Cudahy, California, Vice Mayor Cynthia Gonzalez faced widespread outcry after she encouraged deadly Latino gangs to confront Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers.

A video posted by Gonzalez, whose suburb’s population exceeds 22,000, located 10 miles south of downtown Los Angeles, showed her calling on the 18th Street and Florencia gangs to help confront ICE.

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“I wanna know where all the cholos are at in Los Angeles,” she said, using a slang term for Latino gang members. “Eighteenth Street, Florencia, where the leadership at?”

“Because you guys are all about territory … claiming hood, and now that your hood’s being invaded by the biggest gang there is, there isn’t a peep out of you,” Gonzalez continued. “It’s everyone else who’s not about the gang life that’s out there protesting and speaking up. We’re out there, like, protecting our turf, protecting our people, and, like, where you at?”

She then said the gangs had no right to claim territory as their own if they didn’t come out and “organize” and “help out.”

Gonzalez made a direct appeal to the gangs’ leadership, saying, “So whoever’s the leadership over there, just f***ing get your members in order.”

The Department of Homeland Security’s X account posted her video along with a caption condemning her remarks, describing them as “despicable.”

“She calls for criminal gangs — including the vicious 18th street gang — to commit violence against our brave ICE law enforcement,” the post reads. “This kind of garbage has led to a more than 500 percent increase in assaults against our ICE law enforcement officers.”

The Los Angeles Police Protective League, which represents roughly 9,000 Los Angeles Police Department officers, called on Gonzalez to resign, reminding viewers that 18th Street and Florencia gang members have both been convicted of murdering police officers. Several Florencia gang members were recently convicted of the murder of Los Angeles Police Officer Fernando Arroyos in 2022.

“The 18th Street and Florencia street gangs are notoriously dangerous Los Angeles-based criminal enterprises,” the statement reads. “They rule their ‘turfs’ through intimidation, violence, and murder, and finance their operations through the sale of narcotics and illegal firearms, prostitution, and protection rackets.”

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The LAPPL warned that the vice mayor’s remarks could amount to an incitement of violence.

“What Ms. Gonzalez urged and taunted these specific gangs to do in her social media post puts police officers and other law enforcement professionals at greater risk,” the group said. “Her actions are deplorable and potentially illegal. She should resign, and she should be prosecuted if what she called for broke the law.”