Tag Archives: Los Angeles

Raw Story: Trump admin unleashes IRS on LA protests over right-wing conspiracy theory

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President Donald Trump’s administration is following conspiracy theories that the protesters in Los Angeles are being paid.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi [Bimbo #2] Noem revealed in a news conference Thursday that agents of the IRS have been deployed on the ground in Los Angeles to investigate who is “paying them” to protest.

The claim is a familiar one. As CNN pointed out, Trump has spent years claiming that anyone protesting him was being paid to do so.

*yawn* Maybe they’ll catch a leprechaun, too? Or a tooth fairy?

Meanwhile our joke of a National Security Director is hard at work:

Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard told Fox on Wednesday that it was something the Justice Department and the FBI were looking into, but there hasn’t been any specific information.

Gabbard cited Craigslist ads that request protesters, promising to pay thousands of dollars. However, anyone can create a Craigslist ad for anything without requirements for verification that it’s authentic. As an example, there is currently a Craigslist ad in Washington, D.C. offering $1,000 for “seat fillers” at Trump’s birthday parade on Saturday.

Gabbard said that protesters are “obviously” being “orchestrated.”

Trump admin unleashes IRS on LA protests over right-wing conspiracy theory

https://www.rawstory.com/paid-protesters

Newsweek: Did Senator ID himself when Kristi [Bimbo #2] Noem’s guards wrestled him?

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Video footage posted to Padilla’s account on X, formerly Twitter, showed the senator identifying himself, but he appeared to do so after he began approaching the podium and was blocked by agents.

“I am Senator Alex Padilla. I have questions for the secretary,” Padilla said before agents pushed him into a hallway, where FBI agents forced him to the ground and placed him in handcuffs. The senator was released shortly after.

The customary lies and misrepresentations from Bimbo #2 Noem:

In an interview with Fox News, [Bimbo #2] Noem said Padilla “did not identify himself and was removed from the room.”

“This man burst into the room, started lunging toward the podium, interrupting me and elevating his voice and was stopped,” [Bimbo #2] Noem said. “Did not identify himself and was removed from the room. So as soon as he identified himself, you know, appropriate actions were taken.”

“I had a conversation with the senator after this,” she continued. “We sat down for 10 to 15 minutes and talked about the fact that nobody knew who he was. He didn’t say who he was until he already had been lunging forward, and people were trying to detain him for quite a period of time.”

[Bimbo #2] added, “He was never arrested. Nobody knew who he was when he came into the room creating a scene.”

But:

Padilla said in a video posted on his social media channels: “I introduced myself. ‘I’m Senator Alex Padilla, and I have a question.’ And it took all of a second for multiple agents to forcibly remove me from the room, to pin me on the ground and handcuff me.”

Did Senator ID himself when Kristi Noem’s guards wrestled him?
Footage on social media shows Senator Alex Padilla of California identifying himself while being blocked by agents, but not before.

https://www.newsweek.com/did-senator-alex-padilla-id-himself-kristi-noem-guards-wrestled-2085009

Newsweek: Gavin Newsom accuses Trump administration of spreading fake protest images

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On X, formerly Twitter, the Department of Defense’s Rapid Response account posted a video that appeared to show burning, graffitied police cars during protests in Los Angeles this week.

However, the fact-checking website Snopes said the image showed protests in Los Angeles following the death of George Floyd in May 2020.

The governor’s office wrote on X on Friday: “HUGE DEVELOPMENT: An official Department of Defense account is spreading fake images—from old protests—to justify Trump’s illegal militarization of Los Angeles. This isn’t just disinformation. It’s a propaganda campaign from the Pentagon.”

Gavin Newsom accuses Trump administration of spreading fake protest images
The president deployed 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 Marines to Los Angeles in response to anti-ICE protests.

https://www.newsweek.com/gavin-newsom-trump-fake-protest-images-2085492

ESPN: Mexico President Sheinbaum calls for no ICE action at Gold Cup

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Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum on Friday urged U.S. authorities not to conduct immigration enforcement targeting attendees of a Gold Cup soccer match in Los Angeles on Saturday, where Mexico‘s team is due to play the Dominican Republic.

Her comments followed recent raids by immigration authorities in Los Angeles targeting undocumented migrants, under policies associated with the President Donald Trump’s administration, which have sparked protests across major cities.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection, in a now-deleted post to social media, had also promised to be “suited and booted” at the first round of Club World Cup soccer matches, the curtain-raiser event for next year’s World Cup.

“We don’t believe that at any soccer match there will be any [immigration] action … we call for none to be taken by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement,” Sheinbaum said in her morning press conference.

Hope she’s not disappointed. I’d never trust either CBP or ICE to keep their word.

Mexico prez calls for no ICE action at Gold Cup
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum urged U.S. authorities not to conduct immigration enforcement targeting attendees of a Gold Cup match in the Los Angeles area.

https://www.espn.com/soccer/story/_/id/45508088/mexico-president-sheinbaum-ice-gold-cup-los-angles

Mediaite: CNN’s Erin Burnett Asks Padilla If Trump DHS Chief’s Agents Jacked Him Up ‘Because of How You Look?’

