A tense standoff between Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials over an apparent ICE raid targeting illegal immigrants for deportation ended with no arrests being made.
On Monday, a caravan of armored vehicles, National Guard troops, Border Patrol officers, and ICE agents arrived at MacArthur Park, an immigrant hub, in an apparent operation to raid the community for suspected illegal residents.
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However, an outraged Bass, known as an avid ICE critic, swiftly interrupted the operation, speaking on scene to Assistant Chief Patrol Agent David Kim, according to the Los Angeles Times, and using his cellphone to make a call to Border Patrol Chief Gregory Bovino to demand an end to the raid, according to Fox News. Shortly after the phone call ended, federal immigration officials left the scene without making any confirmed arrests.
“What’s the time frame before they leave?” Bass could be heard questioning Border Patrol Chief Gregory Bovino on the phone.
Although Bonvino appeared to cave to Bass’s request for withdrawal, he signaled that ICE would continue future operations in the area.
“I don’t work for Karen Bass. Better get used to us now, cause this is going to be normal very soon. We will go anywhere, anytime we want in Los Angeles,” the Border Patrol Chief said.
When asked at the park to comment, Bass said the federal immigration agents needed “to leave and they need to leave right now, they need to leave because this is unacceptable.”
“Minutes before, there were more than 20 kids playing—then, the MILITARY comes through,” the Los Angeles mayor posted on X. “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.”
ICE agents at the park were met with crowds of people screaming, “Get the f— out,” according to the outlet.
The Washington Examiner contacted ICE and Bass’s office for comment but did not immediately receive a response.
The altercation at MacArthur Park comes after some anti-ICE protests in Los Angeles descended into riots last month. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) last Tuesday put in a request for federal disaster relief funding after the city suffered $1 billion in damages from looters and vandals who targeted hundreds of businesses during the anti-ICE demonstrations.
The protests were a reaction to ICE raids targeting illegal immigrants in California amid the Trump administration’s move in recent months to expand operations to arrest noncriminal workers in industries heavily reliant on migrant labor, in addition to the illegal immigrants with violent criminal records first targeted by the White House. In addition to a delegation of California Republicans who have spoken out against the expanded scope of ICE operations, Bass, a Democrat, has criticized the raids, worrying about “the impact that all Angelenos will begin to feel when the labor of immigrants is absent.”
“We’ll feel it in the construction industry. We’ll feel it in hospitality. We’ll feel it at grocery stores. People will begin to notice,” Bass said during an interview last month. “You think about the mothers who have nannies and housekeepers. They will feel it when there’s nobody to do child care, and there’s nobody to take their kids to school. You know, you will feel it when your gardener goes away, and you don’t know where he or she is.”
Police said that while many protesters were peacefully exercising First Amendment rights during daytime demonstrations, violent “anarchists” by night were throwing objects at authorities and taking other criminal actions that could “kill you.”
“When I look at the people who are out there doing the violence, that’s not the people that we see here in the day who are out there legitimately exercising their 1st Amendment rights,” Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell said in June. “These are people who are all hooded up; they’ve got a hoodie on, they’ve got face masks on.”