LOS ANGELES — Hector Velasquez was playing cards with friends at MacArthur Park in Los Angeles early Monday when a young man with a megaphone walked through announcing federal agents were on their way. Another man drove past in a car, shouting out the window, “Immigration is coming!”
The people in Velasquez’s group who did not have legal status scattered. Others with U.S. citizenship — like Velasquez — lingered to see what would happen.
Two hours later, federal authorities and National Guard troops arrived, with guns and horses. By then, the park that is normally bustling with vendors was mostly empty. Activists had also spread word about the raid on social media.
After sweeping through the park, the convoy that included armored vehicles left as suddenly as it had arrived, Velasquez said.
He described the scene Tuesday as he once again sat in the park playing cards — this time only with those who were citizens.
“I thought this was like a war,” said Velasquez, who was reminded of his native country of El Salvador. “Only in war do you see the tanks.”
The Department of Homeland Security wouldn’t say what the purpose of the operation was, why it ended abruptly, or whether anyone had been arrested. The agency said in an email that it would not comment on “ongoing enforcement operations.”
But local officials said it seemed designed to sow fear. Mayor Karen Bass announced at a Tuesday afternoon news conference that Los Angeles was joining a lawsuit to challenge what they say are unlawful tactics used by the Trump administration in immigration enforcement.
“They are essentially pressing the envelope to see how far the American public will tolerate the federal seizure of power,” Bass said. “This random thing is just a way of creating a sense of terror and fear in our community.”
Immigrants across the Los Angeles area have been on edge for weeks since the Trump administration stepped up arrests at car washes, Home Depot parking lots, immigration courts and a range of businesses. Rumors of an upcoming raid at MacArthur Park had been swirling. The park is in an area home to many Mexican, Central American and other immigrant populations that has been dubbed by local officials as the “Ellis Island of the West Coast.”
Just two miles west of downtown, MacArthur Park has a lake ringed by palm trees, an amphitheater that hosts summer concerts and sports fields where immigrant families line up to play soccer in the evenings and on weekends. A thoroughfare on the east side is often crammed with food stands selling tacos and other delicacies, along with vendors speaking multiple languages and hawking T-shirts, toys, knickknacks and household items.
The area had already been quieter than usual due to the city putting up fencing at the start of the year after a shooting, preventing many vendors from selling there.
Fernando Rodriguez closed down his variety store near the park on Monday after seeing flyers in the Westlake neighborhood warning of immigration enforcement happening that day.
“You look Latino, they take you. Even if you show papers, they say they’re fake,” he said. “What they’re doing is evil.”
He was open again Tuesday but said nearby businesses including Peruvian and Thai restaurants have been quiet in the weeks since the federal crackdown began.
“There’s no people anymore,” he said, gesturing to the street he said would usually packed with pedestrians on a sunny morning.
Jorge-Mario Cabrera, a spokesperson for the Coalition of Humane Immigrant Rights in Los Angeles, said there had been rumors that there could be an enforcement action around MacArthur Park, and the LA Rapid Response Network had volunteers monitor the area starting at 6 a.m. Monday.
The network sends out observers who communicate via the messaging app Signal. Cabrera said the group does not post content to the public at large or run its own website.
He said Tuesday that the streets surrounding the park have been unusually empty in recent weeks as many vendors have not been out. He wasn’t sure if they left the area because of concerns about stepped-up immigration raids.
“This was a reality show to intimidate Los Angeles,” Cabrera said. “This was an attempt to show the administration’s military might, cause as much chaos as possible, remind Angelenos that the president is in charge and that he can cause terror at any moment’s notice.”
More than 4,000 California National Guard and hundreds of U.S. Marines have been deployed in Los Angeles since June — against the wishes of California Gov. Gavin Newsom. Last week, the military announced about 200 of those troops would be returned to their units to fight wildfires.
Trump has pledged to deport millions of immigrants in the United States illegally and shown a willingness to use the nation’s military might in ways other U.S. presidents have typically avoided.
Melisa Doag, an undocumented immigrant from Guatemala who sells jewelry from a stand near the park, said she doesn’t plan to stay in the U.S. for much longer given the political climate. She would rather leave on her own terms than be deported, she said.
“I’ve only been here two years, and they already want to send me back,” Doag said. “I don’t want to be treated as a criminal.”
___
Associated Press journalists Damian Dovarganes in Los Angeles and Amy Taxin in Orange County, California, contributed to this report.
