Mayor Bass calls for end to ICE 'reign of terror' in Los Angeles

Source: Politico

07/20/2025 12:52 PM EDT


Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass on Sunday called for an end to what she described as a “reign of terror” in the city, referring to the ongoing masked ICE raids and military presence in the city under the Trump administration. In an interview with ABC’s Martha Raddatz on “This Week,” the California Democrat said a series of high-profile raids and arrests — including of a labor union leader — and the deployment of thousands of National Guard troops has only spread fear throughout Los Angeles.

“When the raids started, fear spread,” Bass said in the interview. “The masked men in unmarked cars, no license plate, no real uniforms, jumping out of cars with rifles and snatching people off the street, leading a lot of people to think maybe kidnappings were taking place.”

Last month, Trump ordered 4,000 National Guard members and 700 Marines to Los Angeles to assist law enforcement with protests that erupted in response to the ICE raids. Both Bass and California Gov. Gavin Newsom at the time said the Guard and Marines were not needed.

Bass called for people to be held accountable for violent behavior in some of the protests but said their actions “did not warrant military intervention.” “It did not warrant the Marines coming into our city with basically no real mission but just a show of force. Los Angeles is 500 square miles. The disturbances took place in maybe two square miles,” Bass said.

Read more: https://www.politico.com/news/2025/07/20/karen-bass-ice-deployed-los-angeles-00464913