ICE Protests in Los Angeles: What You Need to Know

Protests continue this week in Los Angeles, and elsewhere, in response to the Trump administration’s targeting of immigrants through ICE raids.

Below, we take a closer look.

What happened?

Protests have persisted for days in the Los Angeles area in response to the Trump administration’s overextension of ICE. To be clear, protests are not relegated to LA, nor are these protests a new development. They ramped up in LA specifically, however, amid a fresh wave of ICE raids, not to mention Trump's deployment of the National Guard and hundreds of Marines.

Who is speaking out in support of protesters? Cardi B, Finneas, Doechii, and more.

Familiar names have spoken out against the ICE presence, including Finneas and Green Day frontman Billie Joe Armstrong. At least one reporter, meanwhile, was shown in footage being struck by a rubber bullet from police.

At the 2025 BET Awards, held in Los Angeles, Doechii used her time on the stage to directly address the protests.

“Trump is using military forces to stop a protest, and I want y'all to consider what kind of government it appears to be when every time we exercise our democratic right to protest, the military is deployed against us,” the Alligator Bites Never Heal artist said.

In an X Spaces broadcast, Cardi B, a frequently public critic of Trump’s policies, expressed concern over the current situation likely getting “worse” in the days ahead.

“He always gives dictatorship vibe,” Cardi said. “I tried to warn people that this was going to happen.”

What did Trump say?

Here's the gist: Monday, the former The Apprentice host and steak salesmen called it “a great decision” to send in the National Guard. This was predictable enough, as was his trollingly misspelled reference to Gavin Newsom (“Gavin Newscum”) and his employment of all-caps to perplexingly emphasize certain aspects of his Truth Social-delivered statement.

Immigration has long been a target of the larger MAGA agenda. As touched on above, many have frequently signaled that the strategy we’re seeing play out right this very moment has always been the goal, even as far back as Trump’s first term in the White House. Lest we forget, Trump’s ultimately successful 2016 POTUS run kicked off with this fuckery.

What did California Governor Gavin Newsom say?

In addition to talk of taking legal action in response to Trump having “illegally acted to federalize the National Guard,” California Governor Gavin Newsom has directly responded to Trump administration threats, at one point relaying a message of “arrest me” in an MSNBC interview.

“The order he signed doesn’t just apply to CA,” Newsom cautioned on X. “It will allow him to go into ANY STATE and do the same thing.”

Speaking on Trump's use of Marines, Newsom reiterated his plans to sue, adding that “the Courts and Congress must act” in response to this “blatant abuse of power.”