America vs. ICE: Why Protests Against Immigration Police Erupted in Los Angeles

According to Western media reports, Donald Trump wants to create the so-called “Repatriation Office.” The Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Immigration at the State Department is now supposed to take control of immigrant deportations.

In a notification to Congress from the State Department, it is stated that the new agency will focus on “tracking repatriation,” will “actively promote voluntary return of immigrants” to other countries, and will begin working jointly with the Department of Homeland Security and other law enforcement agencies “to advance the president's immigration agenda.”

This fits well with both the Trump administration's immigration policy and its plans to restructure the State Department. According to the plan presented to Congress this week, the State Department plans to eliminate or merge over 300 offices and bureaus, resulting in the dismissal of more than 3,400 employees. In total, about 45% of departments in the State Department may be merged or completely eliminated.

Returning to Trump's immigration policy, this is far from the first attempt to reverse immigration flows. We have already reported how the Trump administration relaunched the CBP One app, which previously helped asylum seekers legally cross the U.S. border. Now it is intended to assist illegal immigrants in self-deportation and has been renamed “CBP Home.” However, this was only the beginning of a long list of restrictions and tightening immigration policies that hit not only illegal immigrants but also law-abiding immigrants.

For example, American media report that the U.S. may stop issuing work permits to asylum seekers. Previously, immigrants had the opportunity to work legally and pay taxes while awaiting the review of their cases. This is especially important considering that the wait for such a review can stretch for years, and in some cases exceed ten years.

That is why since the 1990s, U.S. legislation has allowed immigration authorities to issue work permits to asylum seekers whose cases have been under review for at least 180 days. Typically, applicants could request a permit 150 days after filing their application and receive it 30 days later.

Thus, proclaiming itself a fighter against illegal immigration, the new administration is effectively pushing people legally residing in the U.S. to work illegally.

Another innovation has been restrictions and entry bans to the U.S. for citizens of several countries. According to Trump's decree, a full entry ban awaits citizens from 12 countries: Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen. Partial restrictions will affect citizens of seven countries: Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela. The decree provides exceptions for lawful permanent residents, holders of valid visas, certain visa categories, and individuals whose entry aligns with U.S. national interests.

While immigrants' rights are rapidly shrinking, the rights of immigration police (ICE), on the contrary, are constantly expanding. As USA Today reports, federal officials are developing new software to track immigrants for ICE – ImmigrationOS. The contract for its development worth $30 million was awarded without competition to Palantir Technologies – the brainchild of Peter Thiel, a major Republican donor and friend of Vice President J.D. Vance and Elon Musk. Human rights organizations warn that systems like ImmigrationOS pose a serious threat not only to immigrants. In their view, such a system can easily be adapted to surveil all Americans without exception.

Human rights advocates note that the controversial bill One Big Beautiful Bill will also include restrictions on social benefits for “illegal immigrants.” At the same time, it allocates tens of billions of dollars to expand ICE infrastructure and requires hiring at least 10,000 new ICE agents and 8,000 customs officers.

During Trump's first term, ICE became notorious for brutal raids and, essentially, manhunts for illegal immigrants. People could be detained on the streets, at home, at work, or at universities.

Victims of these raids were often people legally residing in the U.S. and even green card holders – if they did not have documents proving their legal status in the U.S. with them.

In practice, the only document residents constantly carry is a driver's license, which does not indicate whether a person crossed the border legally. In democratic states, such licenses and even IDs can be issued to illegal immigrants. Therefore, it is unsurprising that victims of raids included people with various legal statuses. Confirmation of their legal presence in the U.S. could take days or even weeks.

Another notorious ICE practice was family separation, where children were taken from illegal immigrants and kept in cages under terrible conditions. Journalists reported that from mid-April to June 2018, about 2,300 children were separated from their parents, with up to 20 children sleeping on the floor in one cage.

After the scandal, Trump signed an order in June 2018 banning family separation of immigrants, but it did not reduce the detention time for their parents. Human rights advocates rightly noted that the order allowed sending children to immigrant detention centers with their parents, effectively sending them to jail. However, in practice, border guards allowed at least one parent with the child to pass without detention, and often the entire family.

In response to this practice, after his election, Donald Trump restored the policy of detaining families with children at the border. Under new rules, immigrant families crossing the border with children will be sent to tent centers for interviews on fear of persecution. If they cannot prove the need for asylum, they will be deported through an expedited process.

“Most” has already reported that conditions in such camps and detention centers are very harsh. People may sleep on the floor in overcrowded cells, wrapped in foil, go weeks without medical care, suffer from sleep problems due to noise, cold, or heat. Recently, a high-ranking ICE official spoke about the terrible conditions for detainees transferred to a U.S. military base in the African country Djibouti after a federal judge blocked their deportation to South Sudan. According to her, the facility was simply not equipped for housing people, worsening risks of malaria and other diseases.

It is no surprise that illegal and even regular immigrants are terrified of ending up in ICE’s hands.

Ultimately, recent immigration police raids last week sparked intense protests in Los Angeles, leading to clashes between demonstrators and immigration officers. Protesters threw various objects at federal agents and shot firecrackers at them. The agents responded with stun grenades and tear gas and detained about 150 protesters.

Amid the protests, Donald Trump deployed the National Guard to Los Angeles despite objections from the California governor, and the Pentagon announced readiness to use the army to suppress the unrest. Some journalists note that Trump was prepared for the riots and even desired them to demonstrate to his voters his ability to restore law and order.

However, not all officials supported Trump’s fight. For example, the authorities of Glendale, California, terminated an agreement with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and ICE, which are federal agencies, regarding housing detained federal immigrants at the Glendale police station. They emphasized that “the Glendale Police Department has not been involved in enforcing immigration laws and will not do so in the future.“

In the fight against illegal immigrants, Trump faced opposition from a large part of American society: diasporas, human rights activists, liberals, and even local authorities. It is still unknown how this confrontation will end, but it is already clear that it deepens division and crisis in the U.S.

Main photo – protesters against U.S. immigration police (ICE), Los Angeles, June 8, 2025. Source: YouTube