The Brief

The videos are everywhere.

They show federal immigration agents on the streets of downtown Los Angeles, Paramount and communities across L.A. County, masked and in tactical gear, facing off with demonstrators.

As crowds protested the sudden presence of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other agencies on the streets of Los Angeles, law enforcement officers responded in some cases with tear gas, pepper balls and rubber bullets.

Some protesters reported injuries and accused federal law enforcement of excessive force.

But seeking accountability for a federal agency is challenging.

“These incidents involving federal agents just essentially go into a black hole,” said Michael Gennaco, a former federal civil rights prosecutor who now consults with law enforcement on reforms.

He said people can lodge complaints with ICE, but they’ll never learn the results.

It’s also hard to identify individual agents. They wear masks and uniforms without their names. Sometimes, the uniforms only read: "Police."

At a news conference last week, L.A. Mayor Karen Bass questioned whether some of the masked men were even federal agents.

“Who are these people?" Bass asked. “And frankly, the vests that they have on look like they ordered them from Amazon. Are they bounty hunters? Are they vigilantes? If they're federal officials, why is it that they do not identify themselves?”

LAist reached out to the Department of Homeland Security for comment on complaints and its response to the protests. The department has not responded.

Peter Eliasberg with the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California said he doubted the federal government would take calls for accountability for agents accused of excessive force seriously, given recent comments from President Donald Trump and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

" Even if there are oversight mechanisms built in, I just have a hard time believing that Secretary Noem or President Trump has any interest in using those oversight mechanisms," Eliasberg told LAist. "They seem to equate protests with something illegal that needs to be tamped down, but in fact, it is a fundamental constitutional right."

Demonstrators in Paramount describe excessive force

At a recent meeting in the city of Paramount, residents packed a small council chamber to express concerns about the response to a June 7 protest.

Alyson Barragan said she was at least 100 feet away from agents and protesting peacefully when they started shooting tear gas and projectiles at the crowd. At the City Council meeting, she lifted her shirt to reveal a large purple bruise on her lower back.

Several people in the audience gasped.

"I was shot running away from the violence inflicted by the agents," she said.

Alyson Barragan says federal agents shot her in the back with a rubber bullet while she was peacefully protesting their presence in Paramount.

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Abraham Flores told the council federal agents shot him in the head with a non-lethal projectile, landing him in the hospital with a brain bleed and concussion.

"Everyone was being peaceful," he said. "And it wasn't until those trigger-happy ICE agents started shooting at people that the chaos happened."

Vicki Martinez said she was driving to Home Depot for a flower pot when she was caught up in the protest that Saturday morning. She choked on tear gas as it streamed into her car.

"I feel like I have PTSD," she said.

Sara Aguilar, a medical assistant, said she saw two demonstrators with head wounds at the protest that day.

 "It's just excessive force — it's brutality,” Aguilar told LAist about federal agents at the scene. “I think that they should be accountable for that. [You are] shooting your rubber bullets at unarmed civilians. And that's not OK."

Federal policy issued in 2023 instructs officers to identify themselves and issue a verbal warning "when feasible" before using force.

In a video from the Paramount protest, demonstrators appear to be some distance away from a cluster of federal agents in tactical gear when the agents start throwing flash bang grenades, sending demonstrators running. No verbal warning can be heard in the video.

The members of the Paramount City Council have said that the city has no authority over federal agencies' actions.

No civilian oversight for Homeland Security

Local agencies, including the Los Angeles Police Department and county Sheriff’s Department, responded to the protests, too, and have faced accusations of excessive force. The difference is they have some level of oversight.

The Los Angeles Police Department has a five-member civilian commission that holds weekly meetings and reviews cases of serious use of force by officers.

The county Sheriff’s Department has an 11-member civilian advisory board where the public can air complaints.

The Department of Homeland Security has no such body. The federal agency oversees Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Customs and Border Protection, Citizenship and Immigration Services and more.

According to its website, ICE has a formal complaint process through its Office of Professional Responsibility. Complaints against agents can be filed online or via phone. Homeland Security also has a civil rights office where people can lodge complaints.

