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.
