L.A. Mayor Karen Bass is calling the MacArthur Park immigration sweep this week what it is -- a fear tactic to intimidate residents ... and she's not backing down from fighting for the city’s rights.
We caught up with Bass at L.A. City Hall on Tuesday, and she slammed the horse-mounted federal agents in tactical gear swooping into the park Monday, bolstered by armored vehicles and armed troops ... calling it totally inappropriate and nothing less than a political stunt, especially as she notes no one was detained.
Catch the full clip -- Karen breaks down the bigger picture of the weeks-long ICE raids ... saying they were supposed to target criminals, gang members, and drug dealers -- but instead they're terrorizing innocent people, traumatizing them for life.
Horse-mounted federal agents robed in tactical gear descended on a Los Angeles park alongside about 90 members of the California National Guard Monday -- a move Mayor Karen Bass is condemning as a "political stunt."
Check out the chilling clip -- rows of heavily-armed officers march through the mostly-empty MacArthur Park Monday via horseback and on foot ... seemingly conducting an immigration sweep.
Bass shared the video on X shortly after she was notified of the presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection and military personnel ... calling the act "absolutely outrageous." She also claimed the park was full of life about 20 minutes earlier.
A protest outside a Portland ICE facility turned into a scary scene Friday night ... as demonstrators clashed with law enforcement in riot gear and tear gas filled the air.
Video is now circulating on X capturing the shouting, shoving and even law enforcement tackling protesters.
Breaking — Federal police declare an unlawful assembly at the ICE facility in Portland.
Several arrests made as officers deploy endless tear gas, crowd control munitions to disperse crowd. pic.twitter.com/JWBpBalEoV
Tear gas canisters are exploding all over the place, and what sounds like the popping of gunshots -- reportedly "crowd control munitions" -- can be heard in the background of the clip.
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Julio Cesar Chavez Jr., days after sharing the ring with Jake Paul, is locked in a jail cell ... after ICE agents arrested the former champ over a warrant in Mexico for alleged weapons trafficking and connections to a cartel.
Officials from the Department of Homeland Security tell TMZ Sports that 39-year-old Chavez Jr., the son of boxing legend Julio Cesar Chavez Sr., was detained Thursday in Studio City over an active warrant out of our neighbors to the south.
The warrant, according to the U.S. gov, stems from Chavez's alleged involvement in organized crime and trafficking firearms, ammunition, and explosives.
Gavin Newsom says Fox News has gone off the deep end ... purely peddling the Trump administration's propaganda these days -- and, he's calling for an apology in regards to the defamation lawsuit he filed.
The Governor of California joined Brian Tyler Cohen on his podcast Friday ... and, he told Brian he doesn't like to use the courts in situations like this -- but, he felt it was finally time to fight the "propaganda network."
Governor Newsom says he's willing to let the network off the hook if he receives an on-air apology for the story they ran claiming he lied about calling President Trump ... but, if not, he's ready to let the lawyers duke it out in court.
Former Second Gentleman Doug Emhoffain't happy about the ongoing ICE raids -- telling TMZ what's happening across the nation is simply "outrageous."
We caught up with Emhoff in L.A. Thursday ... though he's got a cool demeanor, he clearly thinks ICE raids targeting undocumented immigrants amid an aggressive deportations push under the Trump administration are appalling.
He's got a positive message, though -- promising families worried about how the federal actions will impact them that he and his wife, former U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris, are "always going to stand up for people in need."
3:25 PM PT -- Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement to TMZ ... “Luis Hipolito was arrested for ASSAULTING an ICE law enforcement officer. Andrea Guadalupe Velez was arrested for impeding an arrest after she forcefully obstructed an ICE officer by making physical contact with him. Secretary Noem has been clear: if you lay a hand on a law enforcement officer, you will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Our ICE officers are facing a 500 percent increase in assaults against them while they carry out enforcement operations. These U.S. citizens actions kept ICE law enforcement from arresting the target illegal alien of their operation.”
Several law enforcement officers -- including at least one wearing ICE gear -- tackled a U.S. citizen to the ground and put their knees on his back after he allegedly punched an ICE agent in the face.
The incident went down Tuesday ... with bystanders recording multiple men -- including one wearing a "Police ICE" vest -- slamming a man in a white T-shirt and black pants to the asphalt, pushing his face into the curb as they wrestle to handcuff him.
It takes some time for the group to fully take him down ... and, at different times, the agents take turns putting their knees into the suspect's back -- while onlookers scream at them.
Masked federal agents grabbed a day laborer off the street outside a Home Depot in Los Angeles ... locals who saw the apprehension were pissed ... and it's all on video.
TMZ obtained video showing a swarm of feds -- some wearing U.S. Customs and Border Patrol vests -- pulling up in 3 SUVs and questioning a man who was parked on the curb in a hauling truck, looking for work.
The incident happened Monday morning across the street from the Home Depot in Playa Vista ... and the agents are on video claiming the guy told them he was an illegal immigrant.
Florida’s Attorney General James Uthmeier just cooked up the wildest plan yet -- turning the gator-infested Everglades into an immigration detention center for Trump’s mass deportation mission.
