 2025, in Los Angeles. Photo by Jae C. Hong / AP LOS ANGELES (AP) — After federal immigration authorities arrested more than 40 people Friday across Los Angeles, protesters gathered outside a federal detention center demanding their release before police in riot gear tossed tear gas canisters to disperse the crowd. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS ONLY Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. SUBSCRIBE TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Subscribe now to read the latest news in your city and across Canada. Unlimited online access to articles from across Canada with one account. Get exclusive access to the Toronto Sun ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition that you can share, download and comment on. Enjoy insights and behind-the-scenes analysis from our award-winning journalists. Support local journalists and the next generation of journalists. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors Don't have an account? Create Account Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers executed search warrants at multiple locations, including outside a clothing warehouse where a tense scene unfolded as a crowd tried to block agents from driving away. Sirens blared as protesters surrounded black SUVs and tactical vehicles. Officers threw flash bangs into the street to disperse people as they shouted and filmed the scene with their cell phones. One demonstrator tried to physically stop a vehicle from leaving. Forty-four people were arrested on immigration violations across multiple locations, said Yasmeen Pitts O'Keefe, a spokesperson for Homeland Security Investigations. The president of SEIU California, a major labor union, was arrested and charged for impeding a federal agent while protesting, the U.S. Attorney's office said. Your noon-hour look at what's happening in Toronto and beyond. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said the activity was meant to 'sow terror' in the nation's second-largest city. Federal immigration authorities have been ramping up arrests across the country to fulfill President Donald Trump's promise of mass deportations. Todd Lyons, the head of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, defended his tactics earlier this week against criticism that authorities are being too heavy-handed. He has said ICE is averaging about 1,600 arrests per day and that the agency has arrested 'dangerous criminals.' Protests recently broke out after an immigration action at a restaurant in San Diego and in Minneapolis, when federal officials in tactical gear showed up in a Latino neighbourhood for an operation they said was about a criminal case, not immigration. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. In Los Angeles, federal agents executed search warrants at three locations, O'Keefe said. But Angelica Salas, executive director for the Coalition of Humane Immigrant Rights, or CHIRLA, said advocates were aware of activity at seven locations, including several Home Depot parking lots and a doughnut shop. At the warehouse in the fashion district, agents had a search warrant after they and a judge found there was probable cause the employer was using fictitious documents for some of its workers, U.S. Attorney's Office spokesperson Ciaran McEvoy confirmed. Dozens of protesters gathered Friday evening outside a federal detention center in Los Angeles where lawyers said those arrested had been taken, chanting 'set them free, let them stay!' This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Other protesters held signs that said 'ICE out of LA!' while others led chants and shouted from megaphones. Some scrawled graffiti on the building facade. Officers holding protective shields stood shoulder to shoulder to block an entrance. Some tossed tear gas canisters to disperse the crowd. Officers wearing helmets and holding batons then forced the protesters away from the building by forming a line and walking slowly down the street. 'Our community is under attack and is being terrorized. These are workers, these are fathers, these are mothers, and this has to stop. Immigration enforcement that is terrorizing our families throughout this country and picking up our people that we love must stop now,' Salas, of CHIRLA, said at an earlier press conference while surrounded by a crowd holding signs protesting Immigration and Customs Enforcement. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. Protesters gather at the U.S. Department of Justice Federal Bureau of Prisons after federal immigration authorities conducted an operation on Friday, June 6, 2025, in Los Angeles. Photo by Jae C. Hong / AP Yliana Johansen-Mendez, chief program officer for the Immigrant Defenders Law Center, said her organization was aware of one man who was already deported back to Mexico after being picked up at a Home Depot on Friday morning. The man's family contacted her organization and one of their attorneys was waiting for hours to speak to him inside the detention center, she said. Authorities later said he had already been removed, and the man later contacted his family to say he was back in Mexico. Videos from bystanders and television news crews captured people being walked across a Home Depot parking lot by federal agents as well as clashes that broke out at other detention sites. Outside the warehouse, KTLA showed aerial footage of agents leading detainees out of a building and toward two large white vans waiting in a parking lot. This advertisement has not loaded yet, but your article continues below. The hands of the detained people were tied behind their backs. The agents patted them down before loading them into the vans. The agents wore vests with the agency acronyms FBI, ICE and HSI. Armed agents used yellow police tape to keep crowds on the street and sidewalk away from the operations. Immigrant-rights advocates used megaphones to speak to the workers, reminding them of their constitutional rights and instructing them not to sign anything or say anything to federal agents, the Los Angeles Times reported. Katia Garcia, 18, left school when she learned her father, 37-year-old Marco Garcia, may have been targeted. Katia Garcia, a U.S. citizen, said her father is undocumented and has been in the U.S. for 20 years. 'We never thought this would happen to us,' she told the Los Angeles Times. Olympics Editorial Cartoons World Columnists NHL

