Troops and federal agents briefly descend on park in LA neighborhood with large immigrant population

Japan Today

5 days ago

By TARA COPP and DAMIAN DOVARGANES
Dozens of federal officers in tactical gear and about 90 members of the California National Guard were deployed for about an hour Monday to a mostly empty park in a Los Angeles neighborhood with a large immigrant population. It wasn't immediately known if any arrests were made.
Defense officials had said the troops and over a dozen military vehicles would help protect immigration officers as they carried out a raid in MacArthur Park.
'What I saw in the park today looked like a city under siege, under armed occupation,' said Mayor Karen Bass, who told reporters there were children in the park attending a day camp.
They were quickly ushered inside so they didn't witness the troops. Still, Bass said an 8-year-old boy told her that 'he was fearful of ICE.'
The operation occurred at a park in a neighborhood with large Mexican, Central American and other immigrant populations and is lined by businesses with signs in Spanish and other languages that has been dubbed by local officials as the 'Ellis Island of the West Coast.'
Messages were sent to Immigration and Customs Enforcement seeking additional details.
Jeannette Zanipatin with the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights saw the brief but prominent presence of troops and federal officers at the park. 'I definitely think it's a source of intimidation,' she said. 'We know that the Trump administration is trying to make an example of Los Angeles.'
The operation in the large park about 2 miles west of downtown LA included 17 Humvees, four tactical vehicles, two ambulances and the armed soldiers, defense officials said. It came after President Donald Trump deployed thousands of Guard members and active duty Marines to the city last month following protests over previous immigration raids.
Trump has stepped up efforts to realize his campaign pledge of deporting millions of immigrants in the United States illegally and shown a willingness to use the nation's military might in ways other U.S. presidents have typically avoided.
Betsy Bolte, who lives nearby, came to the park after seeing a military-style helicopter circling. She arrived to see federal officers on horseback moving through a grassy area, with activists and passersby shouting at them.
Bolte didn't see any arrests and said it was 'gut-wrenching' to witness what appeared to be a federal show of force on the streets of a U.S. city. 'It's terror and, you know, it's ripping the heart and soul out of Los Angeles,' she said. 'I am still in shock, disbelief, and so angry and terrified and heartbroken.'
The defense officials told reporters that it was not a military operation but acknowledged that the size and scope of the Guard's participation could make it look like one to the public. That is why the officials spoke on condition of anonymity to provide details about the raid that were not announced publicly.
'It's just going to be more overt and larger than we usually participate in,' one of the officials said before the raid ended abruptly with no explanation.
The primary role of the service members would be to protect the immigration enforcement officers in case a hostile crowd gathered, that official said. They are not participating in any law enforcement activities such as arrests, but service members can temporarily detain citizens if necessary before handing them over to law enforcement, the official said.
Sprawling MacArthur Park has a murky lake ringed by palm trees, an amphitheater that hosts summer concerts and sports fields where immigrant families line up to play soccer in the evenings and on weekends. A thoroughfare on the east side is often crammed with unlicensed food stands selling tacos and other delicacies, along with vendors speaking multiple languages and hawking cheap T-shirts, toys, knickknacks and household items.
Authorities routinely clear encampments and medical outreach teams tend to homeless residents.
Chris Newman, legal director for the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, said he received a credible tip about the operation Monday.
'It was a demonstration of escalation,' Newman said. 'This was a reality TV spectacle much more so than an actual enforcement operation.'
Since federal agents have been making arrests at Home Depot parking lots and elsewhere in Los Angeles, Newman said fewer people have been going to the park and immigrant neighborhoods near the city's downtown.
'The ghost town-ification of LA is haunting, to say the very least,' he said.
More than 4,000 California National Guard and hundreds of U.S. Marines have been deployed in Los Angeles since June — against the wishes of California Gov. Gavin Newsom. Last week, the military announced about 200 of those troops would be returned to their units to fight wildfires.
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