Tag Archives: Los Angeles

Guardian: Federal agents blast way into California home of woman and small children

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Security footage shows agents setting off explosive device and shattering window of family home in Huntington Park

Federal agents blasted their way into a residential home in Huntington Park, California, on Friday. Security-camera video obtained by the local NBC station showed border patrol agents setting up an explosive device near the door of the house and then detonating it – causing a window to be shattered. About a dozen armed agents in full tactical gear then charged toward the home.

Jenny Ramirez, who lives in the house with her boyfriend and one-year-old and six-year-old children, told NBC through tears that it was one of the loudest explosions she heard in her life.

“I told them, ‘You guys didn’t have to do this, you scared my son, my baby,’” Ramirez said.

Ramirez said she was not given any warning from the authorities that they wanted to enter her home and that everyone who lives there is a US citizen.

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The agents told Ramirez that they were searching for her boyfriend, but did not tell her why, according to NBC. Ramirez told the news station that he was involved in a vehicle collision with a truck carrying federal agents last week. She said it was an accident and unintentional.

Of course, ICE & CBP “enhance” the tale:

A spokesperson for Customs and Border Protection told NBC: “Jorge Sierra-Hernandez was arrested because he rammed his car into a CBP vehicle, causing significant damage and obstructed the work of our agents and officers during the course of a law enforcement operation.”

The spokesperson said agents were “assaulted” during this incident and “additional rioters threw rocks and other objects at our personnel”.

Poor babies, got the reception they deserved!

Customs and Border Protection did not immediately return the Guardian’s request for comment.

Federal agents blast way into California home of woman and small children
Security footage shows agents setting off explosive device and shattering window of family home in Huntington Park

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/jun/27/california-home-raid-huntington-park

Salon: “Unlawful and unconstitutional”: Lawsuits against ICE mount nationwide for “unconscionable” actions

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A series of lawsuits against ICE highlight the legal grey areas the agency exploits for Trump’s deportations

President Donald Trump‘s mass deportation agenda has left law enforcement agencies across the country facing numerous lawsuits.

Outside of lawsuits against Immigration and Customs Enforcement, local police departments are being dragged into court for cooperating with largely unpopular deportations and raids. In New York’s Nassau County, one lawsuit argues that a partnership between police and ICE is “unlawful.”

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In Washington, D.C., watchdog organization American Oversight is suing over access to documents concerning immigration procedures.

The group seeks records related to recent actions taken by ICE, such as entering schools and churches, along with internal records of Trump’s decision to deploy the National Guard to Los Angeles. The lawsuit calls the deportations “aggressive, sweeping, and by the President’s own tacit admission<—politically motivated.” In San Antonio, a Honduran mother is suing the Trump administration over her family’s detention by ICE. The woman was detained during a visit to Los Angeles Immigration court, along with her two young children, one of whom has leukemia.

The arrest was part of a larger ICE policy of seeking out migrants attempting to navigate their legal status in the country, with particular focus on immigration hearings. New York City Comptroller Brad Lander was arrested during one such confrontation after asking to see an arrest warrant from federal agents.

The family in the Los Angeles case were attending asylum status hearings. They have since been detained in Dilley Immigration Processing Center in Texas.

“The horrors that this family has suffered should never be felt by a child in need of medical care. Arresting immigrants as they step out of a courtroom is a heinous display of disregard for humanity. This family came to the United States seeking safety, but inhumane policies are preventing them from seeking necessary medical care for their child,” said Kate Gibson Kumar, a staff attorney for the Texas Civil Rights Project Beyond Borders program.

“Unlawful and unconstitutional”: Lawsuits against ICE mount nationwide for “unconscionable” actions
A series of lawsuits against ICE highlight the legal grey areas the agency exploits for Trump’s deportations

https://www.salon.com/2025/06/26/unlawful-and-unconstitutional-lawsuits-against-ice-mount-nationwide-for-unconscionable-actions

Also here:

“Unlawful and unconstitutional”: Lawsuits against ICE mount nationwide for “unconscionable” actions
A series of lawsuits against ICE highlight the legal grey areas the agency exploits for Trump’s deportations

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/unlawful-and-unconstitutional-lawsuits-against-ice-mount-nationwide-for-unconscionable-actions/ar-AA1Hv2qG

Huffington Post: 6-Year-Old With Leukemia In Immigration Detention After Family’s Arrest At Courthouse: Lawsuit

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Attorneys for the boy, his mother and 9-year-old sister said they are seeking asylum and were summarily arrested despite appearing for their scheduled immigration court hearing.

