Immigration and Customs Enforcement clapped back at Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass after she suggested that federal immigration authorities “go home.”
“We would like for the ICE raids to stop. We would like the array of federal officials or civilians dressed as federal officials to go home,” she said at a news conference on Tuesday held in response to the Department of Justice’s lawsuit against the city’s sanctuary policies.
When asked if there could be a deal made between ICE and the Department of Homeland Security, she doubled down.
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“I don’t know if there’s a deal to be made. Like I told you, the deal that needs to be made is for them to go home,” the Democrat said.
ICE directly responded, noting that they will continue their operations in the city and in the region.
“ICE isn’t going anywhere and will continue to do what Mayor Bass has utterly failed to do – protect the citizens of Los Angeles. If she wants distance from federal law enforcement, I’m sure there is an upcoming diplomatic trip to Ghana,” Emily Covington, assistant director, ICE Office of Public Affairs, said in a statement to Fox News.
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The comment hearkened back to the mayor’s controversial visit to the African country earlier this year, which she visited to attend the country’s presidential inauguration.
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She returned from the trip as fires were ripping through the city of Los Angeles, which destroyed significant portions of the beach-side community of Pacific Palisades.
The National Weather Service warned about the fire risk before she left on the trip, and the Los Angeles Times reported that her staff were aware that fires were possible. Bass later expressed regret over the trip, saying it was a mistake to travel at the time.
“Absolutely it is, and I think that I have to demonstrate that every day by showing what we’re doing, what is working, what are the challenges,” Bass said in an interview with NBC Los Angeles in February.
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The mayor re-entered the national spotlight in June as anti-ICE protests and riots broke out in the city, amid news that the agency was conducting illegal immigration sweeps in the area. President Donald Trump then deployed the National Guard, which resulted in a legal challenge from Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom. Bass said ICE and the National Guard served as instigators for the civil unrest, which she condemned the violent elements of while encouraging peaceful protest.
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“Last Thursday, ICE entered our city and provoked the city by chasing people through Home Depots and car washes and showing up at schools and, today, showing up at emergency rooms and homeless shelters,” Bass said last month.
“ICE intervened as a pretext to federalize the National Guard, and then, in the White House, the National Guard was complimented for the work that they did to keep peace in the city Saturday night. But I will tell you, the Guard didn’t even arrive here until Sunday. They used this as a pretext to send the U.S. Marines into an American city, which will target our own citizens,” she added.