As tense anti-ICE protests in Los Angeles enter their fourth day, federal officers have ramped up law enforcement’s response – and have added one protester to the FBI’s ‘Most Wanted list.’
The unidentified demonstrator has been accused of assaulting a federal officer and damaging government property during Saturday’s protest in Paramount, a city 30 miles south of Los Angeles.
The suspect allegedly threw rocks at law enforcement on Alondra Boulevard around 3:30 p.m. Saturday, “injuring a federal officer and damaging government vehicles,” according to the FBI’s Los Angeles field office. It was not immediately clear whether the officer was injured or the extent of the damage.
Photos shared by the FBI show a man wearing a patterned neck gaiter, a baseball hat and a Zacatecas baseball jersey.
In some of the images, the suspect is on a motorcycle, donning a helmet and reflective sunglasses. In one image, he is seen holding a Mexican flag, which has become a prominent symbol during the protests.
Another image shows the suspect wearing his motorcycle helmet, standing above a pile of garbage that is on fire.
According to the FBI, the man should be considered armed and dangerous.
The FBI is offering a reward of up to $50,000 for information leading to the identification, arrest and conviction of the man.
The FBI’s ‘Most Wanted list’ is a tool for helping the public identify dangerous fugitives. The agency has several ‘Most Wanted lists,’ including the Ten Most Wanted, Fugitives, Terrorism and those they are seeking information on, like the suspect in the Los Angeles protest.
Protests in Los Angeles ramped up over the weekend as hordes of demonstrators took to the streets against the Trump administration’s immigration raids and deployment of the National Guard. Protesters blocked off a major freeway Sunday and set self-driving cars on fire, while law enforcement used tear gas, rubber bullets and flash bangs to attempt to control the crowds.
At Trump’s order, 2,000 National Guard troops descended on the city Sunday morning, less than two days after protests first erupted, leaving California Governor Gavin Newsom urging the president to withdraw his order.
Newsom called the move “purposefully inflammatory” and said it would “only escalate tensions.” He later lambasted Trump for acting like a “dictator,” prompting the president to fire back that the governor and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass were doing an “absolutely horrible job.”
Several dozen people were arrested throughout the weekend, including one on Sunday for allegedly throwing a Molotov cocktail at police. Another was taken into custody for ramming a motorcycle into a line of officers. During a late night press briefing Sunday, LAPD Chief Jim MacDonnell warned the situation was “getting increasingly worse and more violent” amidst reports of looting downtown.
Clashes continued into Monday morning even after police declared the whole of downtown Los Angeles an unlawful assembly area. Tensions also hit a boiling point between Newsom and Trump, with the president boldly saying that if it were up to him, he would arrest Newsom over the unrest.
When asked how Border Czar Tom Homan should respond to Newsom’s taunts to come take him into custody, Trump said, “I would do it if I were Tom; I think it’s great. Gavin likes the publicity.”
Meanwhile, Newsom filed a lawsuit against Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, saying Trump “flamed the fires and illegally acted to federalize the National Guard.”
Newsom noted that Trump’s memorandum leaves open the possibility of using both the National Guard and active duty military to squash protests.
“It will allow him to go into ANY STATE and do the same thing,” Newsom said. “We’re suing him.”
The state’s attorney general, Robert Bonta, said he was working with Newsom to ask the courts to “set aside the president’s unlawful action federalizing the California National Guard.”
In a statement, Bonta called Trump’s order “unnecessary and counterproductive” as well as “deeply unfair to the members of the National Guard who are hard at work every day protecting our state, preparing for and responding to emergencies, and training so that, if called, they can fight our nation’s wars.”
“The President is trying to manufacture chaos and crisis on the ground for his own political ends. Federalizing the California National Guard is an abuse of the President’s authority under the law – and not one we take lightly. We’re asking a court to put a stop to the unlawful, unprecedented order,” he added.
White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson hit back at Newsom claiming the lawsuit was “baseless” and “meant to score political points with his left-wing base.”
ICE operations across Los Angeles County have so far resulted in the arrests of 118 accused illegal immigrants despite the clashes, according to the Department of Homeland Security.
With reporting from the Associated Press.
