Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass spoke with KTLA Tuesday morning about ongoing ICE raids and immigration protests that have made national headlines since Friday.
Deployments of National Guard, U.S. Marines
Bass, along with California Gov. Gavin Newsom, has strongly disagreed with President Donald Trump’s decision over the weekend to send in the National Guard, and now the U.S. Marines, in response to the daily demonstrations that have often turned violent, leading to vandalism and looting of local businesses.
Bass and Newsom, who called for the state to sue the Trump administration over the deployments, believe the presence of the National Guard has only exacerbated the situation.
“You should know that the National Guard… has one mission and that is to guard that one building (in Downtown Los Angeles). So, the presence of the National Guard is not helping to quell anything except for attacks on that one building,” Bass said.
The mayor also noted that National Guard troops are guarding a second building in the Westwood neighborhood of L.A., but is not aware of any protests in that area.
“The federal government coming in and taking authority away from the governor when it was not requested, because it was not needed, is a incredible overreach of the authority of the president,” Bass said.
Looting, vandalism by ‘fringe’ groups
Responding to multiple break-ins and burglaries at businesses in the Downtown Los Angeles area, Mayor Bass has blamed mostly “fringe” groups for taking advantage of the protests, as law enforcement is spread thin.
“The people that do this, they’re not doing it on behalf of immigrants. The vandalism and obviously a robbery like this is insane, but these people need to know that they are going to be arrested and prosecuted to the full extent of the law. And they should not rest in thinking that they went home that night and are not going to get arrested,” Bass said.
The Mayor’s Office also issued a message on X Tuesday morning regarding the crime taking place Downtown.
“Let me be clear: ANYONE who vandalized Downtown or looted stores does not care about our immigrant communities. You will be held accountable,” the post reads.
Bass questions ICE tactics
Meanwhile, the mayor has also questioned the targeting practices currently used by ICE agents.
“If you remember, at the beginning of this administration, we were told that raids would be to look for violent criminals, people who had warrants,” Bass said in an earlier interview. “I don’t know how you go from a drug dealer to a Home Depot. To people’s workplaces, where they’re just trying to make a living.”
Tom Homan on Fox News
Acting Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Tom Hohman spoke about the situation on Fox News, claiming that as a sanctuary city, Los Angeles is forcing ICE agents into the community.
“You don’t want us to arrest these bad guys … We could arrest them in the safety and security of the county jail, but they won’t let us in the jail,” Homan said. “They release them into the community, which means we’ve got to send a whole bunch of teams in the community to find this dangerous person that don’t want to be found. So, sanctuary cities is going to get exactly what they don’t want, more officers in the communities and more officers in the work site.”
Bass said that as of Tuesday morning, she was not aware of any large protests that were planned.