Thousands of people gathered in Southern California on Sunday, Feb. 2 to call for immigration reform and protest against the mass deportations promised under President Donald Trump‘s administration.
In Downtown Los Angeles, a large group of anti-ICE protesters blocked both sides of the 101 Freeway.
Protesters gathered Sunday morning on Olvera Street for what the Los Angeles Police Department called a non-permitted demonstration. The crowd grew to a few thousand people who marched to City Hall, before many walked onto the freeway near the Alameda Street exit.
Footage from the scene showed over 1,000 boisterous protesters walking on both sides of the freeway shortly after noon, many carrying U.S. or Mexico flags or signs with messages including “Immigrants built this country” “Fight against facism” and “Americans are immigrants”, or assailing ICE.
The LAPD, which earlier called the demonstration peaceful, said at 1 p.m. that “Spring St, Main St, Los Angeles St as well as Arcadia and the 101 Freeway both North and South are under major gridlock in the DTLA area.”
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 his inauguration on Jan. 20, Trump has followed through on his campaign promise to dramatically boost deportation of illegal immigrants, with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement carrying out raids in major cities.
In Riverside on Sunday, hundreds of people protested; Passing cars honked and yelled out in support as community members held up various signs and some waved Mexican flags on the sidewalks at the intersection of Magnolia Avenue and Tyler Street, near the Galleria at Tyler.
Protesters chanted, “El pueblo unido, jamas sera vencido” – the people united will never be defeated.
“It really encouraged me to use my voice for the people who can’t speak up or are afraid to,” said 22-year-old Ariana Gonzalez, who helped organize the event.
A resident of Lake Elsinore, Gonzalez said she knows at least 10 people who are afraid to go outside following the increased presence of ICE and Border Patrol agents in the area. She said the response has been more “aggressive” this year than in Trump’s previous presidency, and people are afraid to get a haircut, buy groceries, or drop their kids off at school.
The 22-year-old got involved after expressing interest on social media in speaking out on behalf of her community in the Inland Empire. She wants to send a message that combats the narrative portraying immigrants as “all criminