Vance to visit Los Angeles on Friday amid tension over ICE raids
Vice President JD Vance is set to travel to Los Angeles on Friday amid tensions in the city over the Trump administration's immigration crackdown.
Vance will 'tour a multi-agency Federal Joint Operations Center, a Federal Mobile Command Center, meet with leadership and Marines, and deliver brief remarks,' according to a readout of the vice president's travel plans.
The trip comes after Los Angeles had been rocked with significant anti-ICE protests — which President Donald Trump deployed National Guard troops and Marines to subdue — drawing condemnation from Democrats as the city has become a microcosm of the nationwide struggle over the administration's immigration policy.
Democrats and activists have clashed with administration officials and federal law enforcement over the issue in recent weeks, leading to inflamed tensions and even direct altercations with law enforcement agents.
In an unusual act of force against a sitting lawmaker, federal law enforcement officers forcibly removed and handcuffed California Sen. Alex Padilla while he attempted to question Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem at a press briefing last week, prompting outrage from others within the Democratic Party.
'If they can handcuff a U.S. Senator for asking a question, imagine what they will do to you," Newsom said of the incident at the time.
Noem and other Republicans defended the actions, with the DHS secretary saying Padilla 'wanted the scene,' and House Speaker Mike Johnson calling on him to be censured.
Earlier in the month, the president of the labor union SEIU California, David Huerta, was knocked to the ground and arrested at a protest against immigration sweeps in Los Angeles, causing injuries that lead to his brief hospitalization. Huerta was released from federal custody three days later on a $50,000 bond.
The protests and unrest have since quieted — Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass lifted a curfew earlier this week — but the troops have remained.
And so has ICE. The Los Angeles Dodgers on Thursday said ICE agents had appeared at Dodger Stadium and 'requested permission to access the parking lots,' but were denied entry by the organization.
But ICE claimed it was 'never there' in a reply to the baseball team's post on X.
In a separate reply, the official Department of Homeland Security account said the presence of federal agents 'had nothing to do with the Dodgers,' and claimed 'CBP vehicles were in the stadium parking lot very briefly, unrelated to any operation or enforcement.'
Later on Thursday, a federal appeals court indefinitely blocked an effort by California Gov. Gavin Newsom to retain control of the state's National Guard troops after Trump mobilized them to quell protests in Los Angeles, landing the Trump administration a win.
The president touted the victory in a Truth Social post, claiming it as a 'BIG WIN' and slamming Newsom as 'incompetent and ill prepared.'
'The Judges obviously realized that Gavin Newscum is incompetent and ill prepared, but this is much bigger than Gavin, because all over the United States, if our Cities, and our people, need protection, we are the ones to give it to them should State and Local Police be unable, for whatever reason, to get the job done,' Trump wrote. 'This is a Great Decision for our Country, and we will continue to protect and defend Law abiding Americans.'
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