A witness reported a kidnapping to 911 last week after seeing a group of armed, masked men pulling a woman into an SUV in the Fashion District.
Instead of making arrests when the Los Angeles Police Department officers showed up, however, they lined up to shield the suspected kidnappers from an irate mob of bystanders calling for the woman’s release.
It was discovered that the alleged abductors were Immigration and Customs Enforcement special agents.
Police Chief Jim McDonnell defended the officers’ actions, stating that they had no right to obstruct the federal operation and that their primary duty was to maintain order.
California
In order to investigate the county’s legal alternatives against unconstitutional immigration enforcement operations, L.A. County Supervisor Hilda Solis stated that she plans to present a resolution.
Critics attacked the LAPD on social media and in political and activist circles for containing the crowd rather than looking into the reasons behind the agents’ arrest of the woman, who turned out to be a U.S. citizen.
According to Mike Bonin, a former member of the City Council who is currently the executive director of the Pat Brown Institute for Public Affairs at Cal State L.A., what transpired downtown on Tuesday morning definitely appeared and felt like LAPD was helping ICE.
The LAPD reacted to federal immigration enforcement efforts that were reported as kidnappings in more than half a dozen instances in the last few weeks.
Some city leaders have questioned ICE’s involvement in the continuing White House operation that has swept up hundreds of immigrants and instilled terror throughout Southern California due to the presence of local police officers at the scenes, even if they are not actively supporting ICE.
The issue has been made worse by instances of imposters posing as law enforcement and unsubstantiated reports that federal officials have hired private security firms or bounty hunters to make immigration arrests.
In a post on X on Tuesday, Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin of the Department of Homeland Security termed coverage of a single reported kidnapping a fraud, stating that ICE does not use bounty hunters to make arrests.
The LAPD should verify that federal agents who disguise their faces and frequently drive unmarked cars are who they say they are, according to a letter sent to the Police Commission last week by City Councilmember Monica Rodriguez.
Rodriguez, whose district includes the San Fernando Valley, added, “Our residents have a right to know who is operating in their neighborhoods and under what legal authority.” In addition to being careless, letting unknown parties detain people forcibly without supervision damages public confidence and threatens the rule of law itself.
“The commission, the civilian policymaking body of the LAPD, should develop appropriate legal and safe protocol that provide for officer safety, transparency, and accountability to our communities,” she said, adding that city leaders should not allow bounty-hunter-style methods to spread throughout our city.
It is unacceptable that there is no identity. According to Rodriguez, it fosters an atmosphere that is conducive to mistreatment and impersonation, allowing vigilantes to impersonate federal officials.
Legislation to improve officer identify openness has been proposed by state and municipal leaders, but it is uncertain if the proposals will pass into law and whether federal agents will be subject to their enforcement.
California
From the federal court to the state legislature, California politicians appear unable to oppose Newsom’s pending challenge to Trump.
Erroll Southers, president of the Police Commission, said Tuesday that he and another commissioner met with members of the City Council to talk about how the Police Department is handling the aggressive sweeps carried out by the Trump administration. McDonnell was questioned by a number of commissioners regarding the proper response of LAPD officers to reported kidnappings.
According to McDonnell, the department developed new policies requiring a supervisor to react and provide LAPD personnel instructions to confirm the legitimacy of the alleged ICE officials while recording the exchange on body-worn cameras.
According to the chief, cops’ first concern is ensuring everyone’s safety, but they are ultimately powerless to obstruct a federal operation.
Nearly three-quarters of Californians think local police should detain federal immigration agents who intentionally act maliciously or go beyond their legal authority, according to a recent survey conducted by public opinion research firm YouGov.
California
The LAPD continues to face harsh criticism, new lawsuits, and inquiries despite years of expensive litigation, accountability mechanisms, and leadership pledges to limit the use of force without cause.