The department did not respond to questions from LAist about accusations of excessive force. It said previously that ICE officers have experienced a 500% increase in assaults against them, but the agency did not provide data that supports that claim.

A spokesperson said "anyone who actively obstructs law enforcement in the performance of their sworn duties will face consequences," including arrest.

Gennaco, the law enforcement expert, said Congress has the authority to investigate federal law enforcement agencies, and has looked into ICE detention facilities. But he said such investigations are rare.

Individual agents are hard to identify — and nearly impossible to sue

It can be hard to identify a federal agent who fired a rubber bullet or pepper ball.

"Those federal agents had to be the Department of Homeland Security or ICE," said Gabriel Garcia, who said he was at the protest in Paramount. "They  were full-on wearing camo suits. They had gas masks on, they had military ballistic helmets on."

A 2021 law passed in the wake of the George Floyd protests requires federal military and civilian law enforcement personnel responding to a “civil disturbance” to wear visible personal identification and the name of the government entity employing them.

California lawmakers have introduced a bill that would ban most law enforcement officers from covering their faces while working.

But even if they could be identified, it’s nearly impossible to sue individual federal agents, according to UCLA Law Professor Joanna Schwartz, an expert on police misconduct litigation.

A 1971 Supreme Court case allowed individuals to sue federal officials for violating their constitutional rights, specifically when those rights are violated under the color of law. But over the years, the court has slowly chipped away at that right.

“The Supreme Court’s decisions have narrowed this right to sue so dramatically that it only covers only a few very narrow circumstances,” she said.

Lawsuits against Homeland Security

Suing the U.S. government is still an option. And that's what some organizations and people are doing.

The L.A. Press Club and others filed a lawsuit last week against the Department of Homeland Security, accusing federal agents of using "retaliatory violence" against protesters, legal observers and journalists at protests across the region.

Eliasberg, with the ACLU, is representing the Press Club. He said a legal doctrine known as "qualified immunity" makes it much harder to sue law enforcement. It protects government officials from liability unless they've violated "clearly established" constitutional rights.

The Press Club lawsuit seeks an injunction that would require Homeland Security officers to only use force in response to specific threats and not target journalists.

"Doing crowd management, policing First Amendment activity and protest – that's not what they're trained to do," Eliasberg said of the federal agents. "You're not supposed to use excessive force and generally indiscriminate force."

A spokesperson for the Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that the First Amendment protects speech and peaceful assembly, "not rioting."

"Anyone who actively obstructs law enforcement in the performance of their sworn duties will face consequences, which could include arrest," the statement reads.

Barragan, who was hit in the back by a projectile at the Paramount protest, said she plans to file a lawsuit against ICE and Homeland Security.

Her lawyer, Robin Perry, said litigation is one of the only routes available to Angelenos outraged by what they've seen on their city's streets.

" There's no meaningful oversight of ICE with this administration," Perry said.

A comment from the Trump administration last week indicates how it feels about efforts like Barragan's.

"President Trump and Secretary Noem are committed to restoring law and order in Los Angeles and around the country," Homeland Security said in an email. "No lawsuit, this or any other, is going to change that."

Lineage has said it is racing to meet Mayor Karen Bass’ 45-day deadline to remove millions of pounds of spoiled food waste from the burned warehouse in Boyle Heights. That date is fast approaching on Aug 14. Here’s where things stand as we’re more than halfway through. 

Cleanup progress

• As of July 20, Lineage has removed approximately 3,520 tons or 7 million pounds of food and building debris. 
• An estimated 3,195 tons or 6.4 million pounds of that total is food waste that has been removed from inside the building. (Before the fire, the warehouse stored approximately 44,000 tons, aka 88 million pounds, of food inside.)
• To date, 56% percent of the damaged roof has been removed, according to L.A. County Public Works.
• This week, Lineage said it increased the number of trucks removing debris from the site.

What’s left to clean up? 

• It’s unclear how much food waste and debris are still left to clean up, but an aerial image of the building from Lineage shows that almost half of the building has been torn down and cleared. 
• At Tuesday’s L.A. County Board of Supervisors meeting, Leslie Luke, deputy director for the county’s Office of Emergency Management, said Lineage is now working to tear down a concrete wall that separates “Freezer 1,” which burned in the fire, and “Freezer 2.”
  
