LA Police Ending Immigration Rights Protests (VIDEO)
By Stefan J. Bos, Chief International Correspondent Worthy News
LOS ANGELES, USA (Worthy News) – The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) moved in to end protests against a crackdown on immigrants staying illegally in the U.S. city.
Special LAPD forces could be seen pushing back protesters who gathered following a series of surprise U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids in downtown Los Angeles on Friday.
Federal agents executed four search warrants related to the suspected harboring of people illegally in the country at three locations in central Los Angeles, said Yasmeen Pitts O’Keefe, a spokesperson for Homeland Security Investigations, a branch of ICE.
Some 44 people were “administratively arrested, “and one person was arrested for obstruction during Friday’s immigration action, she said.
The crackdown is part of U.S. President Donald J. Trump’s plan to deport immigrants staying illegally in the United States, including those from Los Angeles.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, a Democrat, condemned the ICE raids, saying they were meant to “sow terror.”
Trump disagrees with these sentiments, saying those who sow terror are illegal immigrants who include criminals, he says, who were allowed to leave prisons and mental institutions.
REAL REFUGEES
He also says that the United States will remain open to “real refugees” and those seeking asylum through official channels.
Federal immigration authorities have been ramping up arrests across the country to fulfill President Trump’s promise of mass deportations.
Tensions remained high in downtown Los Angeles into the evening after the LAPD declared an “unlawful assembly” and ordered around 200 protesters who remained gathered by the Los Angeles Federal Building to disperse around 7 p.m. local time.
In the fashion district, agents served a search warrant at a business after they and a judge found probable cause that the employer was using fictitious documents for some of its workers, U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesperson Ciaran McEvoy confirmed.
Separately, videos showed federal agents running after people in the parking lot of the home improvement retailer Home Depot in the Westlake area, not far from downtown Los Angeles.
A man recording the video could be heard warning people in Spanish that immigration officials were at the location and to stay away.
Another raid occurred at a business in the Garment District near 9th and Towne streets, with agents in riot gear detaining workers at a clothing store as dozens of people began to gather outside, witnesses said.
EGGS THROWN
As workers were hauled off in handcuffs, throngs of people yelled at the agents and held up cellphones to record them, according to videos of the showdown. One person threw eggs at one of the vehicles as agents pushed members of the public back, the footage showed.
In the street, immigrant-rights advocates stood on a truck bed, using megaphones to speak to the workers inside the store.
They reminded them of their constitutional rights and instructed them not to sign anything or say anything to federal agents, the Los Angeles Times newspaper reported.
They also told the agents that lawyers wanted access to the workers and sometimes called out specific names. “I want to talk to my clients, Luis Lopez and Michel Garcia. We are here,” one person could be heard saying in footage. “The community is here with you. Your family is here with you.”
Local media reported that a third immigration operation also unfolded at a second Ambiance building in South L.A., near 15th Street and Santa Fe Avenue.
Legal representatives claimed detainees were being kept in rooms with no beds or blankets and that they had limited access to food and water. Footage seen by Worthy News showed protesters nearby shouting, “Let them free.”
Todd Lyons, the head of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, defended his tactics against criticism that authorities are too heavy-handed. He said ICE is averaging “about 1,600 arrests per day” and that the agency has arrested “dangerous criminals.”
Protests have also broken out in recent days in other cities, including at a restaurant in San Diego and in Minneapolis, when federal officials in tactical gear reportedly showed up in a Latino neighborhood for an operation they said was about a criminal case, not immigration.
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