Protests over federal immigration raids continued to wreak havoc on Los Angeles Saturday with agents wearing riot gear reportedly using flash-bang grenades to clear crowds — as the federal government moves to mobilize the National Guard after claiming LAPD took two hours to respond.
“We’re going to bring the National Guard in tonight. We’re going to continue doing out job. We’re going to push back on these people and we’re going to enforce the law,” Tom Homan, Acting Director of US Immigration and Custom Enforcement, said on Fox News, Saturday.
Images and video showed a chaotic scene on Saturday as hundreds of protestors filled the streets and clashed with federal agents in riot gear attempting to impede apprehensions by Border Patrol in Paramount, California, near a Home Depot.
The dystopian scene showed the heavily armored agents firing teargas cannisters in order to disperse demonstrators who raged for hours on Saturday in a messy and tumultuous street takeover.
One violent protestor in a face-covering helmet hurled rocks at the windows of cars right outside the super store — cracking some Border Patrol pick-up trucks in the windshield, according to viral video.
Video circulating online showed an American flag on a fire in the middle of the street across from the home improvement store which was mired by demonstrators, Saturday.
Other protestors during the day stood in front of a federal bus to stop in from carrying off alleged illegal immigrants, video on social media showed.
Violent protests began on Friday with federal agents have raided multiple workplaces in LA’s fashion district and other locations, with the conflagrations continuing at the Paramount Home Depot Saturday, according to the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California.
The Trump Administration ripped lefty Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass after a violent mob swarmed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers conducting immigration raids in the city — while the Department of Homeland Security claimed Saturday local cops waited two hours to help push back the agitators when the trouble started Friday.
Lefty pols like Bass are “villainiz[ing] and demoniz[ing ] ICE law enforcement,” leading to the violence that saw roughly 1,000 agitators attack law enforcement officers, deface buildings, slash tires and committing other crimes, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said.
“The violent targeting of law enforcement in Los Angeles by lawless rioters is despicable, and Mayor Bass and [California] Governor [Gavin] Newsom must call for it to end,” she added in a statement Saturday.
“The men and women of ICE put their lives on the line to protect and defend the lives of American citizens.”
There’s been a 413% increase in assaults on ICE agents since President Trump took office in January, compared to the same period last year, McLaughlin said.
Images released by DHS Saturday show parts of downtown Los Angeles covered in vulgar graffiti, including “F–K ICE” and “KILL ICE” spray-painted on fences and buildings — as well as a flyer handed out by the Communist group RefuseFacism.org saying “The Trump Fascist Regime MUST GO NOW!!!”
Helmeted LAPD cops in riot gear faced off Friday evening with protestors after a day of federal immigration raids in the city. At least 44 people were arrested.
The Los Angeles Police Department did not return messages.
New York Mayoral candidate and former-governor Andrew Cuomo weighed in on the ICE raids and the protests in both Los Angeles and New York on Saturday.
“The recent ICE crackdowns in Los Angeles and New York City are a deeply troubling escalation in immigration enforcement tactics that undermine community trust and the principles of due process,” Cuomo said in a statement.
“I believe in upholding the rule of law and maintaining secure borders, but these operations — marked by military-style raids, the use of flash-bang grenades, and the detention of individuals, including those attempting to document the events — cross a line into cruelty and unnecessary fear mongering,” Cuomo said in the statement.
Hundreds of migrants, including children, were detained by ICE agents Friday, the ACLU said.
The DHS, however, said operations in LA this week have resulted in the arrest of 118 illegal migrants – including five gang members and others with past criminal charges that include drug trafficking, assault, cruelty to children and robbery, according to the DHS.
Bass condemned the ICE raids in a statement, saying these “tactics sow terror in our communities and disrupt basic principles of safety in our city… We will not stand for this.”
Neither the Department of Homeland Security nor the California National Guard responded to The Post’s request for comment.
Read the full article here
