1000’s of raucous protesters rallied in opposition to President Trump’s renewed effort to deport unlawful migrants and floor site visitors to a standstill on a Los Angeles freeway Sunday afternoon.
The throngs of demonstrators waving flags of Mexico and different nations south of the border shut down a portion of 101 Freeway for hours – although no arrests have been reported into the night.
Footage from KTLA confirmed protesters marching straight on the freeway whereas one other video shot by an unbiased reporter confirmed a line of officers staring down a few of the demonstrators a couple of hundred toes away. Different protesters lined the facet of the overpass and roads.
California Freeway Patrol urged motorists to keep away from a part of the freeway occupied by protests as authorities labored to get them off the street.
“Accessing state highways or roads to protest is illegal and very harmful as a result of it places protesters, motorists and first responders at nice danger of damage,” the company tweeted.
It took about 5 hours for police to totally reopen the freeway Sunday afternoon, a CHP spokesperson stated.
There have been no reported arrests in the course of the afternoon protests, in accordance with state police and the LAPD.
However protesters once more converged on a part of the freeway as vehicles returned to US Route 101 Sunday evening, in accordance with social media footage from a CalMatters reporter on the scene.
A few of the indicators all through the day learn “MAGA – Mexican at all times get throughout,” “We Are Not Criminals,” and “The true prison is within the White Home,” in accordance with social media footage and reviews.
“We thought we have been completed together with his administration,” Rey, who’s Mexican American, advised the Los Angeles Occasions. “And now now we have to do that once more.”
Supporters of Trump’s immigration insurance policies blasted the protest for inflicting gridlock in one in every of America’s most congested cities.
“Mexico is gorgeous this time of 12 months,” Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s former operating mate Nicole Shanahan tweeted.
“Hold strolling down 101 South a couple of extra hours – wishing these which can be undocumented a heat adios!”
“I’ll quickly reintroduce laws to make blocking a freeway deliberately a federal crime,” Home Rep. Mike Collins (R-Georgia) wrote on social media.
“First Hamas supporters, now illegals and their enablers, are stopping site visitors. To make America protected once more, we should have legislation and order,” he added.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement and different businesses have carried out sweeping deportation raids throughout main US cities after Trump made the crackdown on unlawful immigration an early precedence of his presidency.
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