LOS ANGELES, June 7 – Federal agents in Los Angeles on Saturday faced off against demonstrators protesting immigration raids following Friday’s protests that senior White House aide Stephen Miller condemned as an “insurrection” against the United States.
The security agents on Saturday engaged in a tense confrontation with protesters in the Paramount area in southeast Los Angeles, where one demonstrator was seen waving a Mexican flag and some covered their mouths with respiratory masks.
A live video feed showed dozens of green-uniformed security personnel with gas masks lined up on a road strewn with overturned shopping carts as small canisters exploded into gas clouds.
A first round of protests kicked off on Friday night after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents conducted enforcement operations in the city and arrested at least 44 people on alleged immigration violations.
The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that “1,000 rioters surrounded a federal law enforcement building and assaulted ICE law enforcement officers, slashed tires, defaced buildings, and taxpayer funded property.”
Reuters was unable to verify DHS’s accounts.
Miller, an immigration hardliner and the White House deputy chief of staff, wrote on X that Friday’s demonstrations were “an insurrection against the laws and sovereignty of the United States.”
The protests pit Democratic-run Los Angeles, where census data suggests a significant portion of the population is Hispanic and foreign-born, against Trump’s Republican White House, which has made cracking down on immigration a hallmark of his second term.
Trump has pledged to deport record numbers of people in the country illegally and lock down the U.S.-Mexico border, with the White House setting a goal for ICE to arrest at least 3,000 migrants per day.
But the sweeping immigration crackdown has also included people legally residing in the country, including some with permanent residence, and has led to legal challenges.
In a statement on Saturday about the protests in Paramount, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office said: “It appeared that federal law enforcement officers were in the area, and that members of the public were gathering to protest.”
ICE, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Los Angeles Police Department did not respond to a request for information about the protests or potential immigration sweeps on Saturday.
REUTERS
