Crowds of people gathered at demonstrations Friday in Los Angeles, including at Gloria Molina Grand Park in the city’s downtown area.
Rallies started there and at locations around Southern California in a nationwide day of action seeking to stop funding for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Crowds also began gathering ahead of what was expected to be the region’s largest rally, outside Los Angeles City Hall and the adjacent Grand Park. By the scheduled 1 p.m. start, a throng of over 1,000 people had gathered in the park.
Video from the scene showed deputies standing guard behind razor wire surrounding the Hall of Justice, home to Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department offices.
Additional protests were planned Friday afternoon outside Burbank City Hall, at Abbott Kinney and Venice boulevards in Venice and at the intersection of Valencia Boulevard and McBean Parkway in Santa Clarita. In Orange County, an afternoon rally was scheduled at the intersection of Camino Capistrano and Del Obispo Street in San Juan Capistrano.
The protests come as immigration enforcement operations continues in Los Angeles and Minnesota, where Border Patrol commander Greg Bovino was swapped out this week for Trump administration border czar Tom Homan to lead the now months-long operation. Federal agents in Minneapolis have shot and killed two people — Renee Nicole Good and Alex Pretti, 37-year-old U.S. citizens — during enforcement actions in the city.
About 3,000 federal immigration agents were sent to the Twin Cities over the past two months as part of Operation Metro Surge.
In Washington, D.C, Democrats struck a rare deal with President Trump to separate funding for the Department of Homeland Security from a broad government spending bill and provide money for that agency for two weeks while Congress debates limits on enforcement operation tactics.