{"id":177083,"date":"2025-08-26T13:12:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-26T13:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/177083\/"},"modified":"2025-08-26T13:12:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-26T13:12:10","slug":"l-a-congressional-democrats-demand-answers-on-border-patrol-force-outside-newsom-event","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/177083\/","title":{"rendered":"L.A. congressional Democrats demand answers on Border Patrol force outside Newsom event"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Two weeks ago, scores of masked, gun-toting federal immigration agents assembled<\/a> in front of the Japanese American National Museum in downtown Los Angeles. <\/p>\n

Inside the museum, Gov. Gavin Newsom was surrounded by nearly every powerful Democrat in California, preparing to announce that he would take on President Trump\u2019s redistricting plans<\/a> with a special election campaign. Outside, Border Patrol Sector Chief Gregory Bovino was flanked by dozens of agents who looked ready for battle.<\/p>\n

Now, a number of Southern California members of Congress are demanding answers about the enforcement action outside Newsom\u2019s news conference \u2014 and the decision-making process behind it \u2014 in a letter sent Tuesday to Department of Homeland Security leaders. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe just wanted to get some questions answered,\u201d said Rep. Laura Friedman (D-Glendale), who spearheaded the letter. \u201cI was at Newsom\u2019s press conference. It was really shocking to have as many as a hundred federal officers in tactical gear just appear.\u201d<\/p>\n

The letter was sent to Bovino, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, acting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Todd Lyons and White House border advisor Tom Homan. It was signed by at least 12 other congressional Democrats, including Sen. Alex Padilla and Reps. Judy Chu (Monterey Park), Gil Cisneros (Covina), Robert Garcia (Long Beach), Luz Rivas (North Hollywood), Ted Lieu (Torrance), Nanette Diaz Barrag\u00e1n (San Pedro) and Brad Sherman (Sherman Oaks).<\/p>\n

The letter requests that answers to a number of questions be provided in writing by Sept. 4. <\/p>\n

The group asked who originally made the request to deploy agents outside the Japanese American National Museum on Aug. 14; whether the subject matter of Newsom\u2019s news conference was a consideration in the decision to deploy federal agents; and whether the size of the force was standard; and what operational criteria were used to determine the size and composition of the force deployed.<\/p>\n

As the agents massed outside the building, Newsom was announcing a plan to counter a Republican-led redistricting push<\/a> by redrawing California\u2019s own congressional districts<\/a> to favor Democrats. Last week, the California Legislature approved a November special election<\/a> where voters will decide the fate of the measure. <\/p>\n

The letter also asks for details about the two arrests made during the Little Tokyo operation and whether Homeland Security knew those individuals would be present when it decided to conduct its immigration enforcement action. One of the individuals arrested happened to be delivering strawberries<\/a> as the agents convened at the museum. He now faces deportation to Mexico. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was outrageous that Trump and his supporters called ICE on us as we were conducting our redistricting press conference,\u201d Chu said. \u201cIt was clearly an attempt to intimidate us and to send a political message that he would use his law enforcement capabilities to make us feel afraid.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Two weeks ago, scores of masked, gun-toting federal immigration agents assembled in front of the Japanese American National…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":177084,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[2322,22676,1582,276,36172,100440,83461,100439,2961,19945,224,5337,5209,100438,13009,100442,20226,100441,2452],"class_list":{"0":"post-177083","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-agent","9":"tag-answer","10":"tag-ca","11":"tag-california","12":"tag-federal-immigration-agent","13":"tag-japanese-american-national-museum","14":"tag-judy-chu","15":"tag-l-a-congressional-democrats","16":"tag-la","17":"tag-letter","18":"tag-los-angeles","19":"tag-losangeles","20":"tag-news-conference","21":"tag-newsom-event","22":"tag-number","23":"tag-redistricting-plan","24":"tag-size","25":"tag-special-election-campaign","26":"tag-week"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115095243668303985","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177083","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=177083"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/177083\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/177084"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=177083"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=177083"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=177083"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}