❓WHAT HAPPENED: U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agents initiated an immigration enforcement action on Thursday outside a venue in downtown Los Angeles, California, where Governor Gavin Newsom (D) was holding a political rally.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP), Gov. Gavin Newsom, Prof. Sara Sadhwani, and illegal immigrants.
📍WHEN & WHERE: Los Angeles, California, on Thursday, August 14, 2025.
💬KEY QUOTE: “We have witnessed masked gunmen kidnapping our neighbors off the streets—and my understanding is they’re outside waiting to do it again.” — Sara Sadhwani, a former California redistricting commission member
🎯IMPACT: The enforcement action saw several arrests for suspected immigration law violations.
U.S. Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agents initiated an immigration enforcement action on Thursday outside a venue in downtown Los Angeles where Governor Gavin Newsom (D-CA) was holding a political rally in support of his plan to further gerrymander the state’s congressional districts in favor of Democrats. The enforcement action saw several arrests for suspected immigration law violations.
BREAKING: Border Patrol has arrived outside of the downtown LA venue where Governor Newsom will be holding a press conference today & appears to have made at least one arrest. Chief Greg Bovino tells @FOXLA cameraman:
“We’re here making Los Angeles a safer place, since we don’t… pic.twitter.com/RqrnnPu48U
— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) August 14, 2025
Inside the Democrat rally, Sara Sadhwani—a former California redistricting commission member and Pomona College political science professor—hysterically alerted attendees to the presence of CBP agents outside. “But these are extraordinary times, and extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures. We have witnessed masked gunmen kidnapping our neighbors off the streets—and my understanding is they’re outside waiting to do it again,” Sadhwani declared.
🚨 At the @GavinNewsom election rigging rally, speaker @sarasadhwani (former redistricting commission member) warned that “masked gunmen” are you”waiting outside” the arena where they’re speaking to “kidnap” people. Referring to the border patrol 👇 https://t.co/xU0a9KfGtS pic.twitter.com/0KpMzCdwGA
— Houman David Hemmati, MD, PhD (@houmanhemmati) August 14, 2025
Meanwhile, Gov. Newsom responded to the CBP enforcement action in a social media post on X (formerly Twitter). “Donald Trump has sent armed agents to our rally,” Newsom wrote, adding, “We will not be intimidated.”
In recent weeks, Los Angeles has seen a series of large-scale CBP and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids, though the actions currently require approval from U.S. District Court Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong per a court order she issued in July. The Trump administration has appealed Frimpong’s order to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Notably, the Los Angeles enforcement action comes just hours after the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) issued a directive instructing officers to cooperate with federal immigration agents in the nation’s capital. On August 11, President Donald J. Trump announced he had signed an Executive Order temporarily federalizing the MPD—and bolstering their ranks with federal law enforcement—as part of a sweeping crackdown on violent crime in the District of Columbia.
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