Activists protesting the Trump administration’s ongoing crackdown on illegal immigration demonstrated for a fourth day near the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles, but it was unclear whether there were any new arrests or clashes with police.
Video from the scene Saturday showed protesters marching along Alameda Street between First Street and Aliso and Commercial streets and later heading to the First Street Bridge and into Boyle Heights.
Saturday’s March for Humanity, organized by RefuseFacism.org, began at La Placita Olvera, moved past the detention center and into Boyle Heights before ending at Hollenbeck Park.
The group said the march was held to protest “our immigrant brothers and sisters … being hunted, disappeared into detention camps and terrorized by a lawless and grotesque federalized military force loyal only to Trump’s MAGA fascist regime.”
In an email to City News Service Sunday, White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said, “The Trump Administration is committed to keeping the promises President Trump made to the American people: enforcing federal immigration laws and deporting criminal illegal aliens. The opinion of an organization founded by self-proclaimed communists is irrelevant.”
Revolutionary Communist Party, USA members Sunsara Taylor and Carl Dix were among the speakers at Refuse Facism’s launch event in New York City.
Saturday’s the march followed three consecutive nights of protests that occasionally featured clashes with police.
On Friday, protesters blocked the road at Aliso and Alameda streets around 10 p.m. The crowd cleared the area by 1 a.m., KTLA5 reported.
One night earlier, at least one person was injured and four people were arrested when protesters clashed with LAPD officers at the same location.
“Late in the evening and into the morning hours, Central Division officers were called to the area (of) Alameda south of Aliso due to federal officers requesting assistance due to protesters trespassing, obstructing and becoming violent,” an LAPD news release said. “When Central officers arrived, they were confronted by a large group of people in the middle of Alameda.”
As officers responded, they “were met with one individual swinging a 6-foot rope with metal bolts on the end of it hitting officers.”
Others in the crowd did not disperse as ordered and resisted efforts to remove them, according to the LAPD.
One person was arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, two were arrested on suspicion of resisting or obstructing officers and one was collared on suspicion of battery for allegedly spitting on or at officers, police said.
Shortly after Friday’s protest dispersed around 12:30 a..m., the LAPD requested an ambulance for an injured party, according to reports from the scene.
Video from ABC7 showed protesters following a Los Angeles Fire Department ambulance, taking photographs and chanting slogans as the ambulance drove away. The ambulance was escorted by a Department of Homeland Security Federal Protective Service vehicle.
The condition of the injured person has not been revealed.
The latest series of protests began Wednesday night, when National Guard members were deployed to the scene.