In spite of a federal court order limiting the scope of immigration-enforcement operations in Southern California, federal agents made multiple arrests Wednesday during a raid near a Home Depot in the MacArthur Park area of Los Angeles.
The operation occurred around 7 a.m. near the Home Depot at at 1675 Wilshire Blvd., about three blocks west of MacArthur Park. The agents arrived at the scene in the rear of a yellow moving truck.
According to video taken by Fox News Channel, which had a crew embedded with U.S. Border Patrol, the agents burst from the rear of the truck then ran toward a group of people amassed near a sidewalk food stand. The crowd scattered when they spotted the federal agents.
According to Fox News, a total of 16 people were ultimately taken into custody, with many of them being placed in the rear of the moving van.
Department of Homeland Security officials told Fox News that the notorious MS-13 gang has a “chokehold” on the area, necessitating such enforcement operations. Federal officials made similar claims last month when about 100 agents amassed and then swept through MacArthur Park — a raid that brought Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass to the scene to ask that the agents leave.
Wednesday’s enforcement operation was the most publicized raid to occur in the area since a federal judge last month issued temporary restraining orders preventing the government from stopping individuals in violation of the Fourth Amendment and requiring the government to provide detained individuals with access to counsel. The judge said federal agents were conducting “roving” patrols that rounded up people without reasonable suspicion that they were actually in the country illegally, but were detained based on their ethnicity or occupation.
The federal government appealed the ruling, but last week, a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declined to put a stay on the ruling. The federal government is likely to appeal to the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The restraining order, however, did not prevent Wednesday’s operation. On X, U.S. Attorney for Los Angeles Bill Essayli acknowledged the operation, writing, “For those who thought immigration enforcement had stopped in Southern California, think again. The enforcement of federal law is not negotiable, and there are no sanctuaries from the reach of the federal government.”
