hankyoreh

Angelenos protest sweeping immigration raids by ICE in downtown Los Angeles, California, on June 7, 2025. (Kim Won-chul/Hankyoreh)

Explosions from the flash-bang grenades police fired to disperse protesters echoed through the night skies, mixing with the roar of police helicopters and honking from vehicles cheering on the protests to form an incessant cacophony. Four days after US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) conducted sweeping raids on Saturday, fiery protests continued to stretch late into the night in downtown Los Angeles, California, as residents shouting “ICE out of LA” were met with force by police.

Even past 10 pm on Monday (local time), protesters continued to clash with law enforcement in several locations downtown. Police ordered protesters to disperse immediately, threatening to fire rubber bullets that “may cause serious injuries” at the crowds blocking the street in front of the LA Police Department headquarters. Undeterred, demonstrators formed a line as they faced down law enforcement. Only after the bang of rubber bullets rang out did the group scatter.

All afternoon, protesters had focused their efforts on the Federal Building, which was surrounded by the National Guard. While the legality of President Donald Trump’s deployment of the troops continues to be questioned, the presence of armed federal agents further aggravated the demonstrators. 

“It’s shocking that the National Guard is attacking protesters who are trying to protect the local community,” John, a teacher, told the Hankyoreh. “Trump tries to portray undocumented immigrants as invaders, but the actual invaders are the National Guard.”

As public ire mounts over ICE raids, US President Donald Trump has deployed thousands of National Guard troops to the LA area, an order that many have called unlawful. (Kim Won-chul/Hankyoreh)

At about 6 pm, police entered the square outside the Federal Building while shooting less-than-lethal ammunition, such as rubber bullets, toward the crowd. Law enforcement officers who had been on standby all afternoon began to push the protestors back at this point, with the standoff continuing into the night.

The protests of unchecked ICE raids have continued because this fight is one that Angelenos cannot back away from. About 35 percent of LA residents are immigrants, which is 2.5 times the national average of 14 percent. Approximately 25-30 percent of this population is estimated to be undocumented. With such a large immigrant population in the city, American citizens living there also have ties to immigrants, whether direct or indirect. 

A protester who spoke at Monday’s rally said, “A man who has been working at a local car wash for the past 10 years was arrested in one of the recent raids. He was a hardworking breadwinner for his family. He must be returned home.” 

Sophia, a teacher present at the rally, told the Hankyoreh, “One of my family members is an undocumented immigrant who has been unable to leave the house. They cannot go to work, or send their children to school.”

The ICE raids have taken a huge toll on the local economy as well. Many shops in LA were closed despite it being a weekday due to the absence of workers. “There are a lot of Japanese restaurants in Little Tokyo, but they’re currently closed because the undocumented immigrants who work in the kitchen haven’t shown up to work,” Hernandez, a social worker, told the Hankyoreh. 

The Trump administration recently increased ICE’s daily quota for arrests to 3,000 per day, and expanded raids into workplaces such as industrial complexes, restaurants and shops. On Monday, ICE carried out large-scale immigration sweeps across southern California, arresting residents in various locations including courthouses, libraries and stores.

“This is a fight we cannot back away from, one that asks whether the US is a nation of immigrants or of white people,” said Amaru, a protester who works as an instructor at Loyola Marymount University. “[The police] say they are arresting ‘illegal immigrants,’ but this is not the reality. They are indiscriminately arresting legal residents as well, even immigrants who were on their way to the courthouse to get legal citizenship.” 

“These are arrests based on skin color. It’s blatant racism in action,” Amaru stressed. 

Hundreds of people took to the streets in Dallas, Texas, the same day to protest the immigration raids. On Monday night, protesters marched across the Margaret Hunt Hill Bridge in western Dallas, chanting as they held signs with messages reading “Stop the Mass Deportations” and “Immigrants Make America Great Again.” Some in the crowd waved the flags of Mexico, Palestine and the US as they marched in a show of solidarity with other causes. The march in Texas had been organized in solidarity with the intense protests in LA as they continued for their fourth straight day. 

Angelenos protest sweeping immigration raids by ICE in downtown Los Angeles, California, on June 7, 2025. (Kim Won-chul/Hankyoreh)

In the meantime, Trump has dialed up his response to the protests, ordering the Department of Defense to dispatch an additional 2,000 California National Guard troops to the Los Angeles area. The new injection of troops is meant to provide backup to ICE as it deals with resistance to its immigration raids, and when added to the 700 Marines destined for the city, will bring the total number of soldiers the Trump administration has ordered to LA to 4,700. 

While Gov. Gavin Newsom of California has slammed Trump for “trying to provoke chaos by sending 4,000 soldiers onto American soil,” he also urged protesters to stick to peaceful tactics so as not to give Trump any excuse to crack down further. 

“Foolish agitators who take advantage of Trump’s chaos will be held accountable,” the governor told constituents. “Stay safe. Stay calm. Look out for one another.”

That morning, the Pentagon announced that it would be sending 700 Marines to the Los Angeles area. Many observers see the deployment of not merely National Guard troops, but active-duty American soldiers to respond to the protests as a serious shift in the tenor of the administration’s response. 

California’s state government has also filed a lawsuit challenging what it called an unlawful mobilization of National Guard troops by the Trump administration. In the filing, California argues that Trump’s “federalization and deployment of the National Guard for reasons not authorized by law and without input from or consent of the Governor contravenes core statutory and constitutional restrictions.” It also accuses the president of “exceed[ing] the bounds of lawful executive authority.” 

California asked the court to nullify Trump’s order authorizing the Pentagon chief to mobilize National Guard forces, and to bar the Pentagon from carrying out this mobilization of troops. 

By Kim Won-chul, Washington correspondent in LA; Jung Yu-gyung, staff reporter; Kim Ji-hoon, staff reporter

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