LOS ANGELES (AP) \u2014 Dozens of federal officers in tactical gear and about 90 members of the California National Guard were deployed for about an hour Monday to a mostly empty park in a Los Angeles neighborhood with a large immigrant population. It wasn\u2019t immediately known if any arrests were made.<\/p>\n
Defense officials had said the troops and over a dozen military vehicles would help protect immigration officers as they carried out a raid in MacArthur Park.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat I saw in the park today looked like a city under siege, under armed occupation,\u201d said Mayor Karen Bass, who called it a \u201cpolitical stunt.\u201d<\/p>\n
READ MORE:<\/strong> Trump allowed to keep control of National Guard troops deployed to Los Angeles by appeals court<\/a><\/p>\n She said there were children attending a day camp in the park who were quickly ushered inside to avoid seeing the troops. Still, Bass said an 8-year-old boy told her that \u201che was fearful of ICE.\u201d Federal officers descend on MacArthur Park<\/p>\n The operation occurred at a park in a neighborhood with large Mexican, Central American and other immigrant populations and is lined by businesses with signs in Spanish and other languages that has been dubbed by local officials as the \u201cEllis Island of the West Coast.\u201d<\/p>\n Among those who spoke with Bass were health care outreach workers who were working with homeless residents Monday when troops pointed guns at them and told them to get out of the park.<\/p>\n Sprawling MacArthur Park has a murky lake ringed by palm trees, an amphitheater that hosts summer concerts and sports fields where immigrant families line up to play soccer in the evenings and on weekends. A thoroughfare on the east side is often crammed with unlicensed food stands selling tacos and other delicacies, along with vendors speaking multiple languages and hawking cheap T-shirts, toys, knickknacks and household items.<\/p>\n \u201cThe world needs to see the troop formation on horses walking through the park, in search of what? In search of what? They\u2019re walking through the area where the children play,\u201d Bass said.<\/p>\n Eunisses Hernandez, a council member whose district includes MacArthur Park said \u201cit was chosen as this administration\u2019s latest target precisely because of who lives there and what it represents.\u201d<\/p>\n Operation escalates Trump\u2019s immigration crackdown<\/p>\n The operation in the large park about 2 miles (3.2 km) west of downtown LA included 17 Humvees, four tactical vehicles, two ambulances and the armed soldiers, defense officials said. It came after President Donald Trump deployed thousands of Guard members and active duty Marines to the city last month following protests over previous immigration raids.<\/p>\n Trump has stepped up efforts to realize his campaign pledge of deporting millions of immigrants in the United States illegally and shown a willingness to use the nation\u2019s military might in ways other U.S. presidents have typically avoided.<\/p>\n
Bass showed video of officers on horseback sweeping across an empty soccer field.<\/p>\n