1000’s of raucous protesters rallied towards 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 international locations 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 instantly on the freeway whereas one other video shot by an impartial reporter confirmed a line of officers staring down a number of the demonstrators just a few 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 highway.
“Accessing state highways or roads to protest is unlawful and extremely dangerous because it puts protesters, motorists and first responders at great risk of injury,” the company tweeted.
It took about 5 hours for police to totally reopen the freeway Sunday afternoon, a CHP spokesperson mentioned.
There have been no reported arrests in the course of the afternoon protests, in response to state police and the LAPD.
However protesters once more converged on a part of the freeway as automobiles returned to US Route 101 Sunday night time, in response to social media footage from a CalMatters reporter on the scene.
A few of the indicators all through the day learn “MAGA – Mexican always get across,” “We Are Not Criminals,” and “The real criminal is in the White House,” in response to social media footage and reviews.
“We thought we were done with his administration,” Rey, who’s Mexican American, instructed the Los Angeles Instances. “And now we have to do this again.”
Supporters of Trump’s immigration insurance policies blasted the protest for inflicting gridlock in certainly one of America’s most congested cities.
“Mexico is beautiful this time of year,” Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s former operating mate Nicole Shanahan tweeted.
“Keep walking down 101 South a few more hours – wishing those that are undocumented a warm adios!”
“I will soon reintroduce legislation to make blocking a highway intentionally a federal crime,” Home Rep. Mike Collins (R-Georgia) wrote on social media.
“First Hamas supporters, now illegals and their enablers, are stopping traffic. To make America safe again, we must have law and order,” he added.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement and different businesses have performed sweeping deportation raids throughout main US cities after Trump made the crackdown on unlawful immigration an early precedence of his presidency.
