We’re now learning why the left is so ardently and desperately clinging to its narrative that it’s Donald Trump, the president of the United States, who was responsible for starting the L.A. riots. They accuse him of creating “chaos” by enforcing U.S. immigration law. But, as with all the left’s other riots, this, too, is based on a lie.
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You’ll want to sit down for this one.
The protests that turned into riots were intentionally touched off Friday after a union boss was arrested at what he and his buddies interpreted to be an ICE raid. You can read about what happened to David Huerta, the boss of SEIU, when he interfered (you’ll see the video) with the FBI and DHS agents in this story More Taxpayer-Paid Protests Threatened After Arrest of Democrat Money Man for Blocking ICE.
What Huerta apparently didn’t know, and likely didn’t care, was that the feds were doing something else completely when the union boss and Democrat bag man stood in front of a government vehicle to stop the criminal bust, chanting anti-ICE slogans. I wrote about it in this story SEIU Union Boss Charged With ‘Impeding’ L.A. ‘ICE’ Bust—But How Did He Know About It in the First Place?
When the feds served a criminal warrant on a business in L.A.’s garment district, however, they weren’t there to arrest illegal aliens; they were after a business owner who allegedly hadn’t paid millions of dollars in taxes and tariffs and was part of an investigation into possible drug cartel activity.
Border Czar Tom Homan told L.A. radio host John Kobylt that the bust was over a “criminal conspiracy investigation involving money laundering, tax evasion, and customs fraud where one of the companies didn’t declare over $80 million in criminal imports and failed to pay $17 million in taxes and tariffs.” He told the KFI host that, “It was a criminal investigation and while we served a criminal warrant, we arrested about 40 illegal aliens.”
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The investigation is part of a wider investigation into cartel activities in Los Angeles.
Border Czar Tom Homan clarified today that the so-called “ICE raids,” which sparked riots in LA, were tied to criminal investigations involving various offenses, including a money-laundering conspiracy linked to cartel activity, not routine immigration enforcement actions. pic.twitter.com/vb3vsdDHXN
— Laura Powell (@LauraPowellEsq) June 9, 2025
Put another way, the left is rioting in support of Mexican drug cartels.
They may not know it, but rest assured, they don’t care.
Homan said they’d taken a lot of bad people off the streets, for whom the left is also rioting in support.
We arrested a murderer. We arrested several child sex predators. We arrested a rapist. We arrested someone who convicted of armed robbery. We arrested a Vietnamese national who murdered two teenagers at a graduation party. We made Los Angeles safer and people don’t want to hear that, they just want … to take action against ICE officers.
They don’t want immigration enforcement but I’ve got news for them. We’re going to do it. We’re doing it today. We’re going to do it tomorrow. We’re going to do it every day.
The U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, Bill Essayli, told Kobylt that because they had a criminal warrant to search the premises, they’re allowed to question and detain everyone. And they did.
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They took more than 40 illegal aliens into custody.
It’s an investigation on the employer [of the apparel company], and so we have probable cause of the crimes being committed by the employer there. But when you execute a search warrant, you’re allowed to detain everyone on the premises, and everyone there unlawfully was processed administratively and subject to removal
I don’t know how people somehow get this idea that somehow if you’re here illegally some sort of protection. There is no protection at Home Depot, there is not protection at your workplace, you are subject to removal at any time.
The left got Saturday’s “Home Depot raid” in Paramount wrong, too, Essayli says.
Because of Friday’s events riling up protesters, the U.S. attorney said they called in for backup for Saturday. Hundreds of border patrol agents came to L.A. to provide security for Saturday’s warrant service. Border Patrol agents mustered at a facility that was right next to a Home Depot in Paramount, which was reported by the left as a raid on the store.
Other Home Depot parking lots were later swept by ICE, which arrested people with fake documents.
On Saturday, however, Essayli says protesters instantly showed up, which he thinks is hinky. He described the actions as “orchestrated and organized and ready-to-go” at the bust. He said, “That’s what set everything [the riots] off after that.”
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Things were so dire during the pushback from protesters and rioters nearby as they served warrants that they asked the LAPD for backup. It took the department two hours to come help.
An Instagram account, Defend the LAPD, got a tip that Mayor Karen Bass issued a stand-down order, but there’s been no other corroboration of that story. Bass’s antipathy toward the cops and immigration enforcement is well known, so it was easy to believe.
Essayli told KFI:
Reinforcements were called in and Saturday we had hundreds of Border Patrol agents up here to continue our operations They were staging in Paramount—there’s a facility next to the Home Depot—when we were staging someone spotted them and reported that we were raiding the home depot and that launched the next wave of attacks.
We were much better prepared on Saturday. They held the perimeter, they fought back, they shot so much gas and less lethals that we had to bring in a Black Hawk helicopter to resupply them in the middle of this operation.
The rationale for the rioters was widespread ICE raids. The so-called ICE raids were, in fact, an investigation of cartel activities, but Essayli says the reason behind their activities won’t matter.
Now it doesn’t matter what the reason is. Now you’ve got the Antifas, the agitators, the professional rioters, and it’s go-time for them. That’s why the president has called in and activated the National Guard. Newsom, I don’t know what he’s watching in his winery, but he should turn on the TV. It is not in control. The city is out of control. And the president is going to restore law and order.
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If what the feds say is true, then Gov. Gavin Newsom, Mayor Karen Bass, and the entire leftist industrial complex, which is supported by U.S. tax dollars, as I reported in Who’s Paying for the Violent L.A. Protests Against ICE? You Are, are supporting riots while castigating the feds going after the illegal drug cartels.
That’s a campaign ad I’d love to see.
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