LOS ANGELES (CNS) – Hundreds of high school students marched through downtown Los Angeles Tuesday in protest of stepped up federal enforcement against illegal immigration, marking the third straight day of demonstrations in the downtown area.
Students, believed to be from Marshall and Garfield high schools, and possibly other campuses, began marching late Tuesday morning, with some eventually converging on the Main Street overpass of the Hollywood (101) Freeway. The students rallied briefly over the freeway, then continued marching through downtown, eventually gathering briefly near Olvera Street then marching toward City Hall.
By early afternoon, the students were in the area of Hill and First streets, while a second group was marching on Spring Street near Temple Street. Police reported that the demonstration was peaceful, although students were marching in traffic lanes.
The student demonstrations came one day after an hours-long rally, march and protest in downtown Los Angeles that also focused on the 101 Freeway overpasses downtown. That gathering was for the most part peaceful, but turned unruly in the early evening after police declared an unlawful assembly and tried to move the crowd away from the freeway.
Some protesters were seen hurling rocks and bottles toward officers who had formed skirmish lines and pushed the crowd to the north.
While many people in the crowd — which was at least 1,000 people strong by mid-afternoon Monday — had dispersed after the unlawful assembly was declared, a core group remained and marched through streets near Chinatown and Olvera Street.
As the protests lingered, police eventually detained an unspecified number of people. Reports from the scene indicated as many as 200 people were detained. It was unclear of any of the people were actually arrested, with most believed to have been detained and released. CBS2 reported one person was arrested for alleged possession of a firearm.
The protest was part of a multi-city “A Day Without Immigrants” demonstration in opposition to Trump’s call for mass deportations of people in the country illegally.
Demonstrators initially assembled Monday morning on the steps of City Hall, close to the Hollywood (101) Freeway.
Around 11 a.m. Monday, they began marching along First and Spring streets. The group eventually made its way to the area near Crypto.com Arena, where they gathered at an intersection, waving flags and chanting. The group then made its way back north, joined by hundreds more participants and other people in vehicles who joined in the procession through downtown.
LAPD declared unlawful assembly at around 4:45 p.m. Monday.
The call came after officers claimed that people in the crowd began to throw bottles and rocks at them.
“They were warned, they were identified and they were advised that if they do not leave, and if they converge again and continue this illegal activity they will be cited and in some cases arrested,” LAPD Cmdr. Lillian Carranza told CBS2.
Katherine Sanchez, 18, and a senior at Burbank High School, attended the protest outside Los Angels City Hall with her parents and sister. She held a sign that read, “Ur racism won’t end our strength.”
“It’s very heartwarming,” Sanchez, who heard about the demonstration on TikTok, told the Los Angeles Times.
By early afternoon, about 1,000 protesters had swarmed the Spring and Main street overpasses of the Hollywood Freeway, with police on standby to prevent them from trying to walk onto the highway — as many did on Sunday during a similar protest.
LAPD formed skirmish lines and working to move protesters away from the overpasses of the Hollywood Freeway during rush hour.
As the crowd moved away, a motorist performed a series of spinouts at the intersection of Alameda and Cesar Chavez, as the crowd cheered. There were no reports of injuries.
Also on Monday in downtown Santa Ana, hundreds of protesters similarly gathered at Sasscer Park and across the street at the Ronald Reagan federal courthouse. About 150 residents gathered at Fifth and Ross streets to protest Trump’s immigration policies and his administration’s vow to deport thousands of people living in the United States illegally.
The protesters held up signs saying, “Mexicans Aren’t Going Anywhere,” and “Don’t Bite the Hands that Feed You,” with motorists honking in support, The Times reported.
They were led in a chant, “It is right to rebel, Donald Trump go to hell.”
On Fourth Street, Orange County’s historic Latino corridor, Fernanda Hernandez joined several of her friends who were protesting the Trump administration’s immigration policies.
Holding a sign that read, “My Parents Work Harder than Your President,” she told The Times, “Trump wants us to be afraid but we can’t be.”
Hernandez, 19, whose parents lacking permanent legal status, added, “We need to stand up for our gente. He wants us gone, whether we’re illegal or not.”
Organizers Tonali Un and Carla Valencia said they were social justice activists who hope to make the demonstrations a regular thing. They chose the location for the protest because it was near the federal buildings for courts and immigration services.
“I think people are finally opening their eyes,” Un said.
“A lot of people I talk to now regret” voting for Trump, she said. “People are finally realizing they have to do their research.”
Un said many of the Latino Trump supporters she has spoken to did not believe he would crack down on immigration or follow through of many of his policies.
There were also reports late Monday morning of another protest in North Hollywood.
The protests against Trump’s immigration policies began Sunday. Protesters gathered on Olvera Street in downtown Los Angeles in what police called a non-permitted demonstration. The crowd swelled to a few thousand as the group marched to City Hall, with many eventually making their way onto the Hollywood Freeway near the Alameda Street exit.
Thousands of protesters blocked traffic on the freeway and clashed with law enforcement before dispersing in the evening. Footage from the scene showed boisterous protesters walking on both sides of the freeway shortly after noon, many waving U.S. and Mexico flags and holding signs criticizing ICE.
The LAPD, which had earlier called the demonstration peaceful, reported that Spring Street, Main Street, Los Angeles Street, Arcadia Street and the Santa Monica (10) Freeway were experiencing major gridlock by Sunday afternoon.
Downtown Los Angeles was already experiencing traffic delays in the area around Crypto.com Arena, where a number of streets were closed for Sunday’s Grammy Awards.
Police briefly opened the freeway in both directions around midday, when the demonstration had moved back onto surface streets. However, protesters managed to get back on the freeway, leading to another shut down.
The California Highway Patrol stated, “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 freeway was fully opened on Sunday night.
Video posted later showed a few demonstrators spraying graffiti on the freeway walls and appearing to vandalize at least one car that was stopped in the middle of the crowd.
Since taking office on Jan. 20, Trump has acted on his campaign promise to increase deportations, with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement conducting raids in major cities. Immigration was a major focal point of his campaign, with Trump vowing to conduct mass deportations, expelling people in the country illegally — particularly those charged or convicted of crimes. He vowed to deploy the military as part of that effort.
In an interview last month, Trump called illegal immigration “an invasion of our country,” and vowed to carry out his deportation plans regardless of cost.
“It’s not a question of a price tag,” Trump told NBC News shortly after his election. “It’s not — really, we have no choice. When people have killed and murdered, when drug lords have destroyed countries, and now they’re going to go back to those countries because they’re not staying here. There is no price tag.”
Trump insisted that voters — including Latinos — support his call for legal immigration only.
“They want to have borders,” Trump said. “And they like people coming in, but they have to come in with love for the country. They have to come in legally.”
According to Reuters, despite Trump’s strong stance on immigration and deportations, his first presidential administration saw fewer people deported than during the term of his Democratic predecessor, Barack Obama. More people were deported under President Joe Biden in 2024 than during any single year of Trump’s first presidency, Reuters reported.
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