Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers rushed to the scene of a kidnapping—only to find the masked perpetrators were, in fact, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents.
Police officers received a panicked 911 call on Tuesday morning that a kidnapping was taking place in downtown Los Angeles. When they arrived at the scene, they found a group of masked ICE officers attempting to shove a “partially handcuffed” woman into the back of an SUV while an agitated crowd tried to stop them.
The LAPD has denied that it was involved in the unnamed woman’s detention or arrest. But video footage shows officers separating the crowd from masked ICE agents, which allowed them to detain the woman—contradicting the LAPD’s pledge not to assist in immigration raids.
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“Guess who was protecting the kidnappers who were kidnapping our people? LAPD officers. They completely protected the ICE operation that kidnapped our people,” Ron Gochez, founder of the L.A. chapter of social justice organization Union Del Barrio, told ABC News.
Gochez later broadcast the video during a protest outside LAPD headquarters, during which he accused Police Chief Jim McDonnell and L.A. Mayor Karen Bass of having “the audacity to continue to lie, to say that the LAPD is not collaborating with ICE.”
The Los Angeles City Council declared L.A. a sanctuary city in 2024, banning officials from using municipal resources or personnel to assist with immigration enforcement.
In a statement released on X, the LAPD claims it responded to reports of a suspected kidnapping at 9:10 a.m. on Tuesday morning, which specified that masked perpetrators were attempting to abduct people off the street without identifying themselves.
Upon arrival, officers found an “increasingly agitated” crowd had surrounded the suspects and “spilled into the street, creating a volatile situation and a significant public safety hazard.” At this point, a “partially-handcuffed woman” approached the officers before a federal agent detained her.
“The Federal agents did not notify LAPD of their planned enforcement activity in advance,” the release said, adding that officers stayed at the scene to “de-escalate tension, move pedestrians out of the roadway, and allow emergency vehicles safe passage.”
“No arrests were made by LAPD,” it added.
Those in attendance, however, have denounced the operation as an extra-judicial kidnapping and have slammed the LAPD for its role in facilitating it.
“Los Angeles is supposed to be a sanctuary city, a place of safety, a place of dignity, a place where our immigrant brothers and sisters, our neighbors, our co-workers, our families can live without fear,” an eyewitness told ABC7. “But if Los Angeles is a sanctuary, then why are people being dragged out of the workplace in handcuffs, why are ICE agents storming Home Depot parking lots?”
President Donald Trump deployed 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 active-duty Marines to Los Angeles earlier this month after a series of immigration raids sparked furious protests. Trump’s “border czar,” Tom Homan, has threatened to arrest both the L.A. mayor and California Governor Gavin Newsom—both who spoke out against the administration’s crackdown—if they interfere with the administration’s immigration sweeps.
