Arrests of undocumented immigrants have declined significantly across the Los Angeles region in the past two months despite the Trump administration’s aggressive mass deportation operations, like the one Wednesday at the Home Depot on Wilshire where Fox 11 news reported 16 people were arrested.
According to new figures released Wednesday by Homeland Security, and reported in the Los Angeles Times, federal agents had arrested 2,792 undocumented immigrants in the seven counties in and around L.A. since June 6. Homeland Security updated that number on Wednesday, indicating that fewer than 1,400 immigrants have been arrested in the region in the last month, which is a significantly lower number of arrests.
Some immigration experts suggested that the faltering number of arrests are because of a federal court order limiting the scope of immigration-enforcement operations in the area.
Wednesday’s Home Depot enforcement operation was the most publicized raid to occur in the area since a federal judge last month issued temporary restraining orders preventing the government from stopping individuals in violation of the Fourth Amendment and requiring the government to provide detained individuals with access to counsel. The judge said federal agents were conducting “roving” patrols that rounded up people without reasonable suspicion that they were actually in the country illegally, but were detained based on their ethnicity or occupation.
The federal government appealed the ruling, but last week, a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declined to put a stay on the ruling. The federal government is likely to appeal to the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court.
The restraining order, however, did not prevent Wednesday’s operation. On X, U.S. Attorney for Los Angeles Bill Essayli acknowledged the operation, writing, “For those who thought immigration enforcement had stopped in Southern California, think again. The enforcement of federal law is not negotiable, and there are no sanctuaries from the reach of the federal government.”
Bass, speaking at a previously scheduled news conference with area community leaders to discuss the impacts of the immigration operations, condemned the Wednesday morning raid as an apparent violation of the court order.
“A few days ago we celebrated the court decision and we’re going to continue to celebrate that court decision,” she said. “But we have to fight to make sure that court decision is actually implemented and followed. Because this morning when I woke up I saw pictures of a raid that actually happened … at a Home Depot and it is hard for me to believe that that raid was consistent with the court order. It said you cannot racially profile, you cannot racially discriminate. What i saw on the video, what I saw on the pictures that were sent to me, looked like the same guys chasing people through a Home Depot.”
Rep. Judy Chu, D-Pasadena, also condemned the federal operation.
“Just days after a federal court ordered Trump to stop racially profiling and disappearing our neighbors off the street without cause, he’s doing it again,” Chu wrote on X. “This is political terror against the immigrant communities who strengthen our city.”
Local immigrant advocates also blasted the raid, calling it a violation of the court order. Several groups announced plans to conduct protests and marches in downtown Los Angeles Wednesday night in response to the action.
“Let’s be clear: this is a continued targeting of day laborers and street vendors. The raid happened right in front of the CARECEN’s Day Labor Center,” Martha Arevalo, executive director of Central American Resource Center of Los Angeles, said in a statement. “Our team witnessed the harassment and criminalization of workers who represent the backbone of our local economy. These day laborers and street vendors are a symbol of dignity through hard work.
“This morning’s actions, including the detention of about 16 street vendors and day laborers, reflect a disturbing pattern of intimidation against the immigrant community and people simply trying to survive.”
Pablo Alvarado, co-executive director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, said the raid “staged by agents in cowboy hats jumping out of a rented van with a TV crew in tow marks a dangerous escalation in the Trump administration’s assault on immigrant communities, the courts, and the people of Los Angeles.”
Essayli has defended Wednesday’s raid as being within the scope of reasonable suspicion.