LAPD Won't Do Immigration Enforcement — But Will Shoot You With Rubber Bullets for Protesting ICE
As federal agents abducted at least 118 immigrants throughout Los Angeles County over the weekend, local leaders swatted away suggestions of collaboration on immigration enforcement — and sought to keep the blame squarely on federal authorities.
'LA was peaceful before Friday,' said Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, who joined her fellow California Democrat Gov. Gavin Newsom in blaming the Trump administration for escalating tensions by deploying federal troops. As of Tuesday, Trump has deployed 4,000 members of the National Guard and 700 Marines to the city so far.
Trump's militarized response was certainly escalatory, several protesters told The Intercept. But while National Guard troops mostly stood around outside federal buildings, it was the Los Angeles Police Department whose members brutalized protesters with batons, tear gas, and so-called 'less-lethal' munitions, drawing blood and bruising people who turned out to protest U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids.
'Hearing the governor and Karen Bass talking about LAPD coming in to 'protect the peace' — this is so absurd,' said Robert Meraz, a 51-year-old public defender from Van Nuys. He joined an estimated 10,000-person march on Sunday, when an LAPD officer fired a bean-bag munition into his left arm. An injury on Robert Meraz's arm after he was struck by a bean-bag munition. Photo: Courtesy of Robert Meraz
Meraz was at the front of the group marching from LA City Hall to the federal detention facility several blocks away. There, federal agents were holding detainees swept up on Friday, when ICE arrested 14 workers at the Ambiance Apparel warehouse near the garment district and at least 40 more at car washes, street vendors, and waiting for work assignments in a Home Depot parking lot. Rights groups said the detainments, captured on viral videos, have been based on race and appearance of individuals.
Meraz works in Alameda County, but he was in the area visiting family when he joined the march. The child of immigrants from Mexico, Meraz told The Intercept that his own relatives sought work in front of Home Depot when he was growing up.
'And so then I'm hearing that ICE is just going around swooping up fools at Home Depot,' he said. 'That was just too much.'
At the federal detention center, most of the recent detainees had yet to speak with an attorney, family members and attorneys told The Intercept. Federal officials illegally denied entry to members of Congress, including California Democratic Reps. Jimmy Gomez and Maxine Waters. Attorneys seeking access to their clients told The Intercept that some women being detained had to sleep outside, in tents without blankets, due to overcrowding.
About 100 yards away, LAPD officers intercepted the crowd and pushed it back, Meraz recalled. The cops declared an unlawful assembly, authorized the use of less-lethal munitions, and began to fire at protesters.
'I was definitely walking backwards,' Meraz said, holding an ice pack against bandages soaked in blood, 'but I guess not backwards fast enough.' He said an officer held a bean-bag-loaded weapon against Meraz's gut before firing, and Meraz managed to block it with his arm. He said an emergency room doctor warned of possible long-term muscle or nerve damage, which could affect the mobility of his arm and hand.
The Los Angeles Police Department was coming off of a routine funding boost. Days earlier, Bass had signed a new city budget that increased the department's $1.86 billion budget to $1.98 billion, including money to hire 240 new recruits. The mayor defended the LAPD's actions on Sunday as necessary crowd-control measures.
According to the Los Angeles City Charter, LAPD officers are tightly restricted from supporting federal immigration actions. In November, LA expanded its sanctuary city policies to prohibit the use of city resources, including police, for immigration operations. And since 1979, LAPD officers have been barred from asking people's immigration status or making immigration-related arrests. On top of that, California's statewide sanctuary laws ban local law enforcement officers from many immigration enforcement actions.
Suspicions that police may have violated some of those sanctuary restrictions added to the ire behind LA's protests. On Friday, the LAPD formed a line just outside Ambiance Apparel while federal agents performed their raid, during which they violently arrested protester and Service Employees International Union California and SEIU-USWW President David Huerta.
'You're LAPD — why are you collaborating with ICE?' another protester yelled in a video of the confrontation on Friday.
While the LAPD declined to comment on why its officers were present during the raid, LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell has stated publicly that his officers responded to calls for service from federal agencies for 'emergency assistance to protect lives,' just like it would any member of the public.
'Our job is not to divide communities or politicize law enforcement,' McDonnell said. 'Our job is simply to keep everyone safe.' He insisted that the LAPD does not coordinate with ICE on civil enforcement.
'I was using my freedom of speech, what I'm allowed to do, and they ended up shooting at me.'