Immigration raids roil L.A., 44 people detained. What we know so far
Immigration raids roil L.A., 44 people detained. What we know so far

Los Angeles Times

time07-06-2025

  • Politics
  • Los Angeles Times

Immigration raids roil L.A., 44 people detained. What we know so far

Immigration raids Friday led to the arrests of dozens of people and caused hours of chaos in downtown L.A. Here is what we know so far: Federal agents hit several locations including the Ambiance Apparel in garment district, where many were detained and authorities clashed with protesters, and a Home Depot in the Westlake District. At Ambiance Apparel, immigration authorities detained employees inside a clothing wholesaler, and used flash-bang grenades and pepper spray on a crowd protesting the raid around 1:30 p.m. Friday. Agents surrounded the gates protesters had tried to block. Some threw objects at the agents, as they yelled and filmed them. To disperse the crowd, pepper spray was used. The agents who had been inside the store walked out at least a dozen individuals and boarded them in the vans as other agents in riot gear taped off the area. The vans filled with migrants left first, followed by the line of tactical vehicles and trucks. The agents used what appeared to be at least a dozen rounds of flash-bang grenades and pepper spray before protesters dispersed. There were reports of other actions but they could not be confirmed. Forty-four people were administratively arrested and one person was arrested for obstruction during Friday's immigration action, said Yasmeen Pitts O'Keefe, a spokesperson for Homeland Security Investigations, a branch of ICE. Federal agents executed four search warrants related to the suspected harboring of people illegally in the country at three locations in central Los Angeles, she said. Carlos González Gutiérrez, Consul General of Mexico in Los Angeles, said his team has identified at least 11 Mexican nationals who were detained during raids across the Southland. The office is offering them legal services, and he said he is monitoring detention conditions. Service Employees International Union California President David Huerta was injured and detained while documenting an immigration enforcement raid in downtown Los Angeles on Friday. Huerta, 58, was treated at a hospital and then transferred to the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown L.A. 'What happened to me is not about me; This is about something much bigger,' he said in a statement from the hospital. 'This is about how we as a community stand together and resist the injustice that's happening. Hard-working people, and members of our family and our community, are being treated like criminals. We all collectively have to object to this madness because this is not justice.' Many elected officials expressed outrage at the arrest and called for his release. In a statement on X, U.S. Atty. Bill Essayli alleged that Huerta had deliberately obstructed federal agents' access to a worksite where they were executing a warrant by blocking their vehicle Friday morning. Huerta was arrested on suspicion of interfering with federal officers and will be arraigned Monday, Essayli said. Scores of protesters converged at the Metropolitan Detention Center on Friday afternoon and evening, at times clashing with agents. Some vandalized the building. The Los Angeles Police Department declared an unlawful assembly and ordered about 200 protesters who remained gathered by the Los Angeles Federal Building to disperse around 7 p.m. The use of so-called less-lethal munitions was authorized at 8 p.m. following reports of a small group of 'violent individuals' throwing large pieces of concrete at officers, police said. A citywide tactical alert was issued shortly thereafter. By midnight, most of the protesters had left the area. It was unclear whether anyone was arrested or injured during the protest. The raid met with swift condemnation across Los Angeles by politicians. On Friday afternoon, U.S. Sens. Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla — alongside California Reps. Scott Peters and Juan Vargas — demanded an investigation into the tactics used during the San Diego raids. 'This troubling incident is not an isolated case. Rather, it appears to be part of a broader pattern of escalated and theatrical immigration enforcement operations across the country,' the lawmakers stated. 'These events raise serious questions about the appropriateness, proportionality, and execution of ICE tactics.' Mayor Karen Bass issued a statement saying: 'It sows a sense of terror in the community. It's bad enough that it happened at this location, but the way this goes and spreads throughout the community, people are not sure where they are safe.' That sparked a response from White House deputy chief of staff and immigration crackdown advocate Stephen Miller. Miller responded to Bass on X: 'You have no say in this at all. Federal law is supreme and federal law will be enforced.' Officials have released few details. But Essayli told KNBC it was part of 'stepped-up' enforcement efforts. 'My office prepared search warrants for particular businesses where there's probable cause that they are using fictitious documents to employ people,' Essayli told the station.

