As anti-immigration raid protests proceed for the sixth day in Los Angeles, a gaggle of 30 regional mayors from Southern California got here collectively to face in assist and solidarity with these peacefully protesting.
Throughout a press convention led by Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass on Wednesday, Huntington Park Mayor Arturo Flores, who’s a Marine veteran, spoke on to servicemembers deployed to the protests by President Donald Trump’s administration.
His feedback come as over 4,000 Nationwide Guardsmen and 700 Marines are set to be stationed in Los Angeles, regardless of fervent objections from some native leaders.
A girl waves a US flag whereas California Nationwide Guard personnel stand exterior the Federal Constructing throughout protests in response to federal immigration operations in Los Angeles, June 10, 2025.
Apu Gomes/AFP by way of Getty Photographs
Trump mentioned deployment is critical to “tackle the lawlessness” and has mentioned that Los Angeles could be “burning to the bottom” if he hadn’t despatched the servicemembers in.
“I’ve a message for these Marines,” Flores started, talking of the oath that he and all servicemembers take to “defend the Structure and to defend this nation.”
“That oath was to the American folks. It was to not a dictator, it was to not a tyrant, it was to not a president — it was to the American folks,” Flores mentioned.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass speaks at a press convention on June 11, 2025.
Pool by way of ABC Information
“The folks which might be right here in these communities, within the metropolis of LA and the cities that you’re going to hear from, are Individuals, whether or not they have a doc or they do not,” Flores added.
The protests — which started Friday in Paramount, California, and have unfold to close by downtown Los Angeles — have been partially sparked by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid carried out in entrance of an area Dwelling Depot in Huntington Park and in different places within the space.
Since Friday, there have been over 300 folks detained by ICE in Los Angeles, in keeping with the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles, an area immigrant rights group.
U.S. Marines with 2nd Battalion, seventh Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division rehearse crowd management techniques at a base within the higher Los Angeles, June 10, 2025.
Cpl. Jaye Townsend/U.S. Marines by way of Reuters
On Tuesday, the official ICE account on X shared a photo of National Guardsmen on the scene of a detention being carried out by an ICE agent with the caption: “Photographs from immediately’s ICE Los Angeles immigration enforcement operation.”
Talking of the “militarization of immigration enforcement,” Flores mentioned it “has no place in our neighborhoods, and the deployment of Marines on U.S. soil is an alarming escalation that undermines the values of democracy.”
“We stand towards these fear-based techniques that focus on immigrant communities and erode public belief,” he mentioned, calling the Trump administration’s actions to deploy over 4,000 servicemembers “political theater that’s rooted in concern.”
