Nearly 100 armed federal agents and military officers descended on Los Angeles’s McArthur Park on Monday to carry out immigration raids.
But, instead of finding undocumented immigrants, the armed agents encountered an empty park and a crowd of people hurling abuse.
According to reports, rumours were spread about the immigration raids a day earlier, and fliers were shared to alert the public.
The Immigration and Customs agents appeared around 10.30 am in armed gear at the heart of the Los Angeles park. They were backed by 90 California National Guard members and a convoy of 17 Humvees.
For roughly an hour, the immigration agents swept through a mostly empty park, which houses a vibrant immigrant community running several businesses there.
The massive show of force left the public stunned and prompted Mayor Karen Bass to immediately show up at the site.
Bass was seen having a showdown with one of the officers as she attempted to stop the federal agents from carrying out raids.
The crackdown took place in a neighbourhood dubbed as the “Ellis Island of the West Coast” due to its concentration of Mexican, Central American, and Asian families.
The Mayor later addressed the media, slamming Trump’s move to deploy armed troops, and called it ‘un-American’.
While the park has been known to be dotted with thriving food carts, it has lately become the hub of drug abusers.
The Monday raid comes days after Congress passed the Trump administration’s ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’ that boosts spending on Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
The bill recommends the infusion of $170 billion on deportation and immigration, marking a historic federal investment in immigration enforcement.
