Actor and former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has weighed in on the recent Los Angeles immigration protests that have since sparked similar movements across the nation.
Speaking to Access Hollywood at Wednesday’s season two premiere of his Netflix action series FUBAR, the former Republican politician, 77, was asked his thoughts on the “current unrest happening in Los Angeles.”
“I hope that the locals and the state and the federal government work together,” Schwarzenegger said, calling on bipartisan cooperation to bring immigration reform.
“That the democrats and the republicans work together to solve this issue because I think we need immigration reform, and I think they can do it,” he added. “If there’s a will there’s a way. I just encourage them to work this out.”
During an appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! that aired the same day, Schwarzenegger argued that “the democrats and the Republican’s have no interest in solving this problem [immigration] because they use that to raise money and so what they do is they just keep pointing the finger at each other and then they’re surpised if all of a sudden we are using our ‘middle finger’ on them.”
“This wouldn’t happen if the politicians would do their work. Think about it,” he said of the protests. “It’s all bogus because I think we can do better than that.”
The Austrian-born Terminator star added: “The whole thing is to do with deportation. Of course, this is a very sensitive subject for me because when I came over to this country, I was living in fear of being deported.”
Schwarzenegger, who endorsed Kamala Harris in the 2024 election, served as the Republican Governor of California from 2003 to 2011.
“I will always be an American before I am a Republican,” he declared.
Over the weekend, as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers conducted raids in LA, anti-ICE protests erupted across the city, causing days of civil unrest. To quell the protests, President Donald Trump deployed the National Guard, a decision that he is now being sued for by California Governor Gavin Newsom, who claims Trump acted “illegally.”
While LA remains the epicenter of unrest, The Independent found that demonstrations had flared up in at least 37 cities across the U.S. Hundreds of arrests had been made nationwide by Thursday.
Approximately 60 protesters, including juveniles, were arrested Sunday in San Fransico after a group began to vandalize property. Over on the East Coast, around 20 anti-ICE protesters were also led away by police in New York, following demonstrations in lower Manhattan.
