STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:
An appeals court is still deciding if the National Guard can stay in Los Angeles under President Trump's control. The president deployed them in response to protests over immigration enforcement, against the wishes of Governor Gavin Newsom and the mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass. But as the speed of individual ICE raids gets faster, it's not clear if the military is even needed. NPR law enforcement correspondent Martin Kaste reports.
MARTIN KASTE, BYLINE: Things are a lot quieter now at the graffiti-scarred federal building in Downtown LA. The main entrance reopened this week. And just inside, Marines sit in swivel chairs, watching people go through the metal detectors for appointments in immigration court.
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTER: Peaceful protest.
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Chanting) Peaceful protest.
KASTE: Around back, there are still a few protesters chanting at a line of stone-faced Marines and Homeland Security officers. But the mood isn't really that hostile. Marco Cota (ph) is wearing a Mexican flag cape and a sign in support of gun rights.
MARCO COTA: I think this is probably just a scare tactic from Trump to kind of keep us quiet. But, I mean, as long as they don't arrest anyone unconstitutionally or shoot anyone without reason, I'm OK with them being here. I know that they're not here because they want to be. They're here 'cause they were ordered.
KASTE: Elsewhere in the city, the military has kept a low profile. The National Guard has been assigned to help protect immigration agents, but in practice, it's become less necessary to have soldiers lining up in defensive barriers.
VLAD CARRASCO: Operations are getting a little bit more faster, and they're in and out.
KASTE: Vlad Carrasco works for CHIRLA, an immigrant advocacy group, and he's been part of its rapid response effort. That means he rushes out to the scenes of reported ICE raids. He says earlier this year, he'd usually get there in time to document their actions. But now, since early June, agents are moving so fast that they're usually gone by the time he gets there.
CARRASCO: They know that it'll likely cause mobilization by the local community if they do stay there for a long time.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #1: Hey. You almost ran me over, homie.
(SOUNDBITE OF CAR HORN BLARING)
KASTE: The rapid response groups have been sharing videos of people confronting ICE - or, in this case, Border Patrol agents, who have recently become more involved in LA.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #2: Hey. You guys are not supposed to be hitting people.
KASTE: This happened in a shopping mall parking lot in Pica Rivera on Tuesday.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON #3: Back up. Back up. Back up.
KASTE: The Trump administration says scenes like this are why the National Guard is here, and they say anyone who impedes lawful immigration enforcement risks prosecution. But to critics of the administration in LA, these raids just feel wrong. Guillermo Torres is with a group called Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice. He goes to immigration court to observe plainclothes ICE agents arresting people after their hearings. And he uses the word, kidnappings.
GUILLERMO TORRES: Because when you have plain clothes, officers not identifying themselves, not a way to identify them, it makes you think of a totalitarian regime. It makes you think of a country where people are kidnapped. And sometimes they don't - not only kidnapped, they disappear.
KASTE: The ACLU of Southern California, in a 2020 class action lawsuit, is challenging ICE agents to identify themselves more clearly. A court has given preliminary approval to a settlement requiring ICE personnel in the LA region to wear clearer insignia. And if they say they're police when trying to get into a home, they have to say, immigration police. But if the settlement takes effect later this summer, that effect may be limited because it would apply only to ICE, not the other federal agencies that have now been drafted into President Trump's plan for mass deportation.
Martin Kaste, NPR News, Los Angeles. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
