Men accused of preying upon children are among those being defended by Los Angeles rioters, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

“It’s been a weekend of chaos, not initiated by the working people, the working immigrants of Los Angeles,” Arnulfo De La Cruz, president of Service Employees International Union Local 2015, said during a Monday rally against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to the Los Angeles Times.

“The ICE raids are having a traumatizing and devastating impact on our community … and we have very serious concerns about the conditions of the people that they’re picking up,” he said.

In response, DHS  released more information about what it called “some of the worst of the worst criminal illegal aliens arrested during the ongoing Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operation in Los Angeles,” according to a DHS news release.

“These heinous criminals, including child abusers and pedophiles, are some of the illegal aliens arrested yesterday in Los Angeles. Why do Governor Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass care more about violent criminal illegal aliens than they do about protecting their own citizens?” Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said.

“These rioters in Los Angeles are fighting to keep rapists, murderers, and other violent criminals loose on Los Angeles streets. Instead of rioting, they should be thanking ICE officers who every single day wake up and make our communities safer,” she said.

ICE named a few of those arrested, including Eswin Uriel Castro, who had been deported before and has convictions for “child molestation and being armed with a dangerous weapon. He has also been arrested for robbery and domestic violence.”

Anastacio Enrique Solis-Salinas of Nicaragua has been convicted of domestic violence and a hit-and-run and been charged with “willful cruelty to a child.”

Rafael Gamez-Sanchez was convicted of vehicular manslaughter.

Miguel Angel Palafox-Montes has been sent back to Mexico twice and has a record that includes convictions for “grand theft, narcotics violations, and identity theft.”

Border czar Tom Homan said that rioting and protesting will not stop ICE from fulfilling its mission.

“I’m telling you what, we’re going to keep enforcing law every day in L.A.,” Homan said, according to NBC. “Every day in L.A., we’re going to enforce immigration law. I don’t care if they like it or not.”

Homan said interfering with ICE or harboring an illegal immigrant is a crime and that high-ranking politicians could be charged as easily as anyone else,

“I’ll say it about anybody,” Homan said. “You cross that line, it’s a felony to knowingly harbor and conceal an illegal alien. It’s a felony to impede law enforcement doing their job.”

Homan said anti-ICE protests need to chill out.

“The rhetoric keeps rising and rising and rising — someone’s gonna get hurt,” Homan said.

“If this violence isn’t tamped down, someone’s gonna die, and that’s just, that’s just a cold fact of life.”

Advertise with The Western Journal and reach millions of highly engaged readers, while supporting our work. Advertise Today.