Masked, Armed and Forceful: Finding Patterns in Los Angeles Immigration Raids

Armed and masked men leaping out of unmarked vehicles. Latino men taken from their places of work or while waiting for the bus. Street vendors roughly tackled to the ground and forcefully held down.

Since early June, the streets of Los Angeles have borne witness to frequent and aggressive immigration raids that have seen people suspected of being undocumented migrants detained. Some have been rapidly deported.

Between June 6 and June 22 alone, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) reportedly arrested 1,618 people for deportation from LA and the surrounding areas of Southern California. This averages out at about 95 people a day, and arrests and deportations have continued in the period since.

Those numbers represent an increase over the months prior and appear to be in line with reports of apparent White House directives to up immigration-related arrests.

Bellingcat worked with our partners at Evident Media and CalMatters to gather and document social media and online footage of as many of the LA raids as possible.

We collected videos of just over 100 incidents starting on June 6, picking out sightings and what appear to be recurring trends and tactics used by officers. A full list of the incidents can be seen and downloaded here.

https://www.bellingcat.com/news/2025/07/08/masked-armed-and-forceful-finding-patterns-in-los-angeles-immigration-raids/