Editorial: That LA CBP raid wasn’t routine. It was immigrant scapegoating as political intimidation

As Gov. Gavin Newsom led a news conference in Little Tokyo in downtown Los Angeles to announce his plans for California to implement emergency redistricting, dozens of federal agents assembled outside the Japanese American National Museum (JANM), where the event was being held.

Once again, Los Angeles is at the forefront of Trump’s anti-immigrant agenda, only in this instance, the tactic deployed Thursday morning underscores how the Department of Homeland Security, by way of U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), has been commandeered as an apparatus not only to detain and deport without regards to due process or court orders, but to intimidate and silence all forms of political dissent and resistance.

On-the-ground witnesses began livestreaming, documenting dozens of agents from Customs and Border Protection (CBP) outside the museum.

Videos showed dozens of military-clad agents wearing U.S. Border Patrol vests scouring the area.

In one of the videos posted by the Instagram account ICE Out of LA and shared by L.A. Taco, the person shooting the video narrates that at least four people were taken by agents, saying that over 100 officers are posted up in front and around the block. In the video, several unmarked vehicles are seen parked in front and along the street of the museum, with several officers standing by.

“There’s so many of them, and we can’t do anything,” the person behind the camera says.

Governor Newsom’s press conference marked the formal launch of the Election Rigging Response Act, California’s response to gerrymandering efforts in Texas. During the press conference, the governor called for the state legislature to approve a November ballot measure that would allow voters to redraw the state’s congressional map and help Democrats fight back against Republican redistricting efforts that favor their party. 

In a public statement, Newsom defiantly announced that, “California will not sit idle as Trump and his Republican lapdogs shred our country’s democracy before our very eyes. In just six months, Trump’s unchecked power has cost Americans billions and taken an ax to the greatest democracy we’ve ever known. This moment calls for urgency and action – that is what we are putting before voters this November, a chance to fight back against his anti-American ways.”

With Trump’s backing, Texas Republicans have been pushing to redraw the state’s map in order to gain five more seats in the U.S. House of Representatives, which, if successful, would garner the GOP more electoral votes during a presidential election.

Why would CBP Commander At Large of California Operations Gregory Bovino order dozens of his agents to raid the area in front of the Japanese American National Museum at the same time the governor was announcing an act intended to impede the administration’s push for gerrymandering?

Bovino told reporters on the ground that CBP agents “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.

And according to Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin, “Our law enforcement operations are about enforcing the law—not about Gavin Newsom,” she said in a post on X. CBP patrols all of Los Angeles, “with over 40 teams on the ground to make L.A. safe.”

Nonsense. Let us not forget what happened at MacArthur Park in Los Angeles just last month, where over 100 CBP officials paraded through the park — armed and ready to detain any and all residents who crossed their path — in an unscrupulous display of power. What the CBP did on Thursday morning demonstrated the lengths this administration is willing to go in order to suppress opposing views and efforts, especially when they stem from a progressive state like California.

With the signing of a budget providing over $100 billion to ICE and border enforcement through September 2029, the Trump administration is likely to continue utilizing the DHS and its many agencies as a tactic to dissuade dissenting voices.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass spoke to reporters about the “provocative act” carried out by the Trump administration outside of Newsom’s press conference.

“There is no way this was a coincidence… They're talking about disorder in Los Angeles and they are the source of the disorder in Los Angeles right now,” she said. “This is an administration, this is a Border Patrol that has gone amok. There was no danger here, there was no need to detain anyone here and there was certainly no need to have a provocative act right here where the governor is having a press conference.”

With these actions, we see how immigrant scapegoating is but a cold-hearted and ruthless strategy to suppress resistance, paving the way for authoritarianism. 

The location of yesterday’s press conference, JANM, punctuates the gravity of our present moment. Founded to preserve and share the history of Japanese Americans, JANM’s collections include first-person narratives of America’s World War II era internment camps, during which over 120,000 Japanese Americans, about two-thirds of whom were U.S. citizens, were forcibly removed from their homes and incarcerated in 10 isolated locations operated by the War Relocation Authority. 

This dark and not-so-distant chapter of American history — the echoes of which we saw in Thursday’s actions — is one we must remember and reject, lest we repeat it.