Angelenos Left to Clean Up City After ICE Protests

Residents of Los Angeles are left to clean up the streets after the mayhem caused by the anti-ICE protests that rocked the city. Knewz.com has learned that Los Angeles erupted with protests after the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) carried out large-scale raids across the city and surrounding suburbs and reportedly arrested at least 44 undocumented individuals, many of whom were reportedly long-term residents without criminal records. According to reports, federal agents targeted locations like the Fashion District, Westlake Home Depot, clothing warehouses and Paramount.

Anti-ICE Protests Across Los Angeles

The raids triggered widespread protests throughout the city, with demonstrators blocking highways, setting vehicles ablaze and clashing with federal agents. According to reports, protesters targeted self-driving Waymo cars in several instances, setting them on fire. “By evening, police had issued an unlawful assembly order shutting down several blocks of downtown Los Angeles. Flash bangs echoed out every few seconds into the evening,” reports have mentioned. To deal with the situation, President Donald Trump signed a memorandum ordering the deployment of “2,000 National Guardsmen to address the lawlessness.” In an official letter addressed to Secretary Pete Hegseth, California Governor Gavin Newsom requested to have the National Guard removed from Los Angeles and returned to his command. The governor also called Trump’s order a “complete overreaction.” Federal officers in tactical gear fired tear gas and other nonlethal weapons in Compton and Paramount on Saturday, June 7, with protesters responding by starting a series of small fires that left black char on the streets.

Residents Clean Up the Streets of L.A.

Residents of Los Angeles were left to clean the streets littered with tear gas pellets and other charred and broken detritus left after the altercation between protesters and the National Guard. Ernest Melendrez, a resident of Compton, spent one morning cleaning the streets along with his wife and daughter. Storefronts in his neighborhood were covered in anti-ICE and anti-Trump graffiti. “A Home Depot about a block away from where Melendrez was cleaning was the epicenter of the previous night’s struggle. The following day, it was empty and calm; a lone worker cleaned graffiti off the store’s sign as customers drove in,” reports have mentioned. Launie Melendrez, Ernest’s wife, said she supported peaceful protest, and empathized with the families “being destroyed, that are getting wrangled up. It’s sad.”

Local Businesses Destroyed, Covered in Graffiti

The protests also caused heavy damage to the local businesses in the area. Launie commented on the destruction the anti-ICE movement left in its wake, saying, “The destruction of people’s hard work. This is how these people, their families, take care of themselves. And the destruction of that is not going to help your case.” Ernest weighed in on the matter and said, “I think people have the right idea, just the wrong approach. … Everybody has their own way of coping with stuff, and if nobody is there to help manage their feelings this is what can tend to happen. You need some community support.”

Community Comes Together to Clean Up the Mess

In Compton, the community came together to clean up the remnants of the protests from the streets and local businesses. However, given the magnitude of the damage caused, they certainly were not happy to be on cleaning duty. Melendrez’s daughter, Elaina Angel, criticized the political leaders and law enforcement officials of Compton for not lending a helping hand to the community. “They don’t care about Compton. … But I don’t think they were counting on us to come out and clean it up,” she said.

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