By Jane Ross and Steve Gorman
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Helmeted police in riot gear turned out on Friday evening in a tense confrontation with protesters in downtown Los Angeles, after a day of federal immigration raids in which dozens of people across the city were reported to be taken into custody.
Live Reuters video showed Los Angeles Police Department officers lined up on a downtown street wielding batons and what appeared to be tear gas rifles, facing off with demonstrators after authorities had ordered crowds of protesters to disperse around nightfall.
Early in the standoff, some protesters hurled chunks of broken concrete toward officers, and police responded by firing volleys of tear gas and pepper spray. Police also fired “flash-bang” concussion rounds. It was not clear whether there were any immediate arrests.
An LAPD spokesperson, Drake Madison, told Reuters that police on the scene had declared an unlawful assembly, meaning that those who failed to leave the area were subject to arrest.
Television news footage earlier in the day showed caravans of unmarked military-style vehicles and vans loaded with uniformed federal agents streaming through Los Angeles streets as part of the immigration enforcement operation.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents targeted several locations, including a Home Depot in the city’s Wetlake District, an apparel store in the Fashion District and a clothing warehouse in South Los Angeles, according to the Los Angeles City News Service (CNS).
CNS and other local media reported dozens of people were taken into custody during the raids, the latest in a series of such sweeps conducted in a number of cities as part of President Donald Trump’s extensive crackdown on illegal immigration.
The Republican president has vowed to arrest and deport undocumented migrants in record numbers.
The LAPD did not take part in the immigration enforcement action. It was deployed to quell civil unrest after crowds protesting the deportation raids spray-painted anti-ICE slogans on the walls of a federal court building and massed outside a nearby jail where some of the detainees were believed to be held.
Impromptu demonstrations had also erupted at some of the raid locations earlier in the day. One organized labor executive, David Huerta, president of the Service Employees International Union of California, was injured and detained by ICE at one site, according to an SEIU statement.
The union said Huerta was arrested “while exercising his First Amendment right to observe and document law enforcement activity.”
No details about the nature or severity of Huerta’s injury were given. It was not clear whether he was charged with a crime.
ICE did not immediately respond to a request from Reuters for information about its enforcement actions or Huerta’s detention.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass issued a statement condemning the immigration raids, saying, “these tactics sow terror in our communities and disrupt basic principles of safety in our city.”
(Reporting by Jane Ross in Los Angeles; Writing and additional reporting by Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Tom Hogue)