According to the same survey, most Californians favor outright banning state officials from working with immigration enforcement and facilitating citizen lawsuits when authorities infringe upon immigrants’ due process rights.
Although the LAPD has always maintained that it has no involvement in civil immigration enforcement, pressure from City Hall and others is now mounting on the department to take additional steps to safeguard undocumented Angelenos.
Among other things, a motion that was discussed by the L.A. City Council this week would restrict the LAPD’s assistance to organizations that handle immigration enforcement.
According to LAPD officials, the department has been called to at least seven cases where a person called 911 to report a kidnapping that was actually an ICE operation.
When a squad of masked federal Border Patrol agents were seen staging close to Dodgers Stadium last week, it sparked a flurry of online rumors about possible immigration enforcement at the field and resulted in one emergency call. When a group of demonstrators arrived, LAPD officers were on the scene and once more managed the gathering.
According to a number of police supervisors, it used to be standard practice for federal agents conducting surveillance in a particular LAPD division to notify the local watch commander in advance as a courtesy. However, they are now mostly in the dark regarding the planned schedule and location of immigration raids because that long-standing practice has ended.
There is false information circulating online on when and how federal agents can make an arrest, according to Cmdr. Lillian Carranza, who said it was reckless for people to call 911 and characterize the arrests as kidnappings. According to her, authorities only need reasonable cause to stop someone on the street rather than a warrant.
People should seek justice in court if they have issues about the actions of federal officials, she added. The case should be litigated there. Not on the streets.
McDonnell told the municipal Council last month in a heated argument that he would not notify municipal officials of an immigration operation even if he was aware of it beforehand.
On social media sites like Reddit, the LAPD’s cooperation with ICE has been hotly debated. Some commenters have claimed that the department’s emphasis on policing demonstrators is a covert endorsement of the federal government.
The event last week in downtown Los Angeles, where a lady named Andrea Guadalupe Velez was arrested by agents wearing bulletproof vests with gaiters covering their faces, has dominated much of the conversation.
A man who was later arrested, Luis Hipolito, was seen on a livestream video requesting the identities and badge numbers of the agents.
He informed the agents that he was currently phoning 911.
911, A crime is what I wish to report. On the phone, Hipolito can be heard saying, “I want to report a crime.”
What are you reporting? An operator can be heard inquiring.
He can be heard saying, “They’re kidnapping people on Nine and Main Street, they’re kidnapping kids.” I need LAPD immediately, right now. Main Street and Nine. There are people being abducted by them.
Officers from the LAPD arrived at the scene after multiple agents were observed piling on top of Hipolito. They stood in a line between the agents and the irate mob, who were yelling for Hipolito’s release.
According to McLaughlin of Homeland Security, Velez was taken into custody for attacking an ICE officer.
According to court documents filed by federal authorities, Velez suddenly crossed an agent’s path in what appeared to be an attempt to stop him from capturing the male suspect he was pursuing.
Velez, a 4’11 Cal Poly Pomona graduate, is accused of blocking the agent’s passage by extending her arms. According to federal investigators, the agent was hit in the head and chest after failing to halt in time.
Margarita Flores, Velez’s mother, had just dropped her daughter off at the scene and was observing from her rearview mirror.
According to Flores, she observed Velez fall to the ground after a man ran toward her daughter. According to Flores, the men’s automobile had neither registration plates nor identification.
She instructed her other daughter, Estrella Rosas, to contact the police because she was afraid of being abducted. Rosas claimed that her sister rushed to one of the policemen in the hopes that they would assist her when the LAPD arrived.
However, Rosas claimed that one of the ICE officers pursued her again and completely handcuffed her. They drove off in the car without license plates after he had to physically bring her inside.
Velez was held in a federal detention center for two days. Charged with assaulting a federal officer, she made her initial court appearance last week and was released on $5,000 bail. She has not yet entered a plea and is due back in court July 17.
Times staff writer Brittny Mejia contributed to this report.
