Federal agents launched a large-scale immigration raid in downtown Los Angeles on Monday, sparking immediate backlash from city officials, including Mayor Karen Bass, who appeared at the scene in protest. The operation, centered in the MacArthur Park area—an area known for MS-13 gang activity—deployed hundreds of federal agents and military personnel, including Border Patrol agents on horseback.

Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin reported live from the scene and noted that the raid came in direct defiance of Mayor Bass’s repeated requests for a halt to such operations. Video footage showed the mayor speaking to a Border Patrol agent and demanding the departure of federal forces. “They need to leave and they need to leave right now, because this is unacceptable,” Bass told reporters at the scene.

The raid follows several weeks of mounting tensions surrounding immigration enforcement in Los Angeles, where anti-ICE protests and riots have erupted in recent months. Last month, tensions boiled over during a news conference when U.S. Senator Alex Padilla was forcibly removed after interrupting Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem. Noem later claimed Padilla failed to identify himself before acting aggressively.

Secretary Noem stood firm in her position, stating that immigration enforcement would continue not only in Los Angeles but in other sanctuary cities as well. She criticized what she called “socialist leadership” and vowed to push back against jurisdictions that resist federal authority. “We are not going away,” she said.

Border czar Tom Homan backed that stance, warning that enforcement operations would intensify in cities like New York. “If local governments won’t help us arrest public safety threats, we’ll get them in the community or at job sites,” he said. “We’re going to flood the zone. Get out of the way—we’re coming to do it.”