Dozens of people were arrested Friday in multiple immigration enforcement operations involving Homeland Security Investigations, the DEA and the FBI that took place across Los Angeles. The arrests prompted citywide protests.
The raids occurred in the Westlake District, downtown L.A., and South L.A., CBS News Los Angeles learned.
Yasmeen Pitts O’Keefe, a spokesperson for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, told CBS News Los Angeles in a statement that about 44 people were arrested in the operations.
“ICE officers and agents alongside partner law enforcement agencies, executed four federal search warrants at three locations in central Los Angeles,” O’Keefe said. “Approximately 44 people were administratively arrested and one arrest for obstruction. The investigation remains ongoing, updates will follow as appropriate.”
The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, or CHIRLA, a nonprofit immigrant rights advocacy group, also estimated that at least 45 people had been taken into custody.
And in a previous statement, O’Keefe said federal agents were executing search warrants in downtown L.A. related to the “harboring of people illegally in the country.”
Witness video and SKYCal aerial footage showed federal agents detaining people outside a Home Depot in the Westlake District, as well as outside a business in downtown LA.
KCAL News 
During one of Friday’s operations, Service Employees International Union-United Service Workers West says its president, David Huerta, was taken into custody. In a press release, the union said that he was injured during the arrest and treated at Los Angeles General Hospital before being discharged and taken to the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown LA.
“What happened to me is not about me; This is about something much bigger. This is about how we as a community stand together and resist the injustice that’s happening. Hard-working people, and members of our family and our community, are being treated like criminals,” Huerta said in a statement afterwards. “We all collectively have to object to this madness because this is not justice. This is injustice. And we all have to stand on the right side of justice.”
U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli addressed Huerta’s arrest in a post on X.
“Federal agents were executing a lawful judicial warrant at a LA worksite this morning when David Huerta deliberately obstructed their access by blocking their vehicle. He was arrested for interfering with federal officers and will face arraignment in federal court on Monday,” the post said.
Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell said the department was aware that ICE was conducting operations in the city, but that it is not involved and will not assist in any sort of mass deportations.
“I’m aware that these actions cause anxiety for many Angelenos, so I want to make it clear: the LAPD is not involved in civil immigration enforcement,” McDonnell said.
Sheriff Robert Luna echoed the sentiment, stating that the LA County Sheriff’s Department does not enforce civil immigration law and that their goal is “enforcing state and local laws to ensure safety and well-being of our diverse communities throughout Los Angeles County.”
SKYCal footage over downtown LA shows both FBI and HSI agents responding as at least two people were detained outside Ambiance Apparel on Towne Avenue. A crowd of people and some protesters gathered outside the location as the alleged operation was being carried out.
A third immigration operation also unfolded at a second Ambiance building in South L.A. near 15th Street and Santa Fe Avenue.
Damian Dovarganes / AP 
The FBI, in a separate statement, said it was supporting the Department of Homeland Security in immigration operations all across the country.
“As we have been asked to do, we are sending Agents to participate in these immigration enforcement efforts. That includes assisting in cities where major operations are already underway and where we have special agents embedded on operational teams with DHS,” the FBI said.
CBS News Los Angeles has reached out to Ambiance for comment and is waiting for a response.
Protests break out in wake of operations
Later in the day, protesters began to march through the streets of downtown Los Angeles, stopping just off the side of the 101 Freeway on Aliso Street. They could be seen waving flags and holding signs criticizing ICE.
The crowd continued to move throughout the night, prompting LAPD officers to issue a dispersal order. Officers dressed in riot gear began to move towards the crowd in a skirmish line as the demonstrators threw projectiles in their direction.
Officers could be seen firing less-than-lethal rounds, like pepper-filled projectiles, into the crowd with CBS News Los Angeles reporters at the scene and SKYCAL overhead.
At around 8 p.m., the crowd started to thin with LAPD officers blocking their path to the detention center. Traffic in the area was also impacted as both police and demonstrators crowded the streets near the 101 Freeway.
Government leaders respond
In a statement shared Friday to social media, L.A. Mayor Karen Bass said that city officials Friday morning “received reports of federal immigration enforcement actions in multiple locations in Los Angeles. As Mayor of a proud city of immigrants, who contribute to our city in so many ways, I am deeply angered by what has taken place. These tactics sow terror in our communities and disrupt basic principles of safety in our city. My Office is in close coordination with immigrant rights community organization. We will not stand for this.”
Democratic Sen. Alex Padilla of California also condemned the operations in a statement, saying that “the ICE raids across Los Angeles today are a continuation of a disturbing pattern of extreme and cruel immigration enforcement operations across the country. These indiscriminate raids prove once again that the Trump administration cares about nothing but instilling harm and fear in our communities to drive immigrants into the shadows. It will not work.”
Meanwhile, community leaders and activists converged in downtown L.A. on Friday afternoon for a press conference on the operations.
“Our community is under attack and is being terrorized. These are workers, these are fathers, these are mothers, and this has to stop. Immigration enforcement that is terrorizing our families throughout this country and picking up our people that we love must stop now,” said Angelica Salas, executive director of CHIRLA.
Earlier Friday, CBS News learned that some allegedly undocumented immigrants were being taken into custody and brought to the basement of the Edward R. Roybal Federal Building in Los Angeles during ICE check-ins. Some of these people were held overnight, immigration lawyers and family members said.
Legal representatives said that detainees were being kept in rooms with no beds or blankets and that they had limited access to food and water.