Los Angeles immigration protests go through the night after surprise ICE operation
Los Angeles immigration protests go through the night after surprise ICE operation

CBS News

time07-06-2025

  • Politics
  • CBS News

Los Angeles immigration protests go through the night after surprise ICE operation

An immigration operation in Los Angeles involving agents with Immigration and Customs Enforcement led to dozens of arrests on Friday, which spurred large-scale and tense protests throughout the city. CBS News Los Angeles learned that ICE conducted raids in the Westlake District, downtown L.A. and South L.A. on Friday with no prior warning. According to an ICE spokesperson, as many as 44 arrests were made. "ICE officers and agents alongside partner law enforcement agencies, executed four federal search warrants at three locations in central Los Angeles," the spokesperson, Yasmeen Pitts O'Keefe, said. "Approximately 44 people were administratively arrested and one arrest for obstruction. The investigation remains ongoing, updates will follow as appropriate." O'Keefe confirmed that at least one of the warrants executed was related to the "harboring of people illegally in the country." Protests eventually centered around the Federal Building in downtown L.A. after word spread among demonstrators that detainees were allegedly being held in that building. More protests were expected to take place in L.A. throughout the weekend, although it wasn't clear where or when as of Saturday morning. Images from SKYCal footage taken Friday showed one of the apparent raids appearing to take place outside of a Home Depot store in the Westlake District. Federal agents conduct immigration operations outside a Home Depot in the Westlake District of Los Angeles. June 6, 2025. KCAL News Among the dozens of detainments, Service Employees International Union-United Service Workers West President David Huerta was arrested while protesting Friday, he confirmed. "What happened to me is not about me; This is about something much bigger. This is about how we as a community stand together and resist the injustice that's happening. Hard-working people, and members of our family and our community, are being treated like criminals," Huerta said in a statement afterwards. "We all collectively have to object to this madness because this is not justice. This is injustice. And we all have to stand on the right side of justice." U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said in a post to X on Friday that Huerta "deliberately obstructed" federal agents by blocking their vehicle while they executed a "lawful judicial warrant." Essayli said Huerta will be arraigned in federal court on Monday after being arrested on suspicion of interfering with federal officers. LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - JUNE 06: LAPD officers arrest a protester outside of the Federal Building in downtown Los Angeles after the FBI and Ice Agents made arrests of illegal immigrants located in DTLA in Los Angeles, California, United States on June 06, 2025. Jon Putman/Anadolu via Getty Images Leaders across Los Angeles criticized the federal government and President Donald Trump's push to increase immigration enforcement throughout the Southland in the moments following the raids. "As Mayor of a proud city of immigrants, who contribute to our city in so many ways, I am deeply angered by what has taken place," L.A. Mayor Karen Bass said. "These tactics sow terror in our communities and disrupt basic principles of safety in our city. My Office is in close coordination with immigrant rights community organizations. We will not stand for this." In response to that statement, White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller posted on X that Bass has "no say in this at all." "Federal law is supreme and federal law will be enforced," he said. Miller has previously said the Trump administration was "actively looking at" suspending the writ of habeas corpus in immigration cases. Suspending the writ of habeas corpus in those cases would effectively remove the right for individuals accused of entering the country illegally to appear in court before confinement. On Friday, Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell said the department would not cooperate with federal authorities in deportation efforts, a sentiment that L.A. County Sheriff Robert Luna later echoed on behalf of his department. and contributed to this report.

