LOS ANGELES — U.S. military troops and federal immigration officers made a brief but mighty show of force Monday at a Los Angeles park in a neighborhood dubbed the “Ellis Island of the West Coast” for its large immigrant population.
The operation left local officials and organizers with many questions. Here is a look at what we know.
About 90 National Guard troops and dozens of federal officers descended on MacArthur Park in the morning. But it was nearly empty, since word spread of a potential raid. Mayor Karen Bass said she pulled over on her way to City Hall to witness officers on horseback and soldiers in tactical gear walking past a playground as children at a summer day camp were rushed indoors so they would not be traumatized.
The troops and officers left after about an hour.
The Department of Homeland Security did not say whether anyone was arrested. Associated Press journalists who arrived as the troops and agents entered the park did not see anyone detained. Some activists showed up to take videos and record the scene.
When asked about the appearance in MacArthur Park, the DHS said in an email that the agency would not comment on “ongoing enforcement operations.” The Defense Department referred all questions to DHS.
Bass and Gov. Gavin Newsom called it a political stunt and spectacle meant to intimidate the city’s immigrant communities.
The park dates back to the late 19th century when the city received a mudhole and trash dump spanning 35 acres in a land swap, according to the Los Angeles Conservancy. After a “generous application of fertilizer,” it said the area was turned into Westlake Park with a small boating lake. In 1942, the name was changed to MacArthur Park for Army General Douglas MacArthur, who fought in WWII.
Since the 1980s, the Westlake neighborhood has evolved into a densely populated immigrant neighborhood with the settlement of Indigenous people from Mexico and Central America and other groups. It is also home to several immigrant rights organizations and legal aid offices.
Eunisses Hernandez, a council member whose district includes MacArthur Park said the park “was chosen as this administration’s latest target precisely because of who lives there and what it represents: Resilience, diversity and the American dream. It is no coincidence that the president would target a place that so clearly embodies the values he has spent his time in office trying to destroy.”
In recent years, the park has drawn homeless encampments. Outreach teams work there regularly, treating people with drug addiction.
In 2007, the park was the site of large May Day rallies to demand amnesty for immigrants without legal status that ended with police firing rubber bullets at protesters. Demonstrators later sued the city and received a $12.8 million settlement.
Defense officials had said 90 National Guard troops and over a dozen military vehicles were sent to protect immigration officers.
The defense officials told reporters that it was not a military operation but acknowledged that the size and scope of the Guard’s participation could make it look like one to the public. That is why the officials spoke on condition of anonymity to provide details about the raid before it happened.
The operation in the large park about 2 miles (3.2 km) west of downtown LA included 17 Humvees, four tactical vehicles, two ambulances and the armed soldiers, defense officials said.
The decision to have the soldiers provide security on the raids moves troops closer than ever before to carrying out law enforcement actions such as deportations, as President Donald Trump has promised as part of his immigration crackdown.
Trump ordered the deployment of about 4,000 California National Guard troops and 800 active duty Marines against the wishes of Newsom in early June to respond to a series of protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in Los Angeles.
The federal troops’ domestic deployment has raised multiple legal questions, including whether the administration would seek to employ emergency powers under the Insurrection Act to empower those forces to conduct law enforcement on U.S. soil, which they are not permitted to do except in rare circumstances.
The Marines are primarily assigned to protect federal buildings while hundreds of the National Guard troops accompany agents on immigration operations.
Newsom has sued the administration over the deployment and the case is ongoing.
Immigration advocates urged people to avoid the area before the heavily armed troops and federal officers arrived in armored vehicles.
Betsy Bolte, who lives nearby, came to the park after seeing a military-style helicopter circling overhead.
She said it was “gut-wrenching” to witness what appeared to be a federal show of force on the streets of a U.S. city. “It’s terror and, you know, it’s ripping the heart and soul out of Los Angeles,” she said. “I am still in shock, disbelief, and so angry and terrified and heartbroken.”
Chris Newman, legal director for the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, said he received a credible tip about the operation Monday.
The park is normally busy with families picnicking and vendors hawking food and toys but since federal agents have been making arrests around Los Angeles, Newman said fewer people have been going out.
“The ghost town-ification of LA is haunting, to say the very least,” he said.
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Watson reported from San Diego. Associated Press journalists Damian Dovarganes and Eugene Garcia in Los Angeles; Sophie Austin in Sacramento, California; Amy Taxin in Santa Ana, California; and Tara Copp in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.
