After military-style sweep through MacArthur Park, community and officials say LA is united

Chaos erupted in the MacArthur Park area on Monday morning as dozens of military and federal agents made an appearance by foot, horses, armored vehicles and even a Black Hawk helicopter. While there were no reports of any arrests, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass condemned the action many people thought was a military operation.

Images in social media showed the agents blocking Alvarado and 7th Street while others walked through the park. 

Children who were at their city-sponsored summer camp were ushered immediately inside a building so they wouldn’t get exposed to the troops in their tactical gear walking in formation across their playground area. Many of these children are already experiencing the anxiety and fear of losing their parents in an immigration raid. 

During a press conference later in the afternoon, Bass said it is outrageous and un-American that the federal government seized the state's National Guard and that the US Marines–who are trained to kill foreign soldiers overseas–have been deployed in the city. 

She said she went to MacArthur Park while the activity was ongoing because she felt it was important to tell the truth of what happened. She said this is another example of the Trump administration ratcheting up chaos by deploying what looked like a military operation in an American city. 

“You can spin it any way you like, but in my opinion, it's a political agenda of provoking fear and terror. Frankly, it is outrageous and un-American that we have federal armed vehicles in our parks when nothing is going on,” she said. 

Monday marks the 30-day mark of ICE presence in Los Angeles. The mayor made it very clear that no protest or disorder required military presence.  

“What I saw in the park today looked like a city under siege, under armed occupation, and I have to tell you, spending many years traveling into conflict areas, it's the way a city looks before a coup,” she said. “The administration is continuing what I have framed as an all-out assault, military assault, on our city, Customs and Border Patrol randomly driving through the streets, snatching people, that is when they're identified as Custom and Border Patrol, but we know sometimes they're not identified, so we don't know who they are.”

This is just the beginning

MacArthur Park is located in City District 1, represented by Councilwoman Eunisses Hernandez. In a desperate but firm plea, Hernandez asked other cities, municipalities and governors to stand with Los Angeles. She said it is important to work together to figure out how to make sure that authoritarianism doesn't take over the country. 

“We are the canary in the coal mine. What you see happening in MacArthur Park is coming to you [due to] $140 billion [in the] new budget for ICE,” she said. “What do you think that's going to do? That's going to transport what's happening here in our neighborhoods to your front doorstep? So wake up. This is not happening by accident.”

Marqueece Harris-Dawson, president of the Los Angeles City Council, said for the first time in a long time all 15 councilmembers stood together condemning the raids and asking ICE to get out of the city, while maintaining the status of sanctuary city. 

He said it was horrifying to see what was going on in MacArthur Park. While it is not clear that there was a legitimate immigration enforcement goal, he said it definitely caused fear and anxiety. 

“This morning looked like a staging for a TikTok video,” said Harris-Dawson. “And what we say to Border Patrol as the council, if you want to film in L.A., you should apply for a film permit like everybody else, and stop trying to scare the bejesus out of everybody who lives in this great city and disrupt our economy.” 

Dawson said the military and ICE presence is costing the state, county and city millions of dollars.

“But also the kind [of dollars] you can't count and that's making people scared to leave their houses, and making people scared to go to school and to the doctor and to call the police or the fire department when something is wrong,” he said. 

Street medicine groups kicked out

Members of the Street Medicine outreach group from Saint John’s Community Health said they were in the area–as they are every Monday–offering services to the homeless community in the park when the armored vehicles arrived.

“The military pointed the guns at us and cursed [at us] to get the ‘F’ out of there,” said Maria, one of the Street Medicine members. “It was really scary because we were there to help the homeless and we couldn't even give them the basic needs.”

Jessica, another member, said the officers were looking at their van and were very intimidating. 

“For a moment I thought they could actually target us, so it is really unfortunate that we can’t do our job anymore [which is to] safely provide healthcare to people that are really in need, because we are in fear even though we are not doing anything wrong,” said Jessica.  

Bass said she and the city council won’t back down their opposition to the raids. When asked her opinion of Border Patrol Chief Gregory Bovino, who was quoted as saying “I don’t work for Karen Bass. Better get used to us now, cause this is going to be normal very soon. We will go anywhere, anytime we want in Los Angeles,” Bass responded: “Maybe he needs to work for Karen Bass.”

In response to the actions, an unnamed senior official with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said, "We don't comment on ongoing enforcement operations."