A mother and her two young children — one a 6-year-old boy with leukemia — were detained by immigration officers after going to a routine immigration court proceeding in Los Angeles. Now, the family is suing the Trump administration while being detained at a facility in Texas.

According to court documents obtained by HuffPost, the family, whose names are not included in the suit, has been in the U.S. for seven months seeking asylum from Honduras. They entered the country lawfully and were granted parole as they sought asylum. However, when they arrived at the courthouse on the day and time directed, their case was dismissed, and they were detained by people, presumably federal agents, in plainclothes. 

“There were men waiting for them in civilian clothing. The [immigration officers] detained the family for many hours, and it was a terrifying time for the two children and their mother,” Elora Mukherjee, director of the Immigrant Rights Clinic at Columbia Law School, told Texas Public Radio.

“They were crying in fear. One of the agents at one point lifted up his shirt, which displayed the gun that he was carrying,” Mukherjee added. “The 6-year-old boy was terrified to see the gun. He urinated on himself and wet all his clothing. No one offered him a change of clothing for many hours.”

6-Year-Old With Leukemia In Immigration Detention After Family’s Arrest At Courthouse: Lawsuit
Attorneys for the boy, his mother and 9-year-old sister said they are seeking asylum and were summarily arrested despite appearing for their scheduled immigration court hearing.

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/family-detained-ice-suing-trump-administration_n_685da99fe4b073fdc1d4cc76

Raw Story: ‘Slippery slope’: Experts sound alarm on Trump’s new National Guard tactic

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A new report suggests that President Donald Trump’s administration sent National Guard troops in Los Angeles to assist the Drug Enforcement Administration in a law enforcement operation about 130 miles outside the city, in a move that experts say seems unlawful.

According to the report, around 315 National Guard troops were sent to the eastern Coachella Valley region to help the DEA search a local marijuana growing operation. The DEA asked the National Guard for assistance due to the “magnitude and topography” of the operation.

Legal experts expressed alarm at the move.

“This is the slippery slope,” Ryan Goodman, law professor at New York University, wrote on Bluesky.

Federal law prohibits the National Guard from replacing local law enforcement agencies under the Posse Comitatus Act. There are limited instances where the National Guard can be used in law enforcement operations, such as to quell a rebellion. But the guardsmen have to be invited by a state’s governor under the law.

‘Slippery slope’: Experts sound alarm on Trump’s new National Guard tactic

https://www.rawstory.com/national-guard-2672436557

MSNBC: The architect of Trump’s immigration policy could be profiting off ICE’s cruelty

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Last week, Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said the administration’s “No. 1 concern” while carrying out its aggressive immigration raids was going after “violent criminals.” Compare that statement to this new headline from The Guardian: “Trump drives surge in ICE detentions of those with no criminal record despite stated priorities.”

“In mid-June, ICE data shows there were more than 11,700 people in immigration detention who had been arrested by ICE despite having no track record of being charged with or convicted of a crime,” the Guardian reported. “That represents a staggering 1,271% increase from data released on those in immigration detention immediately before the start of Trump’s second term.”

The driving force behind that staggering increase is likely none other than White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, one of the architects behind Donald Trump’s family separation policy in his first term and who, in Trump 2.0, seems to be eerily obsessed with undocumented immigrants.

Last month, Miller reportedly gave Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers marching orders to start conducting mass arrests, according to The Wall Street Journal, which spoke to people familiar with the meeting. During that meeting, Miller allegedly told agents to target places like Home Depot, where migrant day laborers typically gather. Soon, ICE agents appeared to follow Miller’s advice and conducted a sweep at a Home Depot in Los Angeles.

He was also one of the people who, according to Axios, which spoke to two sources familiar with another meeting the deputy chief of staff had with ICE, demanded that the agency round up 3,000 people a day.

Miller is reportedly the architect of that and so much more of Trump’s hard-line immigration policy, and while his anti-immigration fervor may be scratching some racist ideological itch, we learned Tuesday that it may also be making him money.

