More than a dozen Border Patrol agents turned up in downtown Los Angeles on Thursday outside a museum where Gov. Gavin Newsom was holding a rally and news conference, the latest contentious show of force by federal agents.
The agents stood outside the Japanese American National Museum in the Little Tokyo neighborhood of Los Angeles during Mr. Newsom’s event. The museum is one block down the street from a federal detention center where many of those detained in immigration raids have been processed.
Their presence came as Democratic leaders in California, including Mr. Newsom and Mayor Karen Bass of Los Angeles, have sparred with the federal government over widespread immigration raids in recent weeks.
Mr. Newsom has repeatedly criticized the Trump administration, and he sued the federal government for deploying National Guard troops to Los Angeles to quell protests this summer. The City of Los Angeles also joined a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security over how the raids have been conducted.
In June, dozens of federal agents marched through MacArthur Park, in a neighborhood that is home to many immigrants, an action that drew criticism from local officials.
It was not immediately clear whether the agents who arrived on Thursday were patrolling the neighborhood or were part of a targeted operation.
A video shared on social media by Mr. Newsom’s press office shows the agents assembling outside the museum. Several armed and masked agents in green Border Patrol uniforms stand as cars honk and people shout at them. Some wear tactical helmets and carry rifles.
In the video, Gregory Bovino, a Border Patrol chief who is leading the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in Southern California, says, “We’re here making Los Angeles a safer place, since we don’t have politicians who can do that. We do that ourselves.”
The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
When Mr. Newsom was asked by reporters about Border Patrol’s appearance outside his event, the governor said, “It’s pretty sick and pathetic — everything you need to know about Donald Trump’s America.”
Ms. Bass told reporters outside the museum that there was “no way” the presence of federal agents outside Mr. Newsom’s rally was a coincidence, adding that the gathering had been widely publicized.
“This is just completely unacceptable,” Ms. Bass said. “This is a Customs and Border Patrol that has gone amok. This absolutely has to stop. There was no danger here. There was no need to detain anyone here, and there was certainly no need to have a provocative act right here.”
Mr. Newsom was in Los Angeles on Thursday to kick off a campaign asking California voters to approve a new congressional map. The governor is trying to help Democrats win more seats in the U.S. House of Representatives to counter a proposed Republican gerrymander in Texas, and his event included numerous Democratic leaders.