LA ICE raids: Has Trump’s deportation promise gone too far?

Read time: 4 minutes

In brief:

• ICE conducted a heavily-armed operation in a Los Angeles park with federal agents, horseback units and helicopters.
• The Trump administration has increased ICE funding by $45 billion over four years to achieve mass deportations of 1 million people annually, but operations are arresting both undocumented individuals and legal residents.
• Polling shows 54% of Americans think ICE has gone too far, with hotel and farm owners concerned about workforce shortages, leading Trump to announce a work program to protect agricultural labour while continuing deportations.

What’s the story?

Walking through a Los Angeles park on Monday (7 July), you’d be forgiven for thinking you had stumbled upon the set of Hollywood’s next blockbuster film.

Dozens of heavily-armed federal agents in military-style gear, some on horseback, with a Department of Homeland Security helicopter circling ahead, stormed MacArthur Park as children played and people went about their days.

But this wasn’t a film set, it was the latest Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid approved by the Trump administration, which has given the department an unprecedented boost in funding as part of its new spending bill - $45 billion over the next four years - as it aims to dial up the speed and number of deportations across the country.

“They’ve got their faces completely covered. They're wearing dark glasses. They look like a militia from some Latin American tinpot dictatorship,” Jon Sopel says on The News Agents.

“And they are looking for anyone whose skin might be a little bit brown.”

LA Mayor Karen Bass, who attended the scene as the situation unfolded, branded the raid “outrageous.”

“Minutes before, there were more than 20 kids playing — then, the MILITARY came through,” she wrote on X.

“The SECOND I heard about this, I went to the park to speak to the person in charge to tell them it needed to end NOW.”

Word had already spread around the neighbourhood - which has a large immigrant population - that a raid was due to take place, and crowds reportedly fled the area. Troops and officers left after about an hour, with not a single arrest made.

Who is being arrested in the ICE raids?

Trump’s promise to carry out mass deportations goes back to his first term as president, but the narrative was that the focus was on those that have a criminal history - rapists, murderers and gang members.

“Not only Republicans, signed up to that. Huge numbers of Democrats wanted that to happen as well,” Jon says.

However, the ICE raids are seeing people who are in the US legally - with US passports - being taken off the streets, as well as people there without documents, something Jon says is a “civil infraction under US law - it's not a criminal offense”.

“When you start to round up anyone who just happens to be a little bit brown and looks Latino, it is a very slippery slope,” he adds.

It’s not just who is being arrested that’s causing alarm, but also how they are being arrested, with Jon describing it being done with “complete anonymity”.

“ICE agents are masked. Sometimes they're wearing ski masks, sometimes they're wearing half masks, but they're basically wearing masks to stop being detected.”

Their explanation is because they don’t want their names and faces exposed to the public.

Jon adds that in the UK we are used to officials having a “degree of accountability”, with officers wearing badges with their names or numbers, and frequently wearing body cameras.

In contrast, the method in which ICE are approaching people - often with those arrested completely unaware if they’re being approached by a legal body or a gang - is something “you do not associate with America, or with western documentaries.”

What’s The News Agents take?

“This is a scene that is playing out more and more across America right now,” Emily Maitlis explains.

The raid follows an aggressive goal set by the Trump administration to deport one million people a year, aiming to arrest 3,000 people a day.

“Don't forget, this was the platform on which Donald Trump stood for election,” Emily continues.

“There has been no secret about the fact that this was a Trump priority, and there has been no secret about the fact that the people who voted for him wanted to see this.”

And while many Trump voters still fully support this action, new polling reveals that others are becoming unsure as they see the campaign promise play out in reality.

More than half of US adults, 54%, have described ICE’s actions in enforcing the country's immigration laws as having gone too far.

“It sounds as if there is starting to be a bit of pushback now,” Emily says.

Much of this is from hotel and farm owners who are suddenly finding themselves without a workforce to change hotel beds or pick vegetables.

But employers are not alone in this thinking, as Emily explains.

“It’s also from people who are saying, ‘this is stretched way beyond what I was expecting’.”

This might be the reason that Trump has somewhat backtracked in a new press conference, with his spokesperson saying a work program will aim to “protect the farmers and the farmland” and while mass deportation will continue, they’ll ensure farmers have the labour that they need.

“Donald Trump is starting to realise the kickback he's going to get if he leaves large swathes of America without its workforce,” Emily says.

The President has however, also reiterated that there will be “no amnesty” and mass deportations will continue.

Even with huge portions of the economy set to potentially suffer, and polling showing public feeling may be wading, Jon says he’s “not convinced that it’s going to change Trump’s mind.”

Listen to the latest episode of The News Agents USA.