A new round of enforcement operations by US immigration officials began in the Los Angeles area on Sunday, according to two people who know about the effort.
The new push in Southern California comes after operations ordered by the Trump administration to catch people living illegally in cities like New York and Chicago.
Community activists shared a video on social media that seemed to show a group of federal agents outside of a house east of downtown Los Angeles. Activists can be seen and heard using megaphones to talk to people inside the house in the video.
“ICE is in this area, so don’t open your door.” One activist can be heard saying over a megaphone, “They can’t go in unless they have a court warrant signed by a judge.”
The video records the event for about 20 minutes, ending when the cars with what looks like government agents leave.
It’s not clear how many people have been arrested as a result of operations on Sunday. CNN has asked Immigration and Customs Enforcement to let them know what they think.
CNN previously learned from sources that US immigration officials were planning a wave of moves to detain and deport people in the Los Angeles area.
A member of the Community Self-Defense Coalition told CNN that about 150 activists are patrolling the Los Angeles area all day.
Authorities like the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, the FBI, and US Customs and Border Protection were said to be ready to help ICE agents.
Several towns in California, Colorado, and Illinois, including Los Angeles, are run by Democrats and have “sanctuary city” policies that make it harder for them to help federal immigration officials arrest, detain, or gather information on migrants.
The move comes as the Los Angeles area is still getting back on its feet after the terrible Eaton and Palisades fires in January, which killed 29 people and burned thousands of homes.
A number of people familiar with the situation say that this is the first surge since Caleb Vitello, who was acting head of ICE, was fired because of complaints about a slowdown in immigration arrests.
The Wall Street Journal was the first to report on the move.
A number of people familiar with the situation say that President Donald Trump has quietly complained to his top immigration advisers about the high number of deportations, even though he has denied in public that he is unhappy with them.
Soon after Trump was sworn in as president on January 20, his government started cracking down on immigration. On February 11, border czar Tom Homan said on 77 WABC radio that since then, more than 14,000 illegal aliens have been caught.
In terms of immigration enforcement, Chicago was one of the first places to be hit. ICE said they would be doing “enhanced targeted operations” in Chicago. Actions to enforce immigration laws were also reported in the Atlanta area, Puerto Rico, Colorado, and Austin, Texas.
Homan, who was in Chicago at the time, said it was a “criminal operation.”
US immigration police in California have to deal with some problems that their colleagues in other states might not have to. This could change the overall number of people who have been arrested during this surge.
There are some problems because of a court order from 2024. The judge in the Central District of California limited the “knock and talk” methods that ICE officers often use to question people at home.
According to the judge, immigration officers are not allowed to go on private land to try to enforce immigration laws civilly. If an agent has a criminal warrant out for a suspect, they can still arrest them on private land.
Last Monday, the border czar talked about what he called a “record low” number of meetings at the border: 229 in 24 hours. He also said that he would not be happy until “we eradicate” every criminal immigrant.
He told Fox News in an interview, “Last count, we had almost 600,000 illegal aliens in the U.S. with a criminal record. I won’t be happy until we get rid of all of them.”
But Homan has also said that he doesn’t like how many people there are in jail.
Homan told CNN’s Dana Bash not long ago, “ICE is doing a great job.” “I’m not pleased with the amount because we need to find a lot of criminals.”
A law enforcement official said that an immigration sweep in New York City was also part of a series of steps taken against people they thought were in gangs. Kristi Noem, Secretary of Homeland Security, went with police on the sweep, and in several online posts, she called the people who were held “dirt bags.”
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