Hundreds of Protesters Rally Against ICE

More than 500 demonstrators gathered in downtown Tuesday to decry recent federal immigration raids and demand the Long Beach City Council allocate millions of dollars more to a municipal fund that provides legal aid for those facing deportation.

Protesters began assembling at Harvey Milk Promenade Park around 3 p.m. before marching the half-mile route to the Long Beach Civic Center, where a 5 p.m. rally was scheduled to push the City Council to bolster its current sanctuary laws, which already bar most forms of cooperation with federal immigration officials.

Many rallygoers left as evening fell, but a smaller group of about 250 stayed beyond, blocking lanes as they marched on Ocean Boulevard. Eventually, they occupied the street in front of the Civic Center. Police formed a skirmish line and declared the assembly unlawful around 8 p.m.

Officers on a loudspeaker repeatedly asked people to leave the street and warned they would use chemical irritants and rubber bullets. Demonstrators continued to chant “peaceful protest” and “ICE out of Long Beach.”

When the group began marching eastbound on Ocean Boulevard again, police fell back and let them keep moving. The crowd gathered in nearby Lincoln Park but soon dispersed as officers kept their distance.

Tuesday’s protest is one of several around the country since immigration raids began in the Los Angeles region Friday. In California over the past week, demonstrators also gathered in downtown Los Angeles, San Francisco and Santa Ana.

It comes after five days of protests that have sprung up across the Los Angeles region over immigration enforcement raids that prompted President Donald Trump to deploy National Guard troops and Marines. While many were peaceful, some have resulted in clashes with law enforcement as officers made arrests and used chemical irritants to disperse crowds.

Outside of downtown Los Angeles, raids across the region have targeted numerous communities, including recently in Huntington Park. A staging area in the mostly Latino city of Paramount also became a flashpoint Saturday between demonstrators and federal agents. Federal personnel have also been reported in Long Beach but confirmed details about where they were stationed and what they were doing are sparse.

Editor Note: An in-depth version of this article was published online on June 10 by the Long Beach Post, a non-profit news organization. Contribute to seeing more stories like this at www.lbpost.com.