FilmLA Warns Production Permits May Be Denied Amid ICE Protests
Los Angeles film office FilmLA has advised filmmakers that areas in and around downtown Los Angeles, specifically near City Hall and the nearby federal building, may be off-limits for productions until further notice as protests against immigration raids continue in the area.
'The City of Los Angeles' permit authority, LAPD, asked that FilmLA reassure the industry that requests to film on-location will continue to be reviewed and evaluated on a case-by-case basis,' the advisory read. 'In the City of Los Angeles and in other jurisdictions, filming is allowed in all areas except those where protest activity is concentrated.'
FilmLA also says that it is unaware of any active productions that have been interrupted by this past weekend's protests, which have been concentrated around the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) field office and the adjacent Edward R. Roybal Federal Building, both located on the intersection of Los Angeles and Temple St. a block southeast from City Hall.
FilmLA also noted a labor protest being held at City Hall in support of SEIU California president David Huerta, whom the union says was injured and arrested by federal agents while observing the immigration raids. Huerta, a U.S. citizen, was charged with interfering with federal agents and is set to appear in court today, with U.S. Senators Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla sending a letter to the Trump Administration demanding answers as to why he was arrested.
'We are unable to give more specific boundaries for affected areas at this time as the situation is fluid. Care for crew safety is important, as is making room for protected free speech,' FilmLA said.
While FilmLA has reported a major decline in on-location shooting in Los Angeles County, downtown remains a common shooting location, with shows like '9-1-1' and 'Suits L.A.' among the recent productions to shoot in the area. Movies such as 'L.A. Confidential,' 'Inception' and 'La La Land' are among those who have also shot in downtown.
Over the weekend, the Trump Administration launched widespread immigration raids throughout Los Angeles. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said in a Saturday social media post that it had arrested 118 immigrants during operations in the city last week.
Community groups have deployed rapid response networks as news of the raids spread to warn of federal officials' presence while protests have been staged outside the USCIS office throughout the weekend. In response to the protests, President Trump called for the deployment of 2,000 members of the California National Guard against the wishes of Gov. Gavin Newsom, who announced that the state would sue the Trump Administration over the deployment.
The post FilmLA Warns Production Permits May Be Denied Amid ICE Protests appeared first on TheWrap.
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The Verge
43 minutes ago
- The Verge
A day of LA anti-ICE protests in photos
On Monday after a weekend of demonstrations, hundreds of people flocked to Downtown Los Angeles for another round — to support loved ones who've been detained during recent immigration protests or ICE raids, and to face off with National Guard troops deployed by President Donald Trump. Helicopters circled over an event led by unions to protest the Friday arrest of labor leader David Huerta, who was ordered released on $50,000 bail as demonstrators marched. Speakers on a stage led prayers and chants: 'Freedom now' and 'sí se puede.' In the shadow of LA's city hall, participants held up signs reading 'ICE out of LA', 'Keep LA families together', 'Educación no deportación.' When the morning rally came to a close and more demonstrators arrived, a march began through downtown, headed toward the detention center in Los Angeles. Organizers on microphones shouted 'Peaceful protesting, no tagging!' as youth with hoodies pulled tight around their faces spray painted 'fuck ICE' on buildings lining the streets. 'Join us! You think Elon Musk gives a fuck?' a blond woman wearing a pink bandana yelled at a group of officers, her voice cracking. A band cruising alongside on an open flatbed truck serenaded dancing crowds singing along in Spanish, FUCK ICE on the band leader's neon yellow shirt. Stopping at Los Angeles Plaza Park, the march turned into an impromptu dance party with demonstrators. Tensions heightened a few blocks down as demonstrators marched closer to the detention center. Outside of the federal building behind the detention center, the California National Guard was lined up alongside police in front of rows of windows tagged with 'Fuck Trump.' Demonstrators faced them, blocking the street with cars, motorcycles, and their bodies, chanting iterations of the same phrase. They called for the release of detainees — 'Bring them home!' On the rooftop of a mall across the street, two young teens or preteens dropped their bicycles carrying Mexican and American flags to sit and watch and dangle their legs off the ledge. Trump has targeted Los Angeles for a shock-and-awe military campaign; as the march continued, news broke that hundreds of Marines were being deployed to guard federal property. He's painted protestors as invaders and 'insurrectionists.' But at Monday's actions, protestors The Verge spoke with at Grand Park were fighting for a future in the US. As some protesters and other members of the media started donning gas masks in the late afternoon heat, it was time for us to leave. 