US federal authorities arrest dozens for immigration violations across Los Angeles
US federal authorities arrest dozens for immigration violations across Los Angeles

9 News

time07-06-2025

  • Politics
  • 9 News

US federal authorities arrest dozens for immigration violations across Los Angeles

Your web browser is no longer supported. To improve your experience update it here After federal immigration authorities arrested more than 40 people on Friday across Los Angeles, protesters gathered outside a federal detention center demanding their release before police in riot gear tossed tear gas canisters to disperse the crowd. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers executed search warrants at multiple locations, including outside a clothing warehouse where a tense scene unfolded as a crowd tried to block agents from driving away. Sirens blared as protesters surrounded black SUVs and tactical vehicles. Protesters gather at the US Department of Justice Federal Bureau of Prisons after federal immigration authorities conducted an operation in Los Angeles. (AP) Officers threw flash bangs into the street to disperse people as they shouted and filmed the scene with their cell phones. One demonstrator tried to physically stop a vehicle from leaving. Forty-four people were arrested on immigration violations across multiple locations, said Yasmeen Pitts O'Keefe, a spokesperson for Homeland Security Investigations. The president of SEIU California, a major labor union, was arrested and charged for impeding a federal agent while protesting, the US Attorney's office said. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said the activity was meant to "sow terror" in the nation's second-largest city. Federal immigration authorities have been ramping up arrests across the country to fulfill President Donald Trump's promise of mass deportations. Todd Lyons, the head of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, defended his tactics earlier this week against criticism that authorities are being too heavy-handed. He has said ICE is averaging about 1600 arrests per day and that the agency has arrested "dangerous criminals." Protests recently broke out after an immigration action at a restaurant in San Diego and in Minneapolis, when federal officials in tactical gear showed up in a Latino neighborhood for an operation they said was about a criminal case, not immigration. In Los Angeles, federal agents executed search warrants at three locations, O'Keefe said. But Angelica Salas, executive director for the Coalition of Humane Immigrant Rights, or CHIRLA, said advocates were aware of activity at seven locations, including several Home Depot parking lots and a doughnut shop. At the warehouse in the fashion district, agents had a search warrant after they and a judge found there was probable cause the employer was using fictitious documents for some of its workers, US Attorney's Office spokesperson Ciaran McEvoy confirmed. Dozens of protesters gathered Friday evening outside a federal detention centre in Los Angeles where lawyers said those arrested had been taken, chanting "set them free, let them stay!" Angelica Salas, of The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, speaks outside of the Federal Building. (AP) Other protesters held signs that said "ICE out of LA!" while others led chants and shouted from megaphones. Some scrawled graffiti on the building facade. Officers holding protective shields stood shoulder to shoulder to block an entrance. Some tossed tear gas canisters to disperse the crowd. Officers wearing helmets and holding batons then forced the protesters away from the building by forming a line and walking slowly down the street. "Our community is under attack and is being terrorised. These are workers, these are fathers, these are mothers, and this has to stop. Immigration enforcement that is terrorising our families throughout this country and picking up our people that we love must stop now," Salas, of CHIRLA, said at an earlier press conference while surrounded by a crowd holding signs protesting Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Yliana Johansen-Mendez, chief program officer for the Immigrant Defenders Law Centre, said her organisation was aware of one man who was already deported back to Mexico after being picked up at a Home Depot on Friday morning. The man's family contacted her organisation and one of their attorneys was waiting for hours to speak to him inside the detention center, she said. Authorities later said he had already been removed, and the man later contacted his family to say he was back in Mexico. Videos from bystanders and television news crews captured people being walked across a Home Depot parking lot by federal agents as well as clashes that broke out at other detention sites. A man stands outside a business where federal immigration authorities conducted an operation. (AP) Outside the warehouse, KTLA showed aerial footage of agents leading detainees out of a building and toward two large white vans waiting in a parking lot. The hands of the detained people were tied behind their backs. The agents patted them down before loading them into the vans. The agents wore vests with the agency acronyms FBI, ICE and HSI. Armed agents used yellow police tape to keep crowds on the street and sidewalk away from the operations. Immigrant-rights advocates used megaphones to speak to the workers, reminding them of their constitutional rights and instructing them not to sign anything or say anything to federal agents, the Los Angeles Times reported. Katia Garcia, 18, left school when she learned her father, 37-year-old Marco Garcia, may have been targeted. Katia Garcia, a US citizen, said her father is undocumented and has been in the US for 20 years. "We never thought this would happen to us," she told the Los Angeles Times . World USA Los Angeles police Mexico CONTACT US Auto news:Is this the next Subaru WRX? Mysterious performance car teased.

