l.a. area

As Gov. Gavin Newsom prepared to announce that he would take on President Trump’s redistricting plans on behalf of California, scores of federal immigration agents massed outside the venue Thursday.

Newsom was set to speak at the Japanese American National Museum in downtown Los Angeles, when Border Patrol Sector Chief Greg Bovino, who has been leading the immigration operations in California, arrived in Little Tokyo, flanked by agents in helmets, camouflage, masks and holding guns.

“We’re here making Los Angeles a safer place since we won’t have politicians that’ll do that, we do that ourselves,” Bovino told a Fox 11 reporter in Little Tokyo. “We’re glad to be here, we’re not going anywhere.”

When the reporter noted that Newsom was nearby, Bovino responded, “I don’t know where he’s at.”

Newsom’s office took to X to share that agents were outside, posting: “BORDER PATROL HAS SHOWED UP AT OUR BIG BEAUTIFUL PRESS CONFERENCE! WE WILL NOT BE INTIMIDATED!”

The apparent raid Thursday, during which one person was detained, comes amid calls from elected officials for an end to renewed immigration operations across the L.A. area. Federal agents have carried out a string of raids over the past week, arresting several people at car washes and Home Depot stores.

Immigrant advocates and city leaders had hoped such sweeps had stopped with a federal judge’s July order, affirmed by a U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals panel on Aug. 1. The courts ruled that immigration officials cannot racially profile people or use roving patrols to target immigrants.

In a press conference outside of the museum following the operation, Mayor Karen Bass said, “there’s no way this was a coincidence.”

“This was widely publicized that the governor and many of our other elected officials were having a press conference to talk about redistricting, and they decided they were going to come and thumb their nose in front of the governor’s face. Why would you do that? That is unbelievably disrespectful, it’s a provocative act,” Bass said.

“They’re talking about disorder in Los Angeles,” the mayor said, “and they are the source of the disorder in Los Angeles right now.”

In an emailed response, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said Bass, “must be misinformed.”

“Our law enforcement operations are about enforcing the law — not about Gavin Newsom,” she said. McLaughlin added that U.S. Customs and Border Protection “patrols all areas of Los Angeles every day with over 40 teams on the ground to make LA safe.”

Newsom and Democratic allies, including organized labor, were at the Democracy Center at the Japanese American National Museum to announce the launch of a campaign for a ballot measure which, if approved by voters, would redraw the state’s congressional maps to favor Democrats before the 2026 midterms.

William T. Fujioka, chair of the Board of Trustees of the Japanese American National Museum, was attending the Newsom press conference when federal agents jumped out of SUVs just feet away from him in front of the museum.

Video captured of the scene showed federal agents on either side of a man, in a red shirt and jeans, whose hands were cuffed behind his back. As a passerby shouted that they were “cowards,” Bovino said “well done.”

Carlos Franco said he works with Angel, the man who was arrested by federal agents, and said Angel was in Little Tokyo delivering strawberries. His delivery van was still parked outside the museum more than an hour after he was arrested, Franco said. Franco came straight to the scene after he received calls that his coworker had been arrested.

Angel is a “father, a family man,” Franco added.

“He was just doing his normal delivery to the courthouse,” Franco said. “It’s pretty sad, because I’ve got to go to work tomorrow, and Angel isn’t going to be there.”

Saying he was shaken by his friend’s apprehension, Franco advised everyone to “be careful in general, whether you’re undocumented or not.”

DHS did not immediately respond to questions about the arrest.

Fujioka said the agents’ appearance in Little Tokyo “is a parallel of what happened in 1942,” and noting that the museum was built on the location where L.A. residents of Japanese descent “were told to come here and put on buses and sent to camps.”

At 73, Fujioka is a third-generation Japanese American. He said about 20 people were arrested during ICE raids two weeks ago at area restaurants and businesses in and near Little Tokyo Village Plaza.

“What’s happening right now is reprehensible,” he said. “One of the fallacies is that this is only targeting Latinos. If you look at the Vietnamese, Cambodian, Hmong, Chinese, even Japanese communities, they’re being picked up right in court.”

Speaking with community leaders on L.A.’s Westside early Thursday morning, Bass condemned the continued raids and said she believed they violated the temporary restraining order upheld by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals earlier this month.

“Even though we’ve had two successful court decisions, the administration continues with their unconstitutional behavior. Coming and going to Home Depot stores, continuing to chase people through parking lots, detaining them for no particular reason under the auspices that they could be criminals, [it] comes down to one thing — and that is racial profiling,” Bass said.

The Trump administration last week petitioned the Supreme Court to allow mass deportation efforts across Southern California, seeking to lift a ban on “roving patrols” implemented after a lower court found such tactics likely violate the 4th Amendment.

“We know the next step is to go to the Supreme Court, and we are hoping that we will have a good decision there,” Bass said. “But the question looms before us, even if we do have a positive court decision: ‘Will the administration follow the rule of law?’”

Times staff writer Laura J. Nelson contributed to this report.

Lawrence Herrera started carrying a folded-up copy of his birth certificate in his wallet last week. He also saved a picture of his passport on his phone’s camera roll.

For the 67-year-old Atwater Village resident who was born and raised here, the precaution felt silly. But he’s not taking any chances.

“I started hearing, ‘He’s taking anyone and everyone,’” Herrara said, referrring to President Trump’s immigration crackdown. “I thought, ‘You know what? That could be me.’”

Herrera was one of hundreds of protesters who spent Fourth of July in downtown Los Angeles to rally against the immigration raids that have roiled the region and the surge in federal funding approved this week to keep them going. Many on the street said they were skipping the barbecues and fireworks this year. Instead, they showed up at City Hall, some in costumes or wrapped in flags. A 15-foot balloon of Trump in a Russian military uniform sat in Grand Park.

