Angelenos are demanding the release of people detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), planning to gather in downtown Los Angeles for another day of protests following immigration raids throughout the region — but this time, against the backdrop of a federal National Guard deployment.
Immigrant rights groups and unions plan to gather for one of the major actions anticipated in LA today, coinciding with the scheduled arraignment of the prominent labor leader David Huerta who was arrested on Friday. Beyond Huerta, folks are turning out to support coworkers and loved ones.
“These raids are cruel, disruptive, and designed to terrorize immigrant communities. They tear families apart,” the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) said in a statement the day Huerta was arrested. Huerta is President of SEIU California and was detained while “conducting legal observation of ICE activity in his community,” according to AFL-CIO union leaders. SEIU says Huerta was “beaten and dragged away.”
Protests have emerged across Los Angeles to stop ICE from detaining community members as part of the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign. President Trump called protesters “troublemakers and insurrectionists” on Truth Social. On Saturday night, he ordered the National Guard to deploy and crack down on protests against the wishes of Governor Gavin Newsom — marking the first time a president has ordered troops without a governor’s assent since 1965. Mayor Karen Bass called the move “a chaotic escalation” and Newsom said it was “purposefully inflammatory and [would] only escalate tensions.” Over the weekend, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth also threatened to deploy Marines.
LAPD spokesperson Drake Madison says that 42 people have been arrested so far, as of a Monday morning email to The Verge. An interfaith prayer vigil planned for Sunday night was canceled by organizers “out of an abundance of caution.” A declaration of “unlawful assembly” was in place overnight for downtown Los Angeles. But “the tactical alert has been lifted,” Madison said in another email Monday morning.