X/@AGJamesUthmeier
In a video posted to X on Thursday, Uthmeier chomped into his bold plan -- building a holding center right in gator territory, proudly calling it "Alligator Alcatraz." His pitch? Who needs barbed wire when you’ve got built-in bite patrol from Florida’s finest reptiles? Y'know, a bit like the sharks circling Alcatraz!
The 39-square-mile site -- a remote, dormant airport facility called the Miami-Dade Collier County Training Facility, about an hour due west of downtown Miami -- offered to the Trump administration comes with its own landing strip for flying in undocumented immigrants and, according to Uthmeier, could cage up to 1,000 people in just 30 to 60 days once construction begins.
1:55 PM PT -- ICE is fact-checking the Dodgers' statement ... saying its agents were "never" at the stadium. But as Homeland Security said, CBP vehicles were present "very briefly, unrelated to any operation or enforcement."
1:05 PM PT -- Homeland Security tells TMZ Sports the agents' presence at the stadium had nothing to do with the Dodgers.
Federal agents were denied access to Dodger Stadium on Thursday ... after the team confirmed it refused to allow the government vehicles from entering the venue's parking lots.
ICE vans and masked agents were spotted posting up outside one of the stadium lot's gates ... although it's unclear why exactly they were there. According to the L.A. Times, agents declined to comment on the details of their presence.
The tragic shooting murders this weekend of a Minnesota politician and her husband, and the attempt on the lives of two others, who both survived -- was apparently pulled off by a police impersonator. Events like this are ratcheting up distrust between the public and law enforcement personnel ... and a former lawman breaks down what this trend means.
Author Steve Lazarus, a retired FBI Special Agent with 22 years on the job, joined us on "TMZ Live" Monday to talk about the effect "guys cosplaying as cops" are having on public trust and safety ... and he's not exactly optimistic.
Lazarus tells us about how destabilizing it is when you don't always know the good guys from the bad guys ... What is the average civilian supposed to do with people impersonating police and other law enforcement officers -- like ICE agents -- in an attempt to get away with crimes ... including murder?
Conservative commentator Michael Knowles tore into Gov. Gavin Newsom on "TMZ Live" -- ripping his response to the L.A. ICE protests and claiming it was such a mess, Trump had no choice but to step in.
Knowles pointed to torched cop cars, assaulted officers, and even an 'illegal alien' allegedly tossing a Molotov cocktail as proof L.A. was in serious trouble -- blaming the chaos on Newsom and Mayor Karen Bass' failure to act accordingly, which forced Trump to bring in the National Guard and send in the Marines.
When our hosts pushed back -- noting the chaos was limited to one small area -- Knowles doubled down, saying Trump’s actually showing restraint in the matter... and this kind of tough crackdown is exactly what voters are begging for.
You gotta watch the full convo -- it gets seriously heated. Knowles even dives into whether he’d back a Dem president doing the same in a red state ... and you're gonna want to hear his take on that!
9:34 AM PT -- Assistant Secretary Dept. of Homeland Security, Tricia McLaughlin, has responded to Kim Kardashian.
Kim Kardashian is coming out swinging against the Trump administration's ICE raids in Los Angeles ... calling the president's immigration policies "inhumane."
The reality TV star posted a statement on her Instagram story Tuesday, offering her opinion on the violent protests that have erupted in downtown L.A. and Paramount — a largely Latino city in L.A. County -- over the past 5 days.
In her post, KK wrote that she was OK with Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents removing violent criminals, but not hardworking people ripped from their families.
As Immigration Customs and Enforcement raids go down across the country, ICE now has its very own impersonator ... and he's wreaking his own brand of havoc in Philadelphia.
Detectives are searching for a man posing as an ICE agent, who they say tied up a woman and stole $1,000 in cash from her at a repair shop last weekend.
Police say the sham agent screamed "Immigration" before tying up the woman for more than 2 hours and swiping her money. The woman was eventually freed by a co-worker long after the suspect had fled in a white Ford van.
Gavin Newsom says Los Angeles is just the start of President Trump's plan to tear down Democracy across the whole country ... and he's urging all Americans to stand up against POTUS.
The Cali governor issued his alarming address Tuesday evening ... a few hours after a federal judge refused to grant an emergency restraining order to block Trump from federalizing the CA National Guard, and from deploying U.S. Marines on the streets of Los Angeles.
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Newsom said, "This isn't just about protests here in Los Angeles. When Donald Trump sought blanket authority to commandeer the National Guard, he made that order apply to every state in this nation. This is about all of us."
The chaos erupting in L.A. is less about politics and more about a serious leadership problem, according to a Texas congressman.
Rep. Wesley Hunt didn't hold back on "TMZ Live" Tuesday -- telling us the federal government had to deploy 700 Marines and thousands of National Guard troops to restore order in the City of Angels ... because it's all about protecting American streets from looking like a war zone.
Wesley makes it clear to us this isn't about red vs. blue states -- it’s about who's actually leading with backbone, and in his eyes, Texas is setting the bar.