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On Thursday night’s edition of CNN’s OutFront, Burnett picked up on a comment from CNN commentator Xochitl Hinojosa, and asked Padilla if his race had anything to do with the heavy-handed response:

BURNETT: I don’t know if you just heard what Xochitl was saying. She was saying that what she finds so unsettling as a Hispanic woman is that she feels that this happened to you because of how you look. And that as one of two sitting senators from California, those — those Secret Service agents would have known exactly who you were. And in fact, after you started talking, you said, “I’m Senator Alex Padilla”, and you said it multiple times.

Do you think that it was because of how you look?

SEN. ALEX PADILLA (D-CA): Look, I don’t know what the motives are. I think the point is this, Erin, and as I said, when I — when I came out of the building a little while after the incident, if this can happen to me, a United States senator representing the state of California, if this is how the Department of Homeland Security and the people around the secretary will treat a United States senator for having the audacity to ask a question, then imagine what they can do — imagine what they are doing to people in communities, not just throughout Los Angeles, but throughout the country.

CNN’s Erin Burnett Asks Padilla If Trump DHS Chief’s Agents Jacked Him Up ‘Because of How You Look?’
CNN anchor Erin Burnett asked Alex Padilla (D-CA) if agents at Trump DHS Secretary Kristi Noem’s press conference attacked him “because of how you look?”
CNN’s Erin Burnett Asks Padilla If Trump DHS Chief’s Agents Jacked Him Up ‘Because of How You Look?’

The Hill: Homan says Trump administration to ramp up workplace immigration enforcement

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The Nebraska business owner whose facility was raided by ICE on Tuesday said he’s worked to ensure that employees are legally in the United States by checking their identity with E-Verify, a system managed by the Department of Homeland Security. 

However, officials told him the system was “broken” after the raid, which left him clueless on how to properly process individuals who’ve applied for employment.

“I mean, what am I supposed to do with that? This is your system, run by the government. And you’re raiding me because your system is broken?” Chad Hartmann, president of Glenn Valley Foods, told The Associated Press. 

ICE officials told him they’d help him figure out the best method for hiring …

“Best method” until the next raid? ICE could probably care less.

Homan says Trump administration to ramp up workplace immigration enforcement

https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/5347195-homan-says-trump-administration-to-ramp-up-workplace-immigration-enforcement

Rolling Stone: ‘L.A. Was Not on Fire’: Angelenos Speak on Trump’s ICE Raids and ‘Escalation’

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Several Angelenos talked to Rolling Stone to dispel Trump’s bluster about the recent protests against ICE and his militarized crackdown

Last week, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers swarmed Southern California in concentrated raids of undocumented citizens that are still ongoing. Thousands of protesters have taken to the streets in Los Angeles (and in solidarity nationwide), giving President Donald Trump an excuse to send National Guard troops last weekend and move to deploy Marines to L.A.. 

Trump baselessly implied the protesters are “paid insurrectionists” during a press conference where he revealed he told California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) that “He’s doing a bad job, causing a lot of death and a lot of potential death. If we didn’t send out the National Guard – and last time, we gave him a little additional help – Los Angeles would be burning right now.” (No one has died during the L.A. protests.) 

Newsom has said the “chaotic” sweeps “to meet an arbitrary arrest quota are as reckless as they are cruel,” and that, “Donald Trump’s chaos is eroding trust, tearing families apart, and undermining the workers and industries that power America’s economy.” On June 10, L.A. Mayor Karen Bass (D) instituted an 8 p.m. curfew in downtown L.A. 

Rolling Stone spoke with several on-the-ground Angelenos, who dispute the notion that L.A.’s “on fire” or being overrun by vandals. 

Katharine Shropshire is the board chair of the grassroots organization Community Coalition. She says the Trump administration and allied politicians are spewing propaganda that inflames tension between citizens and law enforcement. 

“When you have federal national leaders from this administration talking about arresting our mayor, arresting our governor, when you have the president himself using the kind of rhetoric describing a reality that is nothing like what is happening on the ground right now, it just increases the tension,” she says. “Nothing here that they’re doing is about de-escalation. It is all about escalating a confrontation with the people of Los Angeles.”

‘L.A. Was Not on Fire’: Angelenos Speak on Trump’s ICE Raids and ‘Escalation’
Angelenos dispute Donald Trump’s claim that L.A. “would be burning down,” amid anti-ICE protests, if he didn’t send in the National Guard.

https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/los-angeles-not-on-fire-trump-ice-protests-national-guard-1235363990

LA Times: How did a rumor about an ICE raid on a homeless shelter escalate to Mayor Bass?

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At a news conference Thursday, Mayor Karen Bass made a startling claim.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents had appeared at a homeless shelter that day, among other sensitive locations in Los Angeles, she said.

But what actually happened at the Whitsett West Tiny Home Village in North Hollywood remains murky. The shifting narratives reflect the anxiety of Angelenos amid ICE raids targeting immigrants at Home Depots, churches and retail centers.

