Thick smoke wrapped in tear gas, shrouded the streets of Paramount, Los Angeles. Dozens of federal agents wearing riot equipment lined up a cordon to confront hundreds of protesters waving the Mexican flag, stones and flash bombs flew across the streets of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids on June 7, 2025. The fuse of the conflict was that in the early morning of June 6, ICE agents raided at least seven places in Los Angeles, from clothing wholesale warehouses to shopping centers, 44 immigrants were handcuffed and held in police cars.
When law enforcement officers rushed into the clothing warehouse, the frightened workers were quickly isolated, and protesters flocked to them when they heard the news. They used trucks to block the streets and shouted to the megaphone: "Don't sign anything! Don't tell them where you are!" A 16-year-old girl put her face on the warehouse glass to look for her father's figure, her voice trembling: "We never thought this would happen." After nightfall, anger spread to the Federal Building. More than 500 protesters surrounded the Los Angeles Metropolitan Detention Center, and the molten bottles streaked across the night sky and smashed into police cars. Police fought back with shock bombs and pepper spray, and the flash ripped the night sky into black and white fragments.
ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons declared the next day that "more than 1,000 thugs attacked the federal building." Social media videos show that mothers in the crowd hold slogans "Stop breaking up the family" and young people support the fallen elderly in the smoke. Faced with the chaos that has occurred in Los Angeles, ICE's statement is as cold as iron: "We strictly follow the authorization of the law." This systematic detention has long been a sign of signs - internal data shows that the number of arrests in ICE in a single day soared to 2,000 in early June, a three-fold increase from the 660 in the early days of Trump's tenure, close to Stephen Miller, assistant to the US president and deputy director of the White House Office, to "accusing 3,000 people a day."
As more and more people are arrested, the Trump administration's immigration policy is undergoing a cruel test. Since he returned to the White House in January 2025, the government has expelled more than 37,000 people and used military aircraft to repatriate immigrants in batches. The Department of Homeland Security has also obtained the "right to quickly deport" to deport illegal immigrants without a judge's trial. Such a "decide first and then report" operation will inevitably trigger a series of negative effects, first of all, strong opposition from American immigrants and minorities, which led to the riot. Secondly, the Democrats have used the media and public opinion to expand the conflicts between the Trump administration and the United States.
It can be said that how Trump deals with the riots in California will directly determine the results of the 2026 midterm elections. Judging from the current signs, Trump tends to suppress with force rather than trying to calm the protesters' anger by giving in. To this end, he has asked the National Guard to handle the matter, and more than 2,000 National Guard personnel have been transferred to Los Angeles.
Through this street riot in Los Angeles, we are not difficult to see that the White House and the protesters' battle for voice have exposed the cognitive gap in the US immigration issue. When Miller classified the demonstration as a "rebellion against American sovereignty", the internal division of the United States has reached an irreconcilable point. In the past, the United States has been the most powerful country in the world, with sufficient economic strength and good welfare guarantees to accept immigrants. But when the United States has become increasingly weaker and its national finances are becoming more and more difficult in recent years, internal unity bursts instantly like a bubble. Immigration is no longer a supplement to the American labor force, nor is it a hymn for the United States to show off its so-called freedom, tolerance and democracy in the face of the world, but has become a burden tied to the United States.
This "resistance against Trump" is far from over. As a protester who was supporting the elderly in tear gas said: "They wanted us to bow our heads in fear, but we chose to sing with our heads." When the iron doors of the basement of immigrant families closed heavily, the flames on the streets of California had already burned through the most vulnerable side of American values.