Such statements rang hollow for protesters who marched in downtown Los Angeles over the weekend. At the protest on Sunday, one demonstrator left the crowd with his right arm raised as blood dripped from his hand, where an LAPD projectile had struck him. A man named Miguel, who declined to give his last name, was struck in the chest by an LAPD munition while protesting near the Federal Building, leaving a bloody, circular imprint on his skin.
TV news reports highlighted vandalism and property crimes: graffiti criticizing ICE on federal offices and courthouses, rocks hurled at armored vehicles, burglaries at downtown business, driverless Waymo ride-hailing cars set on fire, and Lime scooters tossed over the side of the highway.
'If you are going to entertain violence,' Bass said, speaking to reporters inside City Hall, 'you are going to suffer the consequences of that.'
But protesters argued that the focus on private property distracted from the violence done to demonstrators exercising their First Amendment rights — and to immigrants facing deportation for seeking work opportunities. California Highway Patrol officers fire so-called 'less-lethal' munitions at protesters blocking the 101 Freeway on June 8, 2025. Photo:'I wasn't throwing nothing, I wasn't causing no harm — I was using my freedom of speech, what I'm allowed to do, and they ended up shooting at me,' said John Gonzalez, an 18-year-old protester who helped occupy the 101 Freeway on Sunday. Some members of the crowd tossed rocks at the armored officers, but many just stood and watched, recorded on their phones, or joined in chanting their objections to ICE.
California Highway Patrol officers, part of a state-run force, fired flash-bang projectiles and 'less-lethal' munitions up toward crowds protesting along the railing. During the protest, Gonzalez lifted his shirt to reveal a large bruise along his side.
Video recordings from throughout the weekend showed other aggressive tactics. One video from Sunday showed a man getting beaten by mounted LAPD officers charging at him and swinging batons. Another recording showed one protester trampled by officers on horseback. In a live broadcast from near a federal courthouse, an LAPD officer pointed their weapon in an Australian reporter's direction before firing and striking her in the leg. Agents with the Department of Homeland Security and some National Guard troops fired pepper-ball bullets and tear gas on smaller groups of protesters and journalists outside the downtown federal detention facility throughout the weekend. John Gonzalez shows his bruise from a less-lethal munition (left), and a protester's hand drips blood after being hit. Photo: Jonah Valdez/The Intercept
Back at City Hall, Los Angeles resident Alicia Cohen was struck in the heel by a rubber bullet. She was a part of a small group of protesters who had weathered tear gas and LAPD projectiles throughout the day. She told The Intercept she was not surprised by the LAPD's brutality, given her past experiences protesting in 2020 after the police murder of George Floyd.
'The people that are supposed to protect us are not protecting us.'
'The people that are supposed to protect us are not protecting us,' said Cohen, who told The Intercept she'd attended Kent State University, where the legacy of violent protest repression made her especially wary of the National Guard. 'It's ICE terrorizing us, it's LAPD terrorizing us, and I think the 'violent actions' that are happening outside are symptoms of the aggression that is shown when LAPD and the feds get aggressive.'
Meraz also took exception to the idea that the protesters had initiated the violence.
It was 'infuriating,' Meraz said, 'just hearing the language that the news was using. They were like, 'Violent protesters.' I'm like, 'What?''
Immigration raids continued across Los Angeles County on Monday, including in Venice, Culver City, and Huntington Park, with more expected throughout the week.
Protests persisted too, entering their fifth consecutive day on Tuesday as demonstrations were planned to take place in front of the Federal Building in downtown Los Angeles. Other demonstrations were planned across southern California, as anti-ICE protesters showed out in other cities such as San Francisco, Atlanta, New York, Chicago, and Dallas.
Huerta, of SEIU, was released on Monday. Federal prosecutors charged him with felony conspiracy to impede an officer.
LA city council members are expected to bring a motion on Tuesday to request information from the LAPD on its use of resources during the recent federal operations. City Controller Kenneth Mejia, a regular critic of police spending, said his office is requesting more information about LAPD's presence near ICE raids.
Family members of the workers detained in the garment district, who were mostly from the indigenous Zapotec community, held a press conference in front of the Ambiance Apparel warehouse on Friday, demanding their release, legal representation, accountability from their employers, and adherence to city and state sanctuary policies. Among the speakers was Carlos Gonzalez, whose older brother José Paulino was detained Friday.
'I also want to ask, where is the sanctuary California promised us,' Gonzalez said, 'when your police departments choose to defend ICE officials instead of its own people?'
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