{"id":68184,"date":"2025-11-24T22:01:12","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T22:01:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/68184\/"},"modified":"2025-11-24T22:01:12","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T22:01:12","slug":"l-a-hosts-first-congressional-hearing-on-effect-of-immigration-raids","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/68184\/","title":{"rendered":"L.A. hosts first congressional hearing on effect of immigration raids"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

There was the U.S. citizen who said she no longer feels safe after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer slammed her to the ground in downtown Los Angeles and later accused her of assault \u2014 a case prosecutors dismissed soon after.<\/a> <\/p>\n

The Long Beach mayor, who said immigration agents have seized more than 50 residents off the city\u2019s streets \u2014 including 11 in a single afternoon Thursday, among them a gardener tackled inside Polly\u2019s Pies restaurant<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A Boyle Heights pastor who told of a mother who lost her young daughter after a failed organ transplant and was paralyzed over whether to cremate her or bury her, as she wanted, because she feared being deported and unable to visit her child\u2019s grave. <\/p>\n

During a congressional oversight hearing Monday in L.A., more than a dozen elected officials, experts and community members laid bare the impact of the Trump administration\u2019s aggressive immigration crackdown. It was an exclusively Democrat event and no one spoke up in support of the raids.<\/p>\n

\"U.S. <\/p>\n

U.S. Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Long Beach) interacts with Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass at a congressional field hearing at the Metropolitan Water District on Monday.<\/p>\n

(Eric Thayer\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

L.A. Mayor Karen Bass and the top Democrat on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Long Beach), announced last month<\/a> that Congress was opening \u201ca broad investigation\u201d into arrests of U.S. citizens by ICE officers, as well as a separate probe into immigration raids overall.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to establish a record, because when the political winds change, we want to hold those accountable,\u201d Bass said ahead of the hearing. \u201cWe want transparency and accountability for all of the egregious unconstitutional acts that are taking place. The raids might be off the nightly news, but they continue every single day, and we don\u2019t ever want anyone to forget that.\u201d<\/p>\n

U.S. Rep. Jasmine Crockett of Texas described the current situation as \u201can American nightmare.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

For months, agents have roamed the streets of L.A., toting guns and chasing down undocumented immigrants. The scenes that have played out here \u2014 protesters being arrested, immigrants dragged out of their cars \u2014 have been repeated in Chicago, Charlotte, N.C., and other cities with largely Democratic leadership. <\/p>\n

As of last month, federal authorities had arrested more than 7,100 undocumented immigrants in the Los Angeles area since June 6, according to the Department of Homeland Security.<\/p>\n

Among those who provided testimony was Andrea Velez, a U.S. citizen who was on her way to work in June when masked men came running toward her. She described using her work bag as a shield, as an ICE officer slammed her into the sidewalk.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey didn\u2019t believe I was a U.S. citizen or bother to check my ID,\u201d Velez said.<\/p>\n

Prosecutors initially charged Velez with assault on a federal officer, alleging that Velez, who is 4 feet 11 inches, stood in the path of an ICE officer with her arms extended, striking his head and chest when they collided. Soon after, prosecutors dismissed the case.<\/p>\n

Velez told committee members that she now carries her passport with her.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it is shameful that this administration makes citizens feel like they have to carry a passport in their own country,\u201d Rep. Mark Takano (D-Riverside) said. \u201cNo citizen should have to carry a passport in their own country to prove that they\u2019re an American.\u201d<\/p>\n

Times staff writer David Zahniser contributed to this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There was the U.S. citizen who said she no longer feels safe after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":68185,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[40461,40460,1409,22508,3979,14545,2303,48,52,51,9925,47,50,49,63,22185,7214,1291,12856,1745],"class_list":["post-68184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-american-nightmare","tag-andrea-velez","tag-city","tag-ice-officer","tag-immigration-raid","tag-impact","tag-l-a","tag-la","tag-la-headlines","tag-la-news","tag-last-month","tag-los-angeles","tag-los-angeles-headlines","tag-los-angeles-news","tag-los-angeles-times","tag-passport","tag-prosecutor","tag-street","tag-u-s-citizen","tag-undocumented-immigrant"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68184\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}