CBP raids outside Governor Newsom's press conference in Little Tokyo

At the same time California Governor Gavin Newsom was holding a press conference on a redistricting plan on Thursday morning at the Japanese American National Museum, several Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents arrived near the museum and detained at least one person.

CBP Commander-Operation At Large in California Chief Greg Bovino, who was present, told the media they were conducting their ongoing roving patrol duties in the area to make “Los Angeles a safer community and a safer place for us to live and work” because no politicians are doing that.

“As you can see today, we did make an apprehension just a few feet from where I'm standing,” said Bovino. 

A few feet away, a woman kept screaming, saying the federal agents took a man who was working. 

Bovino said he was unaware that the governor was inside holding a press conference and said they were just there looking for people who were “breaking the law.”

A few minutes later, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass arrived at the location and furiously said the CBP presence was not a coincidence. 

“This was widely publicized that the governor and many of our other elected officials were having a press conference here to talk about redistricting, and [CBP] decided they were going to come and thumb their nose in front of the governor's face,” said Bass. “Why would you do that? That is unbelievably disrespectful. It's a provocative act. They're talking about disorder in Los Angeles, and they are the source of the disorder in Los Angeles right now.”

Bass said CBP arrived at a location where there was no danger at all and there was not a need to detain anyone. She said she was very disappointed at Bovino’s mission. 

“Why on earth would he stage a provocative act in here, right here in front of where the governor is. He did this intentionally to disrespect the governor, to disrespect this iconic museum and to disrespect our state,” said Bass. “This doesn't have anything to do with immigration at all. It was about causing trouble.”

Bass said that when she asked the commander what the charge was on the detained person, he couldn’t provide an answer. 

Los Angeles Councilwoman Ysabel Jurado said they asked CBP agents for a warrant on the detainee and they didn’t provide any and just took the man into a van. 

California Assemblyman Mark Gonzalez (D-54), who represents Little Tokyo, said what happened was cruel, cowardly and an attack on First Amendment rights.

“This is why Californians must rise up and say: ENOUGH,” he said in a statement. “If Texas wants to carve up districts to keep their wannabe dictator in the White House, then California will meet them head-on. We will not sit quietly while Republicans rig our elections to protect their corrupt billionaire cronies.”