Immigration raid at Home Depot in Paramount leads to multi-hour standoff between working class community and CPB thugs
For the second day in a row major protests between immigration Gestapo and the wider community are taking place in Southern California in response to ongoing federal raids targeting immigrant workers and their families throughout Los Angeles County.
As of this writing there is an ongoing stand-off between Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents and protesters on Alondra Boulevard outside the Paramount business center.
Despite repeated claims by Democratic Mayor Karen Bass and Los Angeles Police Department that local police are not involved in the raids, dozens of LAPD cops have been deployed to shut down the I-710 overpass in an attempt to isolate the ongoing protest.
Reporters for the World Socialist Web Site also photographed Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies on the scene assisting in the immigration Gestapo in crowd control.
Los Angeles County is the most populous county in the United States at nearly 10 million people, of whom over 3.4 million were born outside the US. Over 220 languages are spoken in the county, which generates roughly 3.5 percent of all gross domestic product in the US, the most of any county.
Paramount is a working class city in Los Angeles County, home to over 54,000. It is located southeast of downtown Los Angeles and borders Compton, Lynwood and Bellflower.
Federal agents have shot hundreds, if not thousands of tear gas canisters throughout the neighborhood, blanketing the area in white clouds of stinging smoke that are causing residents to evacuate their homes. Several people have suffered serious injuries due to tear gas and rubber bullets fired by agents.
One of those injured by the immigration Gestapo spoke to WSWS reporter Kimie Saito, his head wrapped in white bandages stained with blood. The young man said he came out to protest the raid and was “hit in the side of the head” by a “rubber bullet.”
Reporters on the scene for the World Socialist Web Site were also struck by tear gas canisters and rubber bullets, despite doing nothing but documenting the fascist rampage. Through the stinging smoke, protesters continue to denounce the “ICE Nazis” and have repeatedly instructed them to leave the community.
The multi-hour stand-off between protesters and agents began Saturday morning after immigration Gestapo attempted to seize a group of day laborers outside the Home Depot.
As footage of CPB agents began spreading on social media, protesters, community members and reporters responded by gathering in the parking lot of the store. In response, heavily armed Homeland Security agents began assaulting protesters. Unconfirmed reports indicate at least two people were arrested.
In the course of the ongoing raid and protest, federal agents, including US marshals and CPB agents, have fired thousands of rubber bullets, pepper balls and tear gas grenades at overwhelmingly peaceful protesters, bystanders and observers. Despite the violence meted out by the police, protesters continue to stand their ground in opposition to militarized, masked government agents seizing workers, family members and friends.
At one point protesters on East Alondra Boulevard attempted to block a US Marshal Service white bus from crossing the overpass. Heavily armed Department of Homeland Security agents were witnessed throwing teargas grenades and shooting “less-lethal” rounds at protesters as the bus accelerated, nearly crushing several people.
Last month, it was reported that Trump’s deputy White House chief of staff, Stephen Miller, demanded ICE begin carrying out raids at the home and garden supply store, demanding, “Why aren’t you at Home Depot? Why aren’t you at 7-Eleven?” On Saturday, Miller retweeted a video of a large crowd of protesters surrounding the federal detention center on Friday, describing it as “An insurrection against the laws and sovereignty of the United States.”
On Friday, CBS News, citing lawyers for immigrants detained in the facility, reported workers and their families are being held in a dark basement without beds and with “limited access” to food and water.
World Socialist Web Site reporter struck by rubber-bullet while covering immigration raid in Paramount, California
On Saturday WSWS reporter and long-time member of the Socialist Equality Party Kimie Saito was struck in the back by rubber bullet fired by the US immigration Gestapo.
Saito, who will be turning 74 next month, has been a leading member of the SEP for over 50 years. In addition to fighting for world socialist revolution, Saito is a retired elementary school teacher and devoted mother.
Saito was hit in the back while legally covering a militant protest against immigrant raids in Paramount, California. As of this writing, protesters and Customs and Border Protection (CPB) agents are still engaged in an on-going stand-off.
Rubber bullets, pepper balls, bean bag rounds and other kinetic projectiles used by police agencies are marketed as “less lethal,” but a 2017 meta-analysis conducted by the British Medical Journal found at least 53 people have died from injuries sustained by rubber bullets. Of the 2,135 rubber bullet injuries analyzed in the study, 71 percent were categorized as “severe.”
Injuries caused by rubber bullets, as documented in the study, include internal bleeding, eye trauma resulting in permanent blindness, and bone fractures—including skull fractures that can lead to brain hemorrhaging.
In 2024, LaToya Ratlieff, 38, received a $2 million settlement from the city of Fort Lauderdale after she suffered severe eye damage after she was struck by a bullet fired by a cop with the Fort Lauderdale police department. The impact not only broke her right eye socket, but resulted in permanent nerve damage and a scar on her forehead.