'David Huerta is a mentor. He's a dear friend. He's someone that I have worked with for many years, someone that I worked with very closely. And I'm on the phone with him and talking to him every single day … I could only imagine if the highest ranking Latino leader in the labor movement was treated that way — What kind of treatment do immigrant workers face on the day at work every day? And it takes all of this to free a known leader who has tremendous political support, community support, and we still can't get him free. What really is going on to regular folks, regular immigrants who don't have access to all of this. So I know that David would be saying today that this is not about him. This is about workers and he's absolutely right.' —Christian Ramirez, political director, at SEIU, United Service Workers West 'I had a higher education because of all the sacrifices my family took to be here. As a daughter of first generation immigrants, I really understood that. I had a parent also taken away by ICE when I was in middle school, and that was incredibly impactful at such a pivotal time of your life to get stripped away from the one thing that sometimes is the only thing that is secure in your life. It's completely shattering and I can only imagine what some families are going through right now. So I'm here for that.' —A participant with Contra-Tiempo Artivist Theater who was granted anonymity to protect their family 'Our students are afraid. Our communities are under attack, and they have a lot of questions, you know. And as we're approaching summer break, I'm a little afraid because they won't have the classroom. We don't have that safe space to be … what I find joy in is reminding them that the next presidential election, they'll be voters. They're in the ninth grade now. They're 14. When we vote for our next president, they'll be voters. So they can remember how they feel today and use their voices in the right way to be informed constituents when they cast their votes.' —Gina Gray, a high school English teacher with United Teachers Los Angeles. 'We've certainly seen our fair share of emergencies here in Los Angeles already in 2025. What we know is that chain of command is very important, and the fact that our president would disregard proper chain of command in terms of how we deploy our safety resources, just shows that this is not about safety. This is about power and control, and it is absolutely unacceptable … We are opposing this fascist attack on our democracy, and we have a right to do that.' —LA County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath
Washington Post
an hour ago
- Washington Post
California union leader's arrest at immigration protest sparks outcry
A prominent labor leader on Monday faced charges of conspiring to impede federal immigration enforcement efforts, while his arrest last week in California sparked nationwide demonstrations and accusations of a politically motivated prosecution. David Huerta — head of the Service Employees International Union of California, the state's largest public sector union — was arrested Friday while rallying demonstrators outside a worksite immigration raid near downtown Los Angeles. He was released from custody Monday, after a brief court appearance, on a $50,000 bond. Democratic officials, the union leader's supporters and some legal experts criticized the decision to charge him as yet another instance of the Trump administration wielding the justice system to target outspoken critics. Huerta is among several officials — including a judge in Wisconsin and a New Jersey congresswoman — to face felony prosecution and the threat of prison time for alleged behavior in opposition to President Donald Trump's immigration enforcement agenda. 'It looks like the Justice Department wants to try and make an example out of him. Sen. Adam Schiff (D-California) told reporters, before attending Huerta's court hearing Monday in Los Angeles. 'But this is part of the Trump playbook. They selectively use the Justice Department to go after their adversaries. It's what they do.' Charging documents made public before the proceeding described a tense standoff between protesters and agents carrying out the immigration raid Friday. Huerta allegedly rallied the crowd to sit down and picket in front of the warehouse's gate to block authorities from entering. As a law enforcement van approached, Huerta allegedly refused to move. And when an officer 'put his hands' on Huerta to move him, Huerta allegedly pushed back, the affidavit states. 