Singer-songwriter and producer Finneas has claimed he was tear-gassed by the National Guard at a protest in Downtown Los Angeles.
The 27-year-old Oscar and Grammy-winning artist — and older brother of pop star Billie Eilish — was among thousands protesting the immigration raids over the weekend.
“Tear gassed almost immediately at the very peaceful protest downtown — they’re inciting this,” Finneas wrote on his Instagram Story Sunday night.
Earlier, he had shared choice words with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), writing: “F*** ICE.” He also reshared posts directly calling out the National Guard and Active Duty military that read: If you are “being ordered to violate the Constitution rights of US citizens then this is the number to the GI Rights Hotline. There is support, you don’t have to go through with it.”
In another post, the “For Cryin’ Out Loud” singer reshared a warning from TV producer Travis Helwig about the media coverage of the protests.
“In the coming days, the national media is gonna call LA a war zone. But the truth is, the folks protesting today were worried about their friends, their neighbors, and their community,” Helwig’s message said.
“A few idiots will throw a rock and it’ll take over the entire narrative. But just know LA is afraid right now because their coworkers were kidnapped at work. Because the guy who sold them dinner was snatched by masked men. And because a bunch of neighbors’ parents straight up never came home.”
It continued: “As Trump gleefully escalates this with the National Guard, violence is inevitable. But just know this protest started from a place of protection. A place of love.”
Protests first erupted on Friday after ICE officers began conducting raids at multiple locations.
One search was executed outside a clothing warehouse in the Fashion District after a judge found probable cause that 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.
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Crowds tried to stop ICE agents from driving away following the arrests.
Another protest was sparked outside a federal building in downtown LA, after demonstrators discovered detainees were allegedly being held in the basement of the building.
The following day, President Donald Trump deployed at least 2,000 National Guard troops to LA.
“If Governor Gavin Newscum, of California, and Mayor Karen Bass, of Los Angeles, can’t do their jobs, which everyone knows they can’t, then the Federal Government will step in and solve the problem, RIOTS & LOOTERS, the way it should be solved!!!” he wrote on Truth Social.
California Governor Newsom disagreed with Trump’s involvement of the National Guard, writing on social media that the “federal government is moving to take over the California National Guard and deploy 2,000 soldiers. That move is purposefully inflammatory and will only escalate tensions.”
He added deployment is “the wrong mission and will erode public trust.”
The state National Guard, usually mobilized by the governor, has not been activated by a president since 1965. Newsom said Monday that California will sue the Trump administration.
“He flamed the fires and illegally acted to federalize the National Guard,” Newsom said of Trump on X.