Erica Ortiz, 49, was dressed as Lady Liberty in shackles. Herrera wore a Revolutionary War outfit covered in anti-Trump pins that he said was appropriate for the occasion.

“Guess what? We have no independence right now,” he said. “That’s why we’re out here.”

1

2

3

1. Elizabeth Natividad wears a dress representing Lady Justice on the steps of City Hall . 2. Nancy Gonzalez poses in an outfit showing her Mexican heritageon the steps of City Hall. 3. A protester wearing a dress representing Lady Liberty holds her fist in the air on the steps of City Hall at a rally against the ongoing ICE raids taking place in the city on Friday, July 4, 2025 in Los Angeles, CA.

They marched through Olvera Street and outside the Federal Building, which houses the immigration court, waving signs. Several police officers were monitoring the protest but kept their distance during the gathering, which lasted a few hours.

“No more occupation! No more deportation!” the protesters chanted.

At the Federal Building, military personnel members lined up shoulder-to-shoulder guarding the property with shields and guns.

Jacob Moreno, a high school English teacher from Rialto, held a sign that called the day a “funeral for the freedom we pretend” still exists. He said the mood felt more solemn than the “No Kings” demonstration last month, which he attributed to the passage of Trump’s budget bill. The so-called Big Beautiful Bill adds roughly $150 billion to carry out mass deportations and fund border enforcement.

“This situation, this occupation is only going to get worse,” Moreno said. The 50-year-old said some of his students and their family members are undocumented. He and his daughter, a 16-year-old student, are helping set up a program to provide school supplies and hygiene items to students whose parents may be too afraid to go to work.

“I’m here to support my students, my community, and ultimately to stand on the right side of history,” he said.

Cristina Muñoz Brown, of North Hollywood, shared a similar sentiment.

“I’m desperate for my people, I’m desperate to show up,” she said. Since the raids began, she said, the Fashion District where she works in the costume industry is a “ghost town.”

An American flag passes by marines standing guard during a rally against the ongoing ICE raids taking place in the city at the Federal Building on Friday, July 4, 2025 in Los Angeles, CA.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers stand guard during a rally against the ongoing ICE raids taking place in the city at the Federal Building on Friday, July 4, 2025.

Assemblymember Isaac Bryan (D-Los Angeles) addressed the crowd outside City Hall, calling the budget bill the “Big Beautiful Scam.”

“Immigration spending in this country is now more than the military spending of 165 countries around the world. ICE has more money than the city of Los Angeles 10 times over,” he said as the crowd booed. “That’s not what we want our tax dollars going toward.”

The city is still reeling from weeks of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids across the Southland and the deployment of thousands of National Guard troops to respond to the protests that followed.

There have been sweeps targeting day laborers at local car washes and Home Depot parking lots.

“There’s too many things to protest right now,” said Hunter Dunn of the 50501 Movement, which organized the July 4 rally. Many immigrants, he said, are “afraid to go to work, afraid to go to school.”

Federal agents, often shielding their identities with face masks and sometimes driving unmarked cars, have been carrying out aggressive raids since early June, triggering widespread protests.

Trump sent more than 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 Marines to the L.A. area to protect federal buildings and workers during the unrest, which garnered pushback from state and local officials who complained that the military presence exacerbated the situation. Earlier this week, about 150 Guard members were released from the protest assignment.

The immigration enforcement actions in L.A. have heightened tensions between city and state leaders and the Trump administration. The public sparring has played out on social media and in court.

Angelenos march near Los Angeles City Hall on the Fourth of July in a demonstration against the ongoing ICE raids taking place in the city.

Mayor Karen Bass renewed her calls this week for Trump to end the ICE raids, saying in a post on X that his administration is “causing the fear and terror so many in L.A. are feeling.”

“They came for our neighbors in unmarked vans. Raided workplaces. Ripped apart families. Even U.S. citizens. This is not law enforcement — it’s political theater with human costs,” she wrote in another post.

Gov. Gavin Newsom is battling the Trump administration in court over the deployment of Guard troops without his consent. And this week, the Trump administration sued the city of L.A., Bass and City Council members, saying the city’s sanctuary law is illegal. The law generally prohibits city employees or city property to be used to investigate or detain anyone for the purpose of immigration enforcement.

On Wednesday, immigrants rights groups including the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California and Public Counsel sued the Trump administration in federal court seeking to block what the suit describes as the administration’s “ongoing pattern and practice of flouting the Constitution and federal law” during immigration raids in the L.A. area.

President Trump on Thursday signed an executive order giving TikTok a 90-day extension to work out a deal with the U.S. government that addresses security concerns over the app’s ties to China.

Significant pressure has been placed on TikTok, known for its popular social video app, after a law was signed in 2024 that required TikTok’s Chinese parent company ByteDance to sell its U.S. operations of TikTok or the app would be banned in the U.S.

The new order signed by Trump will give TikTok an extension until Sept. 17. During that period, the Justice Department will not enforce the 2024 law that would have banned TikTok in the country or impose penalties on companies that distribute TikTok, the order said.

“We are grateful for President Trump’s leadership and support in ensuring that TikTok continues to be available for more than 170 million American users and 7.5 million U.S. businesses that rely on the platform as we continue to work with Vice President Vance’s Office,” TikTok said in a statement.

TikTok has a large presence in Southern California, with offices in Culver City that serve as the company’s U.S. headquarters, and many video creators in the L.A. area produce content for TikTok.

The app has interested buyers, including Amazon and an investment group led by Frank McCourt, a former Dodgers owner, whose bid includes “Shark Tank” star Kevin O’Leary. San Francisco artificial intelligence company Perplexity said in March it wants to “rebuild the TikTok algorithm.”