A new report from the Project on Government Oversight, or POGO, a nonpartisan nonprofit government watchdog group, found that, according to Miller’s recently released financial disclosures, he just so happens to own a significant stake — up to $250,000 — in the data analytics company Palantir, a company which stands to make millions of dollars off of Trump’s immigration crackdown.

Back in April, the Trump administration granted Palantir a no-bid $30 million contract to develop a new program called Immigration Lifecycle Operating System, or ImmigrationOS, which would effectively allow ICE to target and surveil migrants in real time.

According to public records reported by The New York Times, since Trump took office, Palantir has received more than $113 million in federal spending, and it stands to receive at least $795 million more. Right now, as POGO pointed out, Palantir is already the highest performing company in the S&P 500 this year, with its stock price rising by more than 80% in 2025 so far.

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Miller’s Palantir stock is technically in a brokerage account for one of his young children but, as POGO pointed out, “that does not legally matter, according to the Office of Government Ethics, which says “an asset that is owned by a spouse or minor child is analyzed under 18 U.S.C. § 208 [the criminal conflict of interest law] as if the employee owns it.”

Jen Psaki: The architect of Trump’s immigration policy could be profiting off ICE’s cruelty
While Stephen Miller’s anti-immigration fervor may be scratching an ideological itch, on Tuesday, we learned it may also be making him money.

https://www.msnbc.com/top-stories/latest/stephen-miller-palantir-profit-ice-raids-rcna215021

Kansas City Star: ‘More Guts Than You’: Hegseth Faces Growing Scrutiny

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During a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth was questioned by Sen. Elissa Slotkin (D-MI) regarding the deployment of several thousand troops to Los Angeles and the alleged detention of protesters. The hearing highlighted concerns over military involvement in domestic affairs, during which Slotkin criticized Hegseth’s leadership.

Slotkin compared Hegseth’s actions to those of President Donald Trump’s former Defense Secretary Mark Esper. Esper allegedly resisted Trump’s order to deploy active-duty troops against unarmed protesters. She noted that Hegseth previously referred to the order as “theoretical.”

Slotkin said, “Here we are, a few months later, you’ve deployed 4,700 troops to Los Angeles and against the wishes of the governor.” She later asked, “How do you authorize the uniform military to detain or arrest protesters in Los Angeles?”

Hegseth defended the deployment, saying troops were ordered to support law enforcement but did not clarify if lethal force was authorized. Hegseth said, “You’re not a protester if you’re throwing concrete.”

Slotkin compared Hegseth to Esper, stating, “He had more guts and balls than you because he said, ‘I’m not going to send in the uniform military to do something that I know in my gut isn’t right.'”

‘More Guts Than You’: Hegseth Faces Growing Scrutiny
More for You

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/more-guts-than-you-hegseth-faces-growing-scrutiny/ss-AA1HB3f5

Latin Times: Street Arrests of Immigrants Without Criminal History by ICE Have Soared 1,100% Since 2017: Study

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The report also found that during recent raids in Los Angeles 72% of ICE arrestees in the area had no criminal convictions, and 59% had no criminal history or pending charges

A new report has revealed that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is arresting noncriminal immigrants on the streets at historically high rates, with arrests of such individuals soaring by nearly 1,100% since 2017.

Citing newly released nonpublic data obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request by DeportationData.org, the Cato Institute reports that by early June 2025, ICE agents were arresting nearly 3,800 non-criminal immigrants per week outside of custodial settings—such as homes, workplaces, and public spaces—compared to 308 per week during the same period in 2017.

Overall, nearly 5,000 weekly “at-large” ICE arrests were being made in early June, up from 856 in June 2017. Of those, 79% targeted individuals with no criminal convictions. The data analyzed by Cato also indicates that 47% of ICE arrestees during the week of June 1–9 had neither a conviction nor any pending criminal charges.

Street Arrests of Immigrants Without Criminal History by ICE Have Soared 1,100% Since 2017: Study
ICE is arresting noncriminal immigrants on the streets at historically high rates, with arrests of such individuals soaring by nearly 1,100% since 2017.

https://www.latintimes.com/street-arrests-immigrants-without-criminal-history-ice-have-soared-1100-since-2017-study-585593

Fort Worth Star-Telegram: ICE Reports Major Arrest — Slams Biden-Era Decision

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An ICE spokesperson said, “This criminal alien should never have been roaming the streets of Los Angeles. Not only is he a member of the ruthless Surenos gang, but he also has multiple convictions for murder, assault, and rape or sexual abuse of a minor.”

