Arrests of undocumented immigrants have dropped considerably throughout the Los Angeles area two months after the Trump administration launched its aggressive mass deportation operation, in accordance with new figures launched Wednesday by Homeland Safety.
Federal authorities advised The Occasions on July 8 that federal brokers had arrested 2,792 undocumented immigrants within the seven counties in and round L.A. since June 6. Homeland Safety up to date that quantity Wednesday, indicating that fewer than 1,400 immigrants have been arrested within the area within the final month.
“Since June 6, 2025, ICE and CBP have made a total of 4,163 arrests in the Los Angeles area,” Homeland Safety spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin stated in an announcement supplied to The Occasions.
Whereas 1,371 arrests throughout the L.A. area since July 8 remains to be a a lot greater determine than any latest month earlier than June, it represents a notable drop from the two,792 arrests through the earlier month.
The brand new figures affirm what many immigration specialists suspected: The Trump administration’s immigration agenda in L.A. has faltered since federal courts blocked federal brokers from arresting individuals with out possible trigger to imagine they’re within the U.S. illegally.
McLaughlin stated Wednesday that Secretary of Homeland Safety Kristi Noem’s agenda remained the identical.
“Secretary Noem unleashed ICE and CBP to arrest criminal illegal aliens including terrorists, gang members, murderers, pedophiles, and sexual predators,” McLaughlin stated in an announcement Wednesday. “We will continue to enforce the law and remove the worst of the worst.”
Trump administration officers have lengthy maintained they’re targeted on criminals. However a number of days after White Home Deputy Chief of Workers Stephen Miller introduced in late Could he had set a brand new purpose of arresting 3,000 undocumented migrants throughout the nation a day, federal brokers fanned out throughout L.A. to grab individuals off the streets and from their workplaces.
White Home prime border coverage advisor Tom Homan steered federal officers adopted the technique of raiding streets and workplaces to get round “sanctuary” jurisdictions, corresponding to Los Angeles, that bar municipal assets and personnel from getting used for immigration enforcement.
However after native protesters rallied to withstand and Trump deployed the Nationwide Guard and U.S. Marines to town, the administration’s capability to ramp up deportations throughout L.A. was dealt a blow within the federal courts.
On July 11, U.S. District Decide Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong, an appointee of President Biden, issued a brief restraining order that blocks federal brokers in southern and central California from concentrating on individuals based mostly on their race, language, vocation or location with out cheap suspicion that they’re within the U.S. illegally.
That call was upheld final Friday by the ninth U.S. Circuit Court docket of Appeals. It’s prone to be appealed to the Supreme Court docket.
“If, as Defendants suggest, they are not conducting stops that lack reasonable suspicion,” the panel wrote, “they can hardly claim to be irreparably harmed by an injunction aimed at preventing a subset of stops not supported by reasonable suspicion.”
It’s exhausting to know whether or not July numbers sign a everlasting change in techniques.
On Tuesday, Border Patrol agent carried out a raid on the Residence Depot in Westlake, arresting 16 individuals.
“For those who thought Immigration enforcement had stopped in Southern California, think again,” appearing U.S. Atty. Invoice Essayli posted on X shortly after the raid. “The enforcement of federal law is not negotiable and there are no sanctuaries from the reach of the federal government.”
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass stated her workplace was trying into the matter however added: “From the video and from the stills, it looks like the exact same thing that we were seeing before.”
