Senior White House adviser Stephen Miller has described protests in Los Angeles against federal immigration raids in the city as an “insurrection” against the United States.
In response to a post on X showing footage of the mass demonstrations, Miller wrote “An insurrection against the laws and sovereignty of the United States.”
It comes after tense confrontations between police and demonstrators took place in LA on Friday, in response to operations by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, who arrested at least 44 people on immigration violations, before starting again on Saturday at a Home Depot in the Paramount section of the city.
Los Angeles Police Department Chief Jim McDonnell said the force had not been involved in the ICE operations.
“While the LAPD will continue to have a visible presence in all our communities to ensure public safety, we will not assist or participate in any sort of mass deportations nor will the LAPD try to determine an individual’s immigration status,” McDonnell wrote in a statement.
However, Homeland Security Investigations, a branch of ICE, said that 44 people had been administratively arrested on Friday and another was arrested for obstruction.
In another tweet, Miller wrote: “Siding with invaders over citizens. If we don’t fix this, we don’t have a country.”
Federal agents executed search warrants at three locations, including a warehouse in the fashion district of L.A., after a judge found there was probable cause the employer was using fictitious documents for some of its workers, according to representatives for Homeland Security Investigations and the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
Advocates for immigrant rights say people were detained Friday by immigration authorities outside Home Depot stores and a doughnut shop.
The Los Angeles Times reported that multiple chants of “Fuera ICE” (ICE, get out) could be heard and flash-bang grenades were set off, though it was unclear who had set them off. One protester lit an entire bag of trash on fire and left in the street just half a block away from the immigration agents on Saturday in Paramount, which is about 82 percent Latino.
Shopping carts from Home Depot and recycling bins were scattered across the boulevard by Saturday afternoon.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said the activity by ICE was meant to “sow terror” in the nation’s second-largest city.
She was later accused of siding with “chaos and lawlessness over law enforcement” by ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons. “Make no mistake, ICE will continue to enforce our nation’s immigration laws and arrest criminal illegal aliens,” Lyons said in a statement.
Despite no arrests being made by the LAPD, FBI deputy director Dan Bongino posted on X that they were reviewing evidence from the protests to ensure that “perpetrators are brought to justice.”
“The Right to assemble and protest does not include a license to attack law enforcement officers, or to impede and obstruct our lawful immigration operations,” Bongino said.
The Department of Homeland Security claimed 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.”
The DHS has not provided evidence at this time to verify that claim. The Independent has requested comment from the DHS.
DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin issued a statement in response to the protests criticizing Democrats and complaining that ICE agents are being likened to the Nazi gestapo.
“From comparisons to the modern-day Nazi gestapo to glorifying rioters, the violent rhetoric of these sanctuary politicians is beyond the pale. This violence against ICE must end,” she said.
The protests come at a challenging time for the Trump administration’s hardline anti-immigration agenda. At least two deported individuals — a migrant from Venezuela and Maryland father Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was wrongfully sent to El Salvador — have been returned to the U.S. after judicial orders demanded their return.
ICE officials and a group of detainees are currently stuck in Djibouti after a judge’s order demanded the deportation of the detainees be halted. The ICE agents have reportedly turned a shipping container into a makeshift jail, and both the agents and detainees are reportedly suffering from complications tied to the air quality in the area.