Wow! Golly gee! You finally caught one of the 6% of real criminals that you are supposed to be catching!

Roberto Carlos Munoz-Guatemala, with a history of sex crimes and assault, was arrested after dragging an ICE officer while fleeing in his vehicle.

And a rapist, too. So far you caught only 11% of them.

If you actually concentrated on catching the murderers and rapists instead of masking up and disappearing families from the streets and neighborhods, you wouldn’t have such a godawful PR problem. Unfortunately, like most pigs, you’re too stupid to learn.

ICE Reports Major Arrest — Slams Biden-Era Decision

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/ice-reports-major-arrest-slams-biden-era-decision/ss-AA1HB4gt

Tampa Free Press: National Guard Joins DEA In California Desert To Bust Illicit Marijuana Grow

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National Guard troops deployed to California to quell the anti-deportation riots were later mobilized to help federal agents bust dozens of illegal migrants working at illegal marijuana farms.

The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) confirmed that their agents, working in conjunction with multiple federal agency partners, arrested at least 70 illegal migrants allegedly working at multiple illegal marijuana farms in California’s Coachella Valley. National Guard troops assisted DEA, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other federal agents in the massive raid.

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Roughly 315 National Guard troops mobilized to respond to the anti-ICE violence were redeployed to the Coachella Valley area to help federal agents with the operation, according to newly filed court documents obtained by the LA Times.

Using nationally mobilized National Guard troops for law enforcement purposes is a clear violation of the federal Posse Comitatus Act.

National Guard Joins DEA In California Desert To Bust Illicit Marijuana Grow
National Guard troops deployed to California to quell the anti-deportation riots were later mobilized to help federal agents bust dozens of illegal migrants working at illegal marijuana farms. The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) confirmed that their agents, working in conjunction with multiple federal agency partners, arrested at least 70 ill…

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/national-guard-joins-dea-in-california-desert-to-bust-illicit-marijuana-grow/ar-AA1HlkRx

Newsweek: Former HHS Secretary Xavier Becerra: They Created a Crisis in LA To Cover for a Catastrophe in D.C. | Opinion

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This month, Californians filled the streets of Los Angeles to peacefully demand justice for SEIU President David Huerta—who was violently detained by ICE during an immigration protest—and for so many hardworking immigrant families across our state. The response? Tear gas. Rubber bullets. National Guard troops unnecessarily deployed to flex federal muscle. And a United States senator literally wrestled to the ground for daring to ask basic questions.

This wasn’t just an overreaction. It was a message: fall in line—or face the consequences.

At the same time, in Washington, the Trump administration is dismantling the very systems that keep our families safe and healthy. They’re firing scientists, defunding cancer research, slashing Medicaid, and replacing trusted experts with conspiracy theorists. It’s not just policy failure. It’s a campaign of calculated neglect—and political retribution aimed at states like ours that dare to push back.

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In just six months, the Trump administration has launched a full-scale assault on these safeguards. They’ve gutted funding, laid off thousands of career scientists, and shuttered key public health teams—all while claiming these cuts are about “efficiency.”

Let’s be clear: this isn’t streamlining. It’s sabotage.

This administration didn’t just fire the experts tracking avian flu, which has now infected dozens of people in California and is spreading rapidly through livestock. They disbanded the FDA team investigating the lead-contaminated applesauce that poisoned more than 500 children. They cut NIH programs working to prevent cancer and Alzheimer’s. They even fired the CDC’s vaccine advisory panel—weeks after a measles outbreak, as pregnant women and children remain vulnerable to viruses like COVID-19—only to replace them with vaccine skeptics.

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They Created a Crisis in LA To Cover for a Catastrophe in D.C. | Opinion
We can’t stand by while Washington plays politics with our health, our future, and our hardest-working families.

https://www.newsweek.com/former-hhs-secretary-xavier-becerra-they-created-crisis-la-cover-catastrophe-dc-opinion-2089591