'What are you going to do?' Huerta shouted at the agents, according to the affidavit. 'You can't arrest all of us.' Video of the incident appears to show the officer shoving Huerta, who stands with his hands on his hips near the front of the van. Huerta stumbles backward and eventually falls to the ground. Officers take him into custody. 'Let me be clear: I don't care who you are — if you impede federal agents, you will be arrested and prosecuted,' Bill Essayli, the U.S. Attorney in Los Angeles, said in a post on X shortly after Huerta's arrest. On Monday, Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-New York) and California's two Democratic senators — Schiff and Alex Padilla — called the arrest 'deeply troubling' in a letter to Trump administration officials and demanded an explanation. The SEIU organized demonstrations in cities across the country including Washington, Atlanta, Boston and Philadelphia. In Los Angeles, a city that has seen four days of demonstrations and Trump's deployment of National Guard troops, the union's international president April Verrett rallied a crowd that gathered downtown to call for Huerta's release. 'We know bullies,' she said. 'When you pick a fight with one of us, you pick a fight with all of us.' Since Trump's return to the White House, the Justice Department has directed federal prosecutors across the country to investigate — and potentially charge — state and local officials who interfere with federal immigration enforcement efforts. They made good on that threat in April, arresting Hannah Dugan, a state judge in Wisconsin, for allegedly helping a man avoid arrest by immigration officials as he appeared before her court. Last month, federal prosecutors in New Jersey charged Rep. LaMonica McIver (D-New Jersey) with assaulting federal agents during a clash that erupted between protesters and authorities at an immigration detention center in Newark. Both have denied the charges and vowed to take their cases to trial. Trump on Monday suggested that the administration's border official Tom Homan should arrest California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D), too, accusing him of obstructing the immigration sweeps and encouraging protests in his state. 'I think it's great,' Trump told reporters at the White House. 'Gavin likes the publicity, but I think it would be a great thing.' Newsom responded minutes later in a social media post on X, calling it 'an unmistakable step toward authoritarianism.' 'The President of the United States just called for the arrest of a sitting Governor,' he wrote. 'This is a day I hoped I would never see in America. I don't care if you're a Democrat or a Republican this is a line we cannot cross as a nation — this is an unmistakable step toward authoritarianism.' Marilyn Bednarski, an attorney for Huerta, did not respond to a request for comment Monday about the union leader's case. Some legal experts who reviewed the charging documents filed against Huerta said that prosecutors may ultimately be able to prove their case in court — that he worked with others to disrupt the immigration raid at the warehouse. But Carol Lam, who served as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of California under President George W. Bush, said that incidents like the one that ended with Huerta's arrest left the impression that the goal of some of the administration's immigration enforcement efforts is to engage in fights with protesters. 'The problem here is really one of proportionality,' she said. 'There was no effort at de-escalation. Good law enforcement understands that part of their job is to de-escalate, and I see none of that here.' Paul Charlton, a former U.S. attorney in Arizona under Bush, said it would be unusual to see the specific conspiracy count with which Huerta was charged taken to trial as a felony — unless, Charlton added, 'this administration was trying to prove a point.' 'I would be very surprised if this wasn't quickly turned around to a misdemeanor and resolved in that way,' he said. 'It's a resource issue, and then you have to have a charge that reflects the seriousness of the offense.' No matter how the case is resolved, Steven Levitsky, a professor of government at Harvard University who studies the erosion of democracies, saw a greater danger in the decision to prosecute Huerta and other administration critics in the first place — a risk that America is 'sleepwalking' into what he described as a period of autocracy. 'Americans still to this day — and I'm not talking about everyday Americans — I'm talking about politicians, CEOs, major civic leaders — they're reading about union leaders and politicians getting arrested and they still don't believe that it's happening here,' Levitsky said. Brianna Tucker in Washington and Molly Hennessy-Fiske in Los Angeles contributed to this report. Roebuck, Wu and Stein reported from Washington. Wingett Sanchez reported from Phoenix.
