Federal agents carried out a large-scale immigration raid in downtown Los Angeles on Monday, prompting immediate backlash from city officials. The operation, centered in the MacArthur Park area—a neighborhood noted in reports for MS-13 activity—deployed hundreds of federal agents and military personnel, including Border Patrol mounted units.

Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin reported live that the raid proceeded despite repeated requests from Mayor Karen Bass to halt such actions. Video from the scene captured Bass confronting a Border Patrol agent and demanding that federal forces leave. “They need to leave and they need to leave right now, because this is unacceptable,” she told reporters.

The raid comes amid weeks of heightened tensions over immigration enforcement in Los Angeles, where anti‑ICE protests and riots have flared. Last month those tensions escalated during a press event when U.S. Senator Alex Padilla was forcibly removed after interrupting Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem; Noem later said Padilla failed to identify himself before acting aggressively.

Secretary Noem defended continued enforcement, asserting operations would persist not only in Los Angeles but in other sanctuary cities. She criticized what she called “socialist leadership” and pledged to push back against jurisdictions resisting federal authority. “We are not going away,” she declared.

Border czar Tom Homan echoed that hard line, warning enforcement actions would ramp up in cities such as New York. “If local governments won’t help us arrest public safety threats, we’ll get them in the community or at job sites,” Homan said. “We’re going to flood the zone. Get out of the way—we’re coming to do it.”