13 June 2025 - What’s Happening in LA: ICE Raids and Protests
What to know about the Los Angeles immigration protests over ICE operations
Camilo Montoya-Galvez and Eleanor Watson (CBS News, 12/06/2025)
Protests in Los Angeles against Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids prompted President Trump to order about 700 active-duty Marines to join the National Guard troops previously deployed to the city, actions that spurred legal pushback from California Gov. Gavin Newsom. A defense official told CBS News the Marines arrived in greater Los Angeles on Tuesday morning, joining about 2,100 members of the California National Guard who are now operating in Los Angeles, Paramount and Compton. Acting Defense Department comptroller Bryn MacDonnell estimated the cost of deploying the National Guard will be $134 million while testifying Tuesday before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense. Based at Twentynine Palms, a city some 140 miles east of L.A., the 700 Marines finished training for duty within two days of arriving and could be deployed to protests by Friday, according to the Department of Defense.
California leaders condemn Ice raids in LA: ‘We will not stand for this’
Gabrielle Canon (The Guardian, 13/06/2025)
The Department of Homeland Security conducted raids on multiple locations across Los Angeles on Friday, clashing with the crowds of people who gathered to protest and prompting widespread criticism from California leaders. Masked agents were recorded pulling several people out of two LA-area Home Depot stores and the clothing manufacturer Ambient Apparel’s headquarters in LA’s Fashion District. Immigration advocates said the raids also included four other locations, including a doughnut shop. There has not yet been confirmation of how many people were taken into custody during the coordinated sweeps. At an afternoon press conference, Angelica Salas, executive director for the Coalition of Humane Immigrant Rights, said at least 45 people were arrested without warrants.
Yes, protesting can help tyrants like Trump, with its scenes of disorder. But that’s no reason to stay at home
Zoe Williams (The Guardian, 12/06/2025)
When Donald Trump was elected the first time round, the works of the German-American philosopher Hannah Arendt flew off the shelves in the US. It wasn’t all good news – JD Vance’s Hillbilly Elegy was also enjoying a surge in popularity and Trump was, of course, still about to be president. But Arendt’s famous 1951 work, The Origins of Totalitarianism, was selling at 16 times its usual rate, which meant that by the time of the protests centred on the inauguration in January 2017, at least some of those people had read it. Arendt’s view of popular demonstrations was complicated. She wasn’t blind to the way authoritarian rulers use public protest as an excuse for a display of physical power, embodied in the police, which turns the state into an army against its people, altering that relationship.
All of L.A. is not a ‘war zone.’ We separate facts from spin and disinformation amid immigration raids
Karen Garcia, Howard Blume, Nathan Solis, James Queally and Julia Wick (LA Times, 10/06/2025)
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement conducted a series of immigration sweeps starting Friday afternoon and into the weekend that sparked an outpouring of protests in the heart of Los Angeles and caused a flurry of disinformation online. Over the last several days, rumors of extreme scenarios have seeped into the public discourse about ICE raids at school graduations, local Home Depots and at hotels where agents are staying.Here’s what we know about the rumors around ICE actions in Los Angeles and the protests against them in the area.
Living in Los Angeles in 2025 is a test of empathy
Dave Schilling (The Guardian, 10/06/2025)
In Los Angeles, it’s not uncommon to hear the buzzing of a police helicopter overhead. The sound is almost background noise in this city. A reminder that somewhere, something is happening, something you aren’t a part of. It’s out there, but it’s not right here. But more and more, that sound has begun to jolt us out of our complacency. In the last five years, that sound has heralded the uprising over the killing of George Floyd and the devastation of the Eaton and Palisades fires. Instead of the usual – a high-speed police chase, a burglary or some other fodder for local news sensationalism – that sound means you are living on the doorstep of history once again. This last weekend reminds us that our city is under siege from a federal government eager for a fight. That our immigrant neighbors are being disappeared, apparently without due process.
California National Guard in front of protestors. Wikipedia, Public domain.