…

According to Laura Harwood, Hope the Mission’s deputy chief program officer, people in a car tried to get access to the tiny home village on Thursday afternoon, telling security guards that they were American citizens who wanted to see how their taxpayer dollars were being used. The guards did not admit the visitors, who were wearing civilian clothes.

“This is a really unusual situation. This really doesn’t happen,” Harwood said.

Other employees saw some men looking into the complex from different sides and taking pictures.

A worker at the tiny home village, who requested anonymity because he has family members who are undocumented, told The Times that he was returning from lunch when he spotted two DHS SUVs with tinted windows down the block.

So it seems that ICE thugs probably were casing out the homeless shelter; they just haven’t yet gotten around to raiding it.

How did a rumor about an ICE raid on a homeless shelter escalate to Mayor Bass?
At a news conference Thursday, Mayor Karen Bass made a startling claim. U.S.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2025-06-13/ice-raid-homeless-shelter-rumor-bass

Washington Post: ‘No Kings’ protests nationwide to push back on Trump’s ‘overreach’

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In the hours before tanks barrel down the streets of Washington for President Donald Trump’s grand military parade Saturday, thousands of Americans will gather across the country in defiance of what they call his dangerous brand of authoritarianism.

The organized day of protests in over 2,000 cities — dubbed “No Kings Nationwide Day of Defiance” — comes after a week of unrest and anger in Los Angeles and other cities following immigration raids in the L.A. area and the Trump administration’s move to federalize the National Guard and dispatch Marines to California.

No Kings organizer Ezra Levin said that interest has “skyrocketed” since those protests began — with individuals in 200 more cities signing up to host No Kings events just this week. He said more people are now expected to turn out than the estimated 3.5 million who participated in a similar nationwide day of action in April.

“We’re no longer talking to folks who are just paying attention to politics,” said Levin, the co-founder of the liberal advocacy group Indivisible. “People are seeing this overreach by Trump and saying, ‘I don’t like that — what can I do?’”

Images of immigrants being swept up at moments in their daily lives — at car washes and Home Depots, to name just two places — seem to have struck a chord with a wider swath of the public than was previously engaged, observers say, though the concept of deporting those in the country illegally still has broad support.

…

‘No Kings’ protests nationwide to push back on Trump’s ‘overreach’
On the same day as the president’s military parade in D.C., thousands of people are expected to protest what they call his dangerous brand of authoritarianism.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2025/06/13/no-kings-protest-anti-trump-army-parade

Bimbo Bitch Kristi Noem Personally Joins Raid to Terrorize Pregnant Mother of 4

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KTLA: DHS Secretary Kristi [Bimbo #2] Noem attends ICE raid at Los Angeles County home

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi [Bimbo #2] Noem joined federal immigration agents Thursday on a raid targeting a man with a criminal record at a Huntington Park, California, home, the agency said.

The raid occurred Thursday morning when about a half-dozen vehicles carrying heavily armed, masked U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents converged on a home occupied by a 28-year-old pregnant mother of four.

Sabrina Medina said she was in the shower around 6 a.m. when her brother-in-law first saw the menacing presence in front of the family’s home.

“I was just terrified, I’m not going to lie to you,” Medina told KTLA’s Rick Chambers. “I was shaking. I was scared. I’ve never gone through anything like this.”

Medina said she looked out the window and saw 10 men dressed in tactical military gear, all carrying rifles.

“I was like, ‘Am I dreaming or is this real?’” she said.

According to Medina, who is a U.S. citizen, the agents told her to exit her home with her children. Standing in the driveway, they showed her a warrant for her husband, listing his name as David Garcia.

As she explained that her husband’s name is Jorge and that he was not at the house, one of the agents was captured on an outdoor home surveillance camera turning the device away from what was transpiring.

Evidence tampering! (not a great surprise when ICE thugs are involved)

Cameras inside the home captured the heavily armed ICE agents going through the residence room by room, all while [Bimbo #2] Noem, wearing a bulletproof vest and ballcap, watched from the street.

DHS later posted on X that the target of the raid was “an illegal alien from Mexico who had previously been deported. His criminal history includes drug trafficking and assault.”

After hearing about the raid, L.A. County Supervisor Janice Hahn went to the Huntington Park neighborhood and spoke with some of Medina’s neighbors.

“I’m very disappointed in this government right now and what they’re doing,” she told KTLA.

Four months pregnant with her fifth child, the Huntington Park mother said if her husband is deported, the family’s future is bleak.

“I’m not going to be able to pay my rent when I have to pay it,” she explained. “My husband is not here. I don’t know if they’re going to pick him up tomorrow, the day after tomorrow. It’s sad.”

ICE agents, along with [Bimbo #2] Noem, eventually left the home empty-handed, and the children were allowed back inside.

DHS Secretary Kristi [Bimbo #2] Noem attends ICE raid at Los Angeles County home

https://ktla.com/news/local-news/dhs-secretary-kristi-noem-attends-ice-raid-at-home-of-pregnant-l-a-county-mother