Mayor Karen Bass calls for end to federal immigration enforcement in LA

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has called for an end to immigration raids in her city, as the area has been subjected to violent riots over the past few days in response to federal immigration operations in the area.

Bass wrote early Tuesday morning, "Stop the raids. There is a real fear in Los Angeles right now. Parents, workers, grandparents, young people scared to go about their daily lives. We are a city of immigrants. Washington is attacking our people, our neighborhoods and our economy."

In an interview with MSNBC on Monday night, Bass said, "You have a situation like we did in the last trump administration, where kids were afraid to go to school because they weren't sure their parents would be there, where people were afraid to go to work, and you just think about the disruption in families."

She later added that workers being afraid to go to their jobs disrupts "the entire ecosystem" and impacts the city’s economy. "If they're afraid to go to work, you are going to hit our economy in a way that is completely unnecessary. This is a problem that started on Friday morning when the raids happened. This did not need to take place."

Speaking with the outlet on Tuesday morning, Bass said, "until the raids stop, I am going to be concerned about fear and tension in the city."

"So the raids do not help our city. We are a city of immigrants, and there are sectors of the workforce that are dominated by immigrant labor, and so the economy of our city does not need this. We are 12 months away from the World Cup, and we're trying to bring our city together to beautify our city."

She said that the White House "instigated this" by having ICE raids in our city. "They are telling us that they're going to have raids for the next 30 days."

This comes as the city has experienced multiple nights of violence in response to immigration operations in the area. Thousands of National Guard troops and hundreds of Marines have been called into the area to defend federal authorities and facilities. Rioters have been seen attacking law enforcement and setting items, such as autonomous Waymo vehicles, ablaze.