San Francisco Chronicle
an hour ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
SEIU's David Huerta is right: Immigrants helped get California the World Cup and Olympics, not Trump
As I watched TV coverage of the protests in Los Angeles on Friday night, I heard mention of a name that rang a bell: David Huerta. Hey, I know that guy. Huerta is president of the Service Employees International Union California. In L.A. functioning as a non-violent 'community observer,' Huerta was knocked to the pavement Friday night by law enforcement people, arrested, briefly hospitalized with a head injury, and charged with conspiracy to impede an officer. That's a felony that could get him six years in federal prison. When Donald Trump took office and promised to round up and deport millions of immigrants, I wondered how that take-all-prisoners crackdown might mar an otherwise delightful day at the ballpark. The SEIU represents, among others, about 3,200 workers at Bay Area sports venues, including Levi's Stadium, Oracle Park and Chase Center. And at just about every venue in the state. Imagine 40,000 fans at a San Francisco Giants game, with no janitors. Those toilet-paper dispensers won't refill themselves. The mountains of trash and stuff to recycle created in every game won't march themselves to the nearest landfill. From observation and from stories I've done, I am aware that many of the workers who make your ballpark experience so pleasant, who make it possible, are immigrants, and that at least some of them are undocumented. What effect would Trump's promised crackdown, or merely the threat of it, have on the ballpark workers, and on fans, and even on the players? Asking for everyone. If the ballpark bathroom is shut down due to lack of maintenance, Republicans and Democrats alike will suffer the inconvenience. So I contacted the local chapter of the SEIU and they hooked me up with Huerta for a phone interview. His words back then, in late February, seem fresh and relevant. And his place in the current national struggle gained more prominence as he sat in jail over the weekend in L.A. (He was released Monday afternoon on a $50,000 bond, without entering a plea.) While Huerta was behind bars, national labor leaders and politicians rallied to his defense. 'His arrest has ignited even the more conservative elements of the labor movement,' Veena Dubai, a law professor at UC Irvine, told the New York Times. 'If they can go after him, the head of the largest labor union in the largest economy in a labor-friendly state, who is the government not going to go after?' If you're a sports fan, you'd better hope they're not going to go after the lady hauling bags of trash out of a restroom at Chase Center. Whatever happens, it won't surprise Huerta. From our conversation, it was clear that he was expecting trouble. Back then, Huerta said of Trump's announced sweep, 'It's created what he wanted, which is chaos, fear and intimidation, right? And I think it's intentional on his part, it's what he's trying to do. But even though he's done that, the community, and workers in the community on a broader scale, have been preparing for that fear, intimidation and chaos. 'I think that although people are still in a sense of uncertainty, what we're seeing is that more and more people are facing that sense of fear head-on and really preparing themselves as much as they can to confront that.' For Trump's sweep to gain public support, the demonization of the potential deportees is essential. So Huerta surely was not surprised when Stephen Miller, the architect of Trump's deportation campaign, recently said our immigrant communities are filled with 'every kind of criminal thug that you can imagine on planet Earth.' Instead, it seems like they're just the good folks scrubbing ballpark commodes. 'The intent is to paint with a broad brush and label everyone a criminal,' Huerta said. 'That is not lost on the immigrant community. They know they are not criminals, they're working in the service sector, not just in sports venues but across industries, to make their contribution to the country and the economy, but most of all to provide for their families.' Huerta noted that the Bay Area, and the state, will be hosting upcoming major global sporting events — the CONCACAF Gold Cup soccer tournament in June and July, with matches at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara and PayPal Stadium in San Jose; the Super Bowl at Levi's in February; the 2026 World Cup, with matches in the Bay Area and L.A.; the 2028 Olympics and Paralympics in L.A. Those big-ticket events are already being trumpeted by Trump as examples of his ability to rule the sports world. 'I got the World Cup, I got the Olympics,' Trump bragged during a Memorial Day speech, about events already scheduled to be in California long before his re-election in November. California, Huerta said, earned those events, and without Trump's help. They are coming to California, he said, because of the state's vibrant economy and spirit, much of it created by immigrants and their labor. 'When you look at the Olympics, even the Super Bowl, these are great opportunities,' Huerta said. 'It should not be lost on anybody, and it's something that the president's going to have to recognize, is the fact that a lot of these events are in California for a reason — because of the prosperity and because of the fact that Los Angeles, in particular, is looked at as an international city, California is looked at as an international state. So I think it's going to be very interesting as we arrive at those events, what's going to be the posture of this administration?' The raids, the sweeps, whatever you want to call them, have started, and there is no reason to believe they will end soon, or ease up. Not with that army of alleged murderers and rapists on the loose. Not your problem? Maybe not, until the action comes to a ballpark near you. 'I think there are multiple impacts, especially at the sports venues, the chilling effect (the sweeps) can have just in general, in these public spaces,' Huerta said. 'If ICE workers show up, that can have an adverse effect on what are considered safe spaces. It's not just the impact it can have on the workers, but the impact it can have in general.' Will you be able to kick back and enjoy the old ballgame while masked, armed troopers are hauling away the people who were hard at work cleaning up your mess? You might get the chance to find out.
