Federal immigration enforcement in Los Angeles has reached a boiling point this August, with a dramatic uptick in raids, mounting legal battles, and heated protests that have left the city’s immigrant communities on edge. Over the past week, federal agents have executed a series of high-profile operations targeting day laborers at various Home Depot locations, sparking fierce criticism from advocates and city officials who question whether these actions violate a recent federal court order banning racial profiling in immigration enforcement. The controversy has not only ignited public outrage but also drawn the attention of the highest levels of the U.S. legal system.
The tension began to escalate on Wednesday, August 6, 2025, when Customs and Border Protection agents launched what they dubbed “Operation Trojan Horse” at a Home Depot in Westlake, Los Angeles. According to the Los Angeles Times, agents concealed themselves inside a rented Penske truck before bursting out to detain day laborers in the store’s parking lot. Sixteen people were arrested in this operation, with authorities stating that at least six of those detained had “significant immigration and criminal histories.” This tactic, which some described as a “Trojan horse sweep,” set the tone for a week of aggressive enforcement.
Just two days later, on August 8, federal agents conducted two more raids outside a Home Depot in Van Nuys—one at 7:35 a.m. and another at 11:50 a.m. Maegan Ortiz, executive director of the Instituto de Educación Popular del Sur de California, whose organization runs a resource center for day laborers directly next to the store, told the Los Angeles Times that the agents descended in unmarked white vans, “grabbing people first and then asking people for ID.” Ortiz said her organization confirmed 10 people were taken during these actions.
The Department of Homeland Security later confirmed that seven undocumented immigrants from Guatemala, Honduras, and Mexico were arrested in the Van Nuys raids. Of those, four had criminal records, including charges such as driving under the influence, disorderly conduct, and failing to comply with previous removal orders. Tricia McLaughlin, a spokesperson for Homeland Security, defended the actions, stating, “What makes someone a target for immigration enforcement is if they are illegally in the U.S.—not their skin color, race, or ethnicity.” She added, “America’s brave men and women are removing murderers, MS-13 gang members, pedophiles, rapists—truly the worst of the worst from Golden State communities.”
Yet critics argue that the raids are anything but targeted. Ortiz accused agents of using people’s race, language, jobs, and location as proxies for probable cause, in direct contradiction of a July 11, 2025, temporary restraining order (TRO) issued by a U.S. district judge. That order prohibits federal agents in Southern and Central California from targeting individuals based on race, language, vocation, or location without reasonable suspicion of illegal presence. “This is a clear violation of the TRO,” Ortiz asserted. “This is, in my opinion, contempt.”
On August 9, agents reportedly conducted another raid near a Home Depot in Cypress Park, with about six more arrests. Ortiz said she was aware of a half-dozen arrests during that incident, though details remained scarce. Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Times reported that similar enforcement actions had taken place at a car wash in Lakewood and another Home Depot in Hollywood earlier in the week.
The legal stakes are high. The TRO, which immigration advocates hoped would halt indiscriminate sweeps at places like Home Depot and car washes, was upheld by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on August 1, 2025. The Trump administration quickly appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court, arguing that the ruling “threatens to upend immigration officials’ ability to enforce the immigration laws in the Central District of California by hanging the prospect of contempt over every investigative stop.” Mark Rosenbaum of Public Counsel, a legal group challenging recent arrests, told the Los Angeles Times, “The brief is asking the Supreme Court to bless open season on anybody in Los Angeles who happens to be Latino.”
As enforcement actions intensified, so did public backlash. On the night of August 8, protests erupted at the Federal Building in downtown Los Angeles. Demonstrators, angered by the raids, gathered in large numbers. The protest escalated to the point that the Los Angeles Police Department declared an unlawful assembly around 9 p.m., citing “the aggressive nature of a few demonstrators.” Additional police units were deployed to disperse the crowd. According to Newsmax, similar protests in June 2025 had resulted in nearly $20 million in damages after full-scale rioting broke out in the city.
City officials have responded with concern and calls for accountability. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass issued a statement to the Los Angeles Times on Friday: “Rounding people up who are just trying to work and put food on the table doesn’t make anyone safer. The City is investigating and exploring all legal options. Our communities deserve dignity and to not be harassed.” City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto echoed these sentiments at a news conference, noting that video evidence from the Westlake raid “appeared to show the Trump administration violating the court’s temporary restraining order” and promising a thorough investigation. She added, “We are very cognizant of the fact that that Penske truck seemed to be engaged in a lot of the exact behavior that the language of the TRO specifically prohibits.”
Should the city attorney’s office conclude that the order was violated, Feldstein Soto said, it may take steps to identify the agents involved or push for stronger legal protections. Meanwhile, a Penske spokesperson told the Los Angeles Times that the company was unaware its trucks would be used in the operation and had not authorized such use by the federal government.
Federal law enforcement, for its part, maintains that all operations are conducted within the bounds of the law. U.S. Border Patrol Sector Chief Greg Bovino told Fox News, “The Border Patrol, CBP and our allied law enforcement partners, when we conduct law enforcement operations, we always abide by the law—whether it’s a temporary restraining order ... whether it’s applicable federal laws, rules and regulations, and most especially the Constitution of the United States.” Bovino insisted that Operation Trojan Horse was “a targeted operation based on pre-intelligence, not an indiscriminate sweep,” adding, “We knew there was criminal activity afoot there for a long time, so we’re not going to ignore criminal activity. We’re going after it, and that’s exactly what we did.”
Yet, a review of Immigration and Customs Enforcement data by the Los Angeles Times revealed that, of the 2,031 people arrested in Southern California from June 1 to June 26, 2025, about 68% had no criminal convictions and 57% had never even been charged with a crime. This statistic has fueled further criticism of the raids as indiscriminate and overly broad.
Acting U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli in the Central District of California made clear in a statement this week that federal authorities have no intention of backing down. “For those who thought immigration enforcement had stopped in Southern California, think again. The enforcement of federal law is not negotiable, and there are no sanctuaries from the reach of the federal government.”
The battle over immigration enforcement in Los Angeles now sits at the crossroads of law, politics, and human dignity—with the Supreme Court poised to weigh in, local officials vowing to investigate, and immigrant communities bracing for what comes next.