It had been a quiet morning in MacArthur Park, a hub in one of Los Angeles’s most immigrant-heavy neighborhoods. Children at a summer camp were playing outside, but the park was otherwise largely empty.
Then, dozens of armed federal agents began marching over soccer fields and grass berms, based on footage of the incident. Military-style vehicles blocked the street and a federal helicopter flew overhead.
They wore fatigues, masks and helmets and marched in lines. Some were on horseback. Camera crews followed alongside them.
Los Angeles leaders have grown weary after thousands of National Guard troops and Marines arrived nearly a month ago and immigration raids have become a regular, visible occurrence. But they took particular umbrage at Monday’s extraordinary show of force in MacArthur Park and issued a swift and furious rebuke.
“What I saw in the park today looked like a city under siege, under armed occupation,” Mayor Karen Bass said in a news conference on Monday afternoon, adding that she had traveled regularly into conflict zones as a member of Congress. “It’s the way a city looks before a coup.”
Dozens of federal agents were observed in the park, many arriving in armored military vehicles. They were joined by 80 California National Guard troops under the command of President Trump, according to the office of Gov. Gavin Newsom, who criticized the effort and has tried to stop the federalization of Guard members through a lawsuit.
Tricia McLaughlin, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security, did not respond to specific questions about the purpose of the operation at MacArthur Park or whether anyone had been detained.
“The operation is ongoing,” she wrote in an email. “So that should be a message in of itself.”
Asked to clarify that message, she responded that it was an immigration enforcement operation and that such efforts “are not in one single location.”
Mr. Trump called up National Guard troops on June 7 to quell protests at federal buildings and at immigration raids. All told, he mobilized about 4,000 Guard members and 700 Marines to the region. It has been more than three weeks since the last major demonstration in downtown Los Angeles.
Mr. Newsom and local leaders had expected the troops to return to their regular duties once the protests had died down. But the president has released only 150 Guard troops for firefighting efforts, and Gregory Bovino, a Customs and Border Protection chief in Southern California, indicated Monday that the Trump administration intended to make itself seen across the city.
“Better get used to us now, cause this is going to be normal very soon,” Mr. Bovino told a Fox News reporter. “We will go anywhere, anytime we want in Los Angeles.”
To many local leaders, the Monday march through MacArthur Park seemed designed to intimidate immigrants and residents, rather than to carry out targeted enforcement. Marqueece Harris-Dawson, the president of the Los Angeles City Council, derided the display as a stunt made for TikTok.
“If you want to film in L.A., you should apply for a film permit like everybody else,” he said during an afternoon news conference. “Stop trying to scare the bejesus out of everybody who lives in this great city and disrupt our economy.”
Ms. Bass had planned to appear with Mr. Newsom on Monday to talk about the region’s recovery six months after the Palisades and Eaton fires devastated the region.
Instead, she told reporters, she heard about the federal action at MacArthur Park and headed there. She met with children who had quickly been ushered inside a recreational facility when the federal personnel arrived. One 8-year-old boy, she said, told her unprompted that he was afraid of immigration agents.
City leaders and community groups have long tried to address homelessness and drug use in the park about 10 blocks west of downtown Los Angeles. Workers with a St. John’s Community Health street medicine clinic that was serving homeless people at the park said that agents had pointed guns at them and instructed them to stop their work and leave on Monday.
Ms. Bass said that once she arrived, she had demanded to speak to the person in charge of the operation at the park. She was handed a phone, through which, she said, Mr. Bovino told her that he would be “getting them out of the park,” apparently referring to federal agents.
The agents left the park a short time later, she said.
Ever since Mr. Trump deployed National Guard troops to Los Angeles last month, state and local leaders have engaged in legal and rhetorical battles with the Trump administration.
Federal officials have accused local leaders of fostering lawlessness and allowing criminals to roam free. Mr. Bovino persisted on Monday, saying on X: “We may well go back to MacArthur Park or other places in and around Los Angeles. Illegal aliens had the opportunity to self deport, now we’ll help things along a bit.”
The post was punctuated with two American flag emojis.
Local officials have accused the federal government of ripping apart families and terrorizing communities by conducting seemingly random workplace and street raids with masked agents in plainclothes, many of whom don’t identify themselves.
The raids have had a chilling effect on the Los Angeles area, where roughly half the population is Latino and an estimated 10 percent is undocumented. Small businesses have struggled as undocumented customers and workers have holed up at home. Public spaces like MacArthur Park have been desolate on days when they would typically be bustling with vendors and celebrating families.
Fernando Rodriguez, who runs a small convenience store on South Alvarado Street near the park, said he had seen about 15 large vehicles pull up on Monday morning, including armored vehicles.
“It was like they were going to war,” he said. He and everyone else on the block rushed to close their stores and went home, returning only once the park had cleared, he said.
Mr. Rodriguez said that everyone in the community was afraid of being picked up by immigration agents, including those who have legal status. He said that agents did not seem to care whether people had immigration papers if they were Latino.
Business at his convenience store has been very slow for about a month, since enforcement raids intensified in the community, he said. He said that he worried about his two children, ages 6 and 7, who were with him in the shop.
“The kids turn on the TV, there’s news about raids,” he said. “That’s already traumatic. Psychologically, they make you sick because all you’re doing is thinking about what time they’ll arrive.”
Monday’s episode felt like an escalation: National Guard soldiers and Marines had mostly been seen guarding federal buildings or accompanying immigration agents on smaller operations. And Ms. Bass said she didn’t know how long to expect the raids to continue.
“Frankly,” she said, “we are managing by rumor.”
Laurel Rosenhall contributed reporting from Sacramento.
Jill Cowan is a Times reporter based in Los Angeles, covering the forces shaping life in Southern California and throughout the state.
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