  • “… by doing so they’ll be able to get to Freezer 2 and rows of product in there. Each one of the rows is about the size of two football fields, and there are about 28 rows in that second freezer,” Luke said.

Odor mitigation

• Residents continue to report strong odors emanating from the warehouse. 
• On Friday, July 17, the South Coast Air Quality Management District (South Coast AQMD) issued a formal demand letter requiring Lineage to strengthen its Odor Management Plan after receiving over 900 odor complaints.
• This week, Lineage responded to the letter and said:
  
  • They have implemented misting systems to mitigate odor around the building.
  • Food waste is being sprayed down with odor control, bleach and water.
  • Food waste from Building 2 will be sprayed down with a Posi-Lock odor containment system, but the contents of Building 1 are too wet to do so.  
  • They have wrapped the entire building in plastic sheeting and will repair or replace any that becomes damaged or worn within 72 hours.
  • They are unable to wrap the food being removed from Building 1, as it would add months to the cleanup process.
  • The full response from Lineage is available here.
• To report the odor call 1-800-CUT-SMOG, file a report online at aqmd.gov/complaints or download the free South Coast AQMD mobile app to submit complaints from your phone.

LA Documenter Julania Marechal-Raymond contributed reporting for this story. LA Documenters trains and pays LA residents to take notes at local government meetings around Los Angeles. You can find meeting notes and audio at losangeles.documenters.org

This story appeared first on LA Local.

The Los Angeles Metro Board voted unanimously Thursday to move forward with a plan that would create the first-ever seat for a regular transit rider on the agency’s governing board. Such a plan would need state approval before it becomes final.

Janice Hahn, an L.A. County supervisor and Metro Board member, introduced the motion.

Another motion put forward by L.A. Mayor Karen Bass passed on a 12-1 vote. That motion would also reserve a seat — one of the L.A. mayor’s three appointees — for a rider or rider advocate. Both rider seats would have voting power. The make up of the rest of the board would largely remain the same, although members asked Metro staff to further study adding a labor representative.

The L.A. Metro Board has an annual budget of nearly $10 billion and facilitates countywide transportation projects.

Earlier this year, a Metro committee began debating the future composition of its board. The discussion was prompted by Measure G, the voter-approved initiative that will expand the county Board of Supervisors from five to nine members, and add a position for an elected countywide executive.

Five of the Metro Board’s 13 voting seats are reserved for county supervisors. Bass’ motion maintains the five county seats and will leave it up to the Board of Supervisors to decide who, including the county executive, will have a seat on the Metro Board.

Lindsey Horvath, an L.A. County supervisor and Metro board member, cast the lone dissenting vote Thursday on Bass’ motion. Horvath said she supports the inclusion of a rider voice on the board, but had campaigned for a designated seat for the county executive.

“ The county executive will be the only elected seat to represent the entire county of Los Angeles,” Horvath told LAist before Thursday’s vote. “For that position to not be at the decision-making table on something as critical as transit solutions for the region ... makes absolutely no sense.”

The make up of the Metro Board is codified in the state’s public utilities code, so any proposed changes approved on Thursday will need another vote by legislators in Sacramento before they become official.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump feted Shohei Ohtani, Freddie Freeman and the World Series champion Los Angeles Dodgers at the White House on Thursday, calling the team “one of the great brands anywhere in the world” during a Rose Garden event celebrating its second title in as many years.

Trump said the Dodgers edging the Toronto Blue Jays in Game 7 last fall capped “a hell of a series.” He indicated he was surprised to learn that the Dodgers had never before won consecutive titles but also mused about a third in a row.

“I’m thrilled to say welcome back to the White House,” he said. “And maybe I’ll see you again next year.”

The president saluted the team in the East Room in April 2025 to mark their 2024 World Series championship over the New York Yankees. He said before the latest event that he was most excited about meeting Ohtani, whom he compared at length to the legendary Babe Ruth — even saying the Dodgers star was arguably the best hitter and pitcher in baseball.

“It’s truly a great — when you talk about a brand — it’s one of the great brands anywhere in the world,” Trump said of the Dodgers. He spoke in front of a table with two World Series trophies and a Trump 47 jersey, which the team presented to him.