Protests Erupt In Los Angeles After 44 Arrested In Immigration Raids, Smoke Bombs Hurled
Protests Erupt In Los Angeles After 44 Arrested In Immigration Raids, Smoke Bombs Hurled

News18

time07-06-2025

  • Politics
  • News18

Protests Erupt In Los Angeles After 44 Arrested In Immigration Raids, Smoke Bombs Hurled

Last Updated: Protests erupted after US immigration authorities arrested at least 44 people across Los Angeles. Law enforcement hurled smoke bombs and tear gas canisters to disperse the crowd. Protests erupted across Los Angeles, California, after federal immigration authorities arrested at least 44 people in the city, prompting law enforcement to hurl smoke bombs and flash bangs to disperse the crowd that voiced their opposition on the streets against the detentions. According to Yasmeen Pitts O'Keefe, a spokesperson for Homeland Security Investigations, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers and agents executed search warrants at three locations. 'Approximately 44 people were administratively arrested, and one arrest for obstruction. The investigation remains ongoing, updates will follow as appropriate," O'Keefe said. However, immigrant advocacy groups claimed there were arrests in seven locations, including two Home Depots, a warehouse in the fashion district and a doughnut shop. US Attorney's Office spokesperson Ciaran McEvoy confirmed that agents served a search warrant at a business suspected of using fictitious documents to employ workers illegally. This operation is part of the Trump administration's nationwide push to arrest undocumented workers and enforce immigration laws. Dozens of protesters gathered outside a federal detention centre in Los Angeles, where they believed those arrested had been taken, chanting, 'Set them free, let them stay!" Other protesters held signs that said 'ICE out of LA!" while others led chants and shouted from megaphones. Smoke Bombs, Tear Gas Canisters Hurled The crowd continued to move throughout the night, prompting LAPD officers to issue a dispersal order as unlawful assembly was declared, according to CBS News. Police said demonstrators threw 'large pieces of concrete" at officers There were reports that protesters and other activists protesting against the detentions had attempted to enter the detention centre and even attacked FBI agents. In response, officers used tear gas canisters and smoke bombs to disperse the crowd. Officers wearing helmets and holding batons then forced the protesters away from the building by forming a line and walking slowly down the street. Aerial footage showed officers throwing smoke bombs or flash bangs on the street to disperse the people so they could drive away in SUVs, vans and military-style vehicles. Soon enough, hundreds of protesters faced off against ICE agents to protest the detentions. Traffic in the area was also impacted as both police and demonstrators crowded the streets. Anti-ICE protesters in Los Angeles are seen throwing objects at Federal agents and trying to block their vehicles from leaving after ICE conducted several isn't everyone getting arrested? — Kevin Dalton (@TheKevinDalton) June 6, 2025 Los Angeles Mayor Criticises Arrests Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass criticised the immigration raids and arrests. 'As Mayor of a proud city of immigrants, who contribute to our city in so many ways, I am deeply angered by what has taken place. These tactics sow terror in our communities and disrupt basic principles of safety in our city," she said in a statement on Friday. Democratic Senator Alex Padilla of California also condemned the operations in a statement, saying that 'the ICE raids across Los Angeles today are a continuation of a disturbing pattern of extreme and cruel immigration enforcement operations across the country." The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, or CHIRLA, a nonprofit immigrant rights advocacy group, estimated that at least 45 people had been taken into custody. 'Our community is under attack and is being terrorised. These are workers, these are fathers, these are mothers, and this has to stop. Immigration enforcement that is terrorising our families throughout this country and picking up our people that we love must stop now," said Angelica Salas, executive director of CHIRLA. Trump's aggressive campaign to arrest undocumented immigrants and carry out mass deportations has stirred significant controversy, with critics accusing ICE agents of using overly forceful tactics. Protests had erupted recently following immigration enforcement actions at a restaurant in San Diego and in Minneapolis. (with AP inputs) Get breaking news, in-depth analysis, and expert perspectives on everything from geopolitics to diplomacy and global trends. Stay informed with the latest world news only on News18. Download the News18 App to stay updated! tags : Immigration and Customs Enforcement los angeles raids us protests Location : Los Angeles, United States of America (USA) First Published: June 07, 2025, 10:19 IST

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