Activists are planning a major rally and march at MacArthur Park Saturday to protest the Trump administration’s ongoing crackdown on illegal immigration, after more than a dozen people were arrested in another overnight demonstration in downtown Los Angeles.
“Officers attempted to make contact with an organizer of the demonstration when the crowd surrounded the officers and began to hit the cars. Items were thrown and an Unlawful Assembly was declared due to the aggressive nature of a few demonstrators,” the LAPD’s Central Division posted Friday night on X.
“The protest went into the late night hours with people refusing to disperse. At its conclusion, over a dozen people were arrested, streets were cleared of any debris and lanes of traffic reopened,” police said in an update Saturday morning. “Central Division will continue to support 1st Amendment rights of all people. However, if violence or criminal activity occurs, laws will be enforced.”
Organizers are dubbing Saturday’s demonstration “take back MacArthur Park,” referring to recent illegal immigration enforcement activities in the area. The rally was scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. at Seventh and Alvarado streets.
The activists are also calling for a boycott of Home Depot stores, which they say have been used as staging areas for ICE operations. Attempts to reach Home Depot representatives for a comment were not immediately successful.
Meanwhile, on Friday a judge in downtown Los Angeles indicated she would reject the Trump administration’s move to terminate a 28-year-old edict governing how immigrant children are detained in federal custody and will continue to enforce safeguards provided under the so-called “Flores settlement agreement.”
Approved in 1997, the Flores settlement — named for lead plaintiff Jenny Lisette Flores, a 15-year-old detainee when the class-action complaint was filed in 1985 — requires that children be held in licensed, child-appropriate facilities and released to family members or guardians as quickly as possible. Under the terms of the settlement, Flores co-counsel are permitted to visit detention sites where children are being held and hear directly from them about their treatment and the duration of their detention.
The Justice Department filed its motion in May to dissolve Flores, calling the agreement “ossified” and “intrusive.” The motion contends that “continued enforcement of the FSA instead of the policies of the people’s representatives is not in the public interest because continued enforcement interferes with the Executive Branch’s authority to enforce the immigration laws.”
It was not immediately known when the judge would issue her ruling.