The Dodgers also gave Trump what looked like a replica of a World Series ring. That prompted Trump to exclaim: “Wow. Do I have to report this? I don’t want to report this” before slipping the ring into the inside pocket of his suit jacket.

Trump says Iran war has kept him from following baseball closely

Those in the crowd wore blue Dodgers caps to guard against bright overhead sun, and the band played a jazzy instrumental version of Randy Newman’s “I Love LA” before Trump took the stage.

Trump described last year’s World Series’ epic Game 3 during which the Dodgers won 6-5 in 18 innings. Trump said he stayed up until around 3 a.m. to watch, noting that “it was a long one, but it was amazing.”

President Donald Trump shakes hands with Los Angeles Dodgers Shohei Ohtani.

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“I thought it was a game that you were going to lose about four or five times, and you ended up winning,” he said, adding, “Luck is OK, too, right?” Dodgers manager Dave Roberts agreed: “Luck is OK.”

“But with talent you get a lot of luck,” Trump continued.

The president said he spoke briefly with Roberts before the event and learned that his team currently has the best record in baseball, noting, “I’ve been a little busy with Iran and some other things.”

That was his only reference during the event to fighting in the Middle East, which has escalated on both sides in recent days.

Roberts also spoke briefly, saying, “We’re going for a three-peat.”

Championship baseball teams have been coming to the White House since 1869, when President Ulysses S. Grant hosted the Cincinnati Red Stockings. They were the first fully professional team to visit the White House and went undefeated that season, though the World Series wasn’t established in its modern form until 1903.

Sports teams’ visits to the Trump White House have sometimes been a source of controversy. In 2018, the president rescinded an invitation to the Super Bowl champion Philadelphia Eagles after many players suggested they might skip such a trip.

Dodgers star right fielder Mookie Betts wasn’t at Thursday’s Rose Garden event, though he did make the 2025 visit. He said he prefers to spend the team’s scheduled days off with his family.

The Dodgers originally considered coming to the White House this past April during a series with the Washington Nationals, but a crowded early season schedule didn’t permit that. Instead, they’re in the nation’s capital during the off-day between a just-completed series against the Philadelphia Phillies and Friday’s opener against the New York Mets in Queens.

The White House has changed since the Dodgers’ last visit

Over the past year, Trump has revamped the Rose Garden and added a patio area reminiscent of his Mar-a-Lago club in Florida. At Thursday’s event for the Dodgers, he referenced the “ Walk of Fame ” installed on the colonnade, which features plaques of past presidents along with partisan insults against Joe Biden and other Democrats.

“I could put some of the great Dodgers on the wall,” Trump joked, “but I figured maybe it’s more appropriate that we put the presidents.”

Trump, a baseball fan and New York native, has for years been closely associated with the Yankees, whose late, longtime owner George Steinbrenner was a close friend. Trump referenced Steinbrenner on Thursday, saying, “He would do anything to win” before telling the Dodgers’ team owners, “But you’re doing the same thing.”

The president isn’t always so complimentary of teams, though. During a rally in Georgia on Wednesday, he praised the ownership of the local Atlanta Braves and slammed the Mets for their sky-high payroll and losing record.

Trump was joined on stage during that event by former Braves manager Brian Snitker, and Mike Plant, president and CEO of the Braves Development Company.

”You know, the Mets have the highest salary in baseball, and they lose all the time,” Trump said then. "And I’m like, maybe we can steal this guy.”

“There are teams like that, where they never go down,” Trump said. “Then you have other teams — ‘We’re rebuilding.’ They’ve been rebuilding for years. I don’t want to mention teams ’cause I know all the owners. They’re all friends of mine.”

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Republican Steve Hilton launched his general election campaign for California governor Wednesday with a gambit to win over left-leaning voters who dominate the state: Even if they loathe President Donald Trump, he said, they should consider voting for him.

During an event in Los Angeles, against the backdrop of a stinking, scorched food warehouse he described as a symbol of the state’s political incompetence, Hilton rolled out a list of campaign promises clearly aimed at residents buckling under California’s notoriously high cost of living. He vowed to bring the price of gasoline down to $3 a gallon, about half the current cost, cut residents’ utility bills in half, now among the nation’s highest, and eliminate state income taxes on the first $150,000 in earnings.

He blamed the state’s problems — from homelessness to low student test scores — squarely on Democrats, who hold every statewide office and supermajorities in the Legislature. He called Democrats a “rotten regime that has abandoned the working class.”

In his campaign remarks and ads he took out in leading newspapers throughout the state, Hilton addressed his relationship with Trump, who has endorsed him in the race.

“This is not about who you hate in Washington. It’s about what we love about California and what we can do to make California once again the best place anywhere in the country to start and raise a family, to start and run a business,” he said before a small group of supporters. “That’s what this election is about.”

Hilton’s maneuver is meant to create a sliver of distance from Trump without breaking from him. It’s a tacit nod to the political math in California, one of the nation’s most solidly Democratic states. Registered Republicans are outnumbered nearly 2-to-1 by Democratic voters, and a GOP candidate hasn’t won a statewide election since 2006.

Trump is widely unpopular in California outside his loyal conservative base. In 2016, Trump lost to Democrat Hillary Clinton by 30 points; in 2020, he lost to Joe Biden by 29 points; and in 2024, he lost to Kamala Harris by 20 points.

California is regarded as the home of the so-called Trump resistance, where Democrats have effectively used Trump as a foil in campaigns to motivate voters. Last year, Gov. Gavin Newsom essentially nationalized the state’s fight over Proposition 50, which recast U.S. House districts to favor Democrats, by framing it as a confrontation with Trump. The measure notched a 29-point win.

The campaign of Hilton’s Democratic opponent, former U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, scoffed at the notion of Hilton being a change agent.

“Californians already know who Steve Hilton is: Trump’s puppet in California. His campaign is a promise to run our state the way Trump runs the country and we’re not buying it,” campaign spokesman Jonathan Underland said in a statement.

As for Hilton’s pitch that voters who dislike Trump should feel free to consider him in November, Underland said, “Steve Hilton cheers on a president whose illegal war has sent gas prices soaring and illegal tariffs have cost California families more than $2,500 this year alone. You can’t fix the affordability crisis while carrying water for the man causing it.”

In a heavily Democratic state, Hilton’s campaign is hoping his appeal to Democrats and independents will “give voters a permission slip” to look past the letter next to a candidate’s name, even in a nation deeply divided by partisanship.

“You do have a choice if you think that this state is going in the wrong direction,” he told supporters at a kickoff event in Boyle Heights, a Los Angeles neighborhood where residents have been complaining about the stench of rotting food, flies and rodents that followed a fire last month at a cold storage warehouse.

He was accompanied by Gloria Romero, a former Democratic state lawmaker who switched parties in 2024 and is this year’s Republican nominee for lieutenant governor. She delivered her own address in both English and Spanish, with supporters holding “Hilton-Romero” signs in the background.

Becerra, a former state lawmaker, congressman and state attorney general, is heavily favored to win the seat now held by Newsom, a likely 2028 Democratic presidential candidate who is barred by law from seeking a third term. Hilton and Becerra emerged from a chaotic primary election in June that had more than 50 candidates on the ballot.

The race is unfolding at a time when California is facing multiple crises. Despite billions in spending, homelessness remains widespread, especially in larger cities. Multibillion-dollar budget gaps are projected into the future. Home prices remain out of reach for many residents. The home insurance market is in disarray, businesses and residents have been fleeing the state, and residents contend with some of the nation’s highest gas prices, taxes and utility bills.

Making good on his campaign promises won’t be an easy task for Hilton, a former adviser to ex-United Kingdom Prime Minister David Cameron who has never held elective office. The governor doesn’t control the oil or utility markets, but Hilton says he will get rid of mandates, taxes and fees that drive those prices higher. He also would likely need the consent of a Legislature controlled by Democrats to change the state’s income tax structure.

Hilton crowned his campaign kickoff with a 30-second TV ad underscoring the financial challenges for many families.

“Life here has become impossible for anyone who isn’t already rich,” he says. “Let’s fix California.”