Immigration Operation by Militarized Federal Agents Disrupts Children’s Summer Camp in MacArthur Park–Sparks Outrage
MacArthur Park is located in one of the most immigrant-heavy neighborhoods in Los Angeles. On Monday, July 7, 2025, the park was quiet as children at a summer camp played. By the afternoon, an immigration operation was taking place in MacArthur Park, and militarized federal agents marched over soccer fields. Their presence sent kids running for safety and sparked local outrage. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass showed up and demanded that they leave the park immediately.
Militarized personnel marched through a public park in downtown Los Angeles
Videos captured a federal immigration operation taking place in broad daylight at MacArthur Park in downtown Los Angeles. Some federal agents marched on foot through the park while others were on horseback. They were accompanied by a Department of Homeland Security helicopter overhead and vehicles blocking the streets around the park. Included in the group: 80 California National Guard members who were federalized during anti-immigration raid protests in downtown Los Angeles in June.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass responded to the show of force by arriving in person to confront the agents. Mayor Bass has been critical of the Trump administration’s actions in the city since mass raids in early June. The raids generated chaos, anger, and fear within communities and prompted days of anti-ICE protests in the city. The protests encouraged others to pop up in major cities across the country, pushing back against the Trump administration’s mass deportation goals.
Mayor Bass visited MacArthur Park
The Los Angeles mayor showed up among the people demanding answers and their quick departure. Mayor Bass is seen on a cell phone speaking with someone, demanding that agents leave the park. A Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agent is seen walking alongside her, waiting for the cell phone to be returned. During the phone call, the agent next to Mayor Bass told her that they would be vacating the park.
“My comment is that they need to leave and they need to leave right now,” Mayor Bass says in the video. “This is unacceptable.” She then looked off camera, adding: “Just wait and see. They will be leaving soon.”
When asked about who she was on the phone with, Mayor Bass said she spoke to the “Head of Customs.” Later on Monday, Mayor Bass held a press conference and spoke directly about what she saw in MacArthur Park and why she went.
“When I got to MacArthur Park, by the way, and my purpose was one, to witness what was going on, but then when I got there, to do what I could to stop it,” Mayor Bass told reporters at the press conference. “And so I asked the person, an individual from the Customs and Border Patrol, who was in charge. They put me on the phone with the individual. I said that this needed to end; what was the purpose in them being here, but it absolutely needed to end. He said that they would be leaving within minutes, and I believe a few minutes later they left.”
The mayor further called into question the purpose of the MacArthur Park operation. During the press conference, Mayor Bass called the operation “outrageous and un-American.”