In an interview with the WSWS, Saito said she was about a block away from the Home Depot where the initial immigration raids took place when police agents began firing tear gas and rubber bullets “in all directions.”
Saito was with fellow WSWS reporter and SEP member Liz Cabrera when police agents began firing on the crowd. “We started running,” Saito said, “and I felt something hit my back.”
Cabrera said they were not able to get near the Home Deport due to the overwhelming amount of tear gas.
“There was so much tear gas it was difficult to breath,” Cabrera said. “We could feel it on our lips and faces even with the masks on. “
Saito is currently recovering. She was one of several people to be struck by rubber bullets and tear gas canisters Saturday in Paramount. It is unknown how many people have been injured in the ongoing police rampage.
Military-style anti-immigrant raids in Los Angeles spark mass protests and violent repression
Widespread anti-immigrant raids coordinated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) were carried out throughout the Los Angeles metropolitan area Friday, sparking citywide protests and numerous violent altercations between heavily armed federal agents and unarmed protesters, turning many areas of the city into a war zone.
The raids, which began Friday morning, targeted numerous sites in downtown and central Los Angeles, including the Fashion District, the Westlake District, South Los Angeles and Cypress Park, all areas known for their large immigrant populations and labor-intensive industries.
Multiple raids occurred at clothing wholesalers such as Ambiance Apparel and other businesses in the Fashion District downtown. At least two Home Depot stores, where day laborers congregate for work, and other businesses were targeted in West Lake, including other day labor centers and a doughnut shop. An additional Ambiance Apparel was raided in South Los Angeles, and Home Depots in the Cypress Park neighborhood.
ICE officials were also seen near a school in Koreatown, sparking fear and confusion among students and families. Connie Chung Joe, the chief executive of Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California, stated she received notice that ICE officials were “going to a school in Koreatown,” but it is still unclear if ICE agents entered any schools.
In downtown’s Garment and Fashion district near 9th and Towne street, workers were dragged away and thrown into unmarked white vans. Activists in trucks read instructions over a loudspeaker to those detained inside Ambiance Apparel‘s warehouse, informing them of their rights. Demonstrators attempted to block the convoy of vehicles from leaving, eventually being cleared by pepper spray. Agents are seen in video footage riding on the back of military vehicles as protesters shout for them to leave, throwing objects and denouncing the agents as “fascists” and “pigs.”
In South Los Angeles a demonstration sprang up at 15th Street and Santa Fe Avenue in response to the detention of workers from Ambiance Apparel. Officers with the LA Police Department (LAPD) established a skirmish line and agents in riot gear attacked the crowd with pepper spray and flash-bang grenades to disperse protesters who were blocking vehicles from leaving with the detained immigrant workers. At least one protester received medical treatment for being pepper-sprayed after being tackled to the ground and forcefully detained.
The raids quickly provoked protests which grew to some 500 people who gathered in front of the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles and the Los Angeles Federal Building, which are adjacent to each other. Federal agents and riot police were called in to disperse the crowd.
Article continues article here.
The way forward in the struggle against Trump’s attack on immigrants
Every day in the United States, heavily armed, militarized, and masked immigration agents—often operating without warrants or even the pretense of due process—are seizing workers, students, parents and long-time residents as part of President Donald Trump’s ongoing mass deportation campaign.
Under the guise of combating “terrorism” and “criminal gangs,” the ongoing raids overwhelmingly target workers and their families, many of whom have filed for asylum and completed every legal requirement for seeking residence in the United States.
In the first 100 days of Trump’s second term, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) reported arresting 66,463 people and deporting 65,682. By mid-May, nearly 49,000 individuals were being held in immigration detention centers—most of them privately run, for-profit facilities scattered across the United States.
To meet a White House-imposed quota of 3,000 arrests per day—set by Trump’s fascist-minded senior adviser Stephen Miller—masked immigration agents are appearing at courthouses, worksites, and other public spaces to capture “illegal” immigrants.
If their “target” is not present, the immigration Gestapo is encouraged to carry out “collateral arrests”—detaining anyone they encounter whom they suspect of being “illegal,” regardless of whether that person was the intended target.
In line with these directives, the right-wing New York Post—owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp—reported that “2,200 illegal migrants” were arrested in a single day on Tuesday. This came after a Monday press conference by ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons, who gloated that immigration agents had detained 1,461 people in Massachusetts in May alone as part of “Operation Patriot.”
Trump and his ruling class allies have repeatedly claimed that those being targeted for deportation are the spearhead of an invasion force aimed at destroying America. This lie is disproven every day.
On Wednesday, CNN reported that the Trump administration is reviving its notorious child separation policy and has already taken approximately 500 children into government custody—removing them from previously vetted family sponsors. During Trump’s first term, more than 5,500 children were separated from their parents in a cruel and inhumane effort to deter immigrants and asylum seekers. As of 2024, according to Human Rights Watch, over 1,000 of those children had still not been reunited with their families.
Read the rest of the article here.