The ramp-up of the crackdown on illegal immigration is still underway in Los Angeles. Yet numbers appear to be trickling down as far as the amount of detainees who are being hunted down, regardless of immigration enforcement agents truly knowing their immigration status. Protests and rallies are also still underway.
Mayor of Los Angeles Karen Bass said the following on an appearance on the “Rachel Maddow Show.” “I think it’s so important [to note] that as this is still another phase of an experiment, we have to make sure this experiment fails,” she said to Maddow. “Do you remember the day I came on your show and the president said that he had stopped the violence in Los Angeles and he was patting himself on the back? The National Guard hadn’t even arrived. That’s why I call it a performance. It’s an act. It is not legitimate in any way, shape, or form.”
Mayor Bass referenced June 6, 2025, the day that the peaceful protests began to gain traction as the White House Press Secretary, Karoline Leav- itt, released a statement on June 7 suggesting that National Guard troops were needed in Los Angeles to tame the alleged violent riots against ICE agents.
According to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), ICE arrests have dropped significantly in the month of July. On July 8 federal authorities notified that ICE agents arrested 1,371 immigrants across all seven counties of Los Angeles.
4,163 arrests have occurred since the beginning of the protests on June 6. The Department of Homeland Security updated the number, accounting for about 1,400 immigrants being arrested in July, which is a significant drop despite U.S. District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong’s issuing of a temporary restraining order. The temporary restraining order stops federal agents from targeting people based on racial profiling, as often, agents are operating without reasonable suspicion of people who appear to be immigrants being in the U.S. illegally.
However, ICE raids continue to wreak havoc across Los Angeles County. On Tuesday ABC7 News compiled footage of aggressive U.S. Customs and Border Protection agents hunting down a man who worked at Handy J Car Wash in Culver City. The masked agents shoved the man to the ground and put him in handcuffs as bystanders shouted, “Get away, get away!”
Despite the Department of Homeland Security releasing data stating the arrests have decreased, a multitude of other videos of ICE agents taking people are still being recorded and shown daily by various people. According to the LA Public Press, a group of male ICE agents detained a man leaving the Clara Shortridge Foltz Criminal Justice Center on Wednesday afternoon. The Los Angeles County Public Defender’s office said that the man who was destined was a client of the Alternate Public Defender’s Office.
U.S. Atty. Bill Essayli said the following on X in regard to the ongoing ICE raids. “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.”
Various Home Depots and car washes are being infiltrated and targeted on a daily basis. According to multiple reports from witnesses on Tuesday, 16 people were arrested at a Home Depot in the Westlake area of Los Angeles, at least 8 people were taken from a car wash in Culver City, at least 18 people were taken from a Home Depot in Inglewood, and a few people have been seen being taken from their vehicles.
Yet, immigration experts suggest that the temporary restraining order may contribute to the data released by DHS, despite multiple videos highlighting the ongoing arrests and city officials speaking out against the raids. On Aug. 1, the decision to maintain the city’s temporary restraining order was upheld by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and it may be appealed to the Supreme Court. Meanwhile on Monday, President Trump deployed 800 National Guard troops into Washington, D.C., and has suggested plans to also take aim at Chicago, Oakland, and again, Los Angeles. His reasoning is lawlessness and a need for order in major cities.
LA TACO, the Los Angeles Times, LA Public Press, and ABC7 contributed to this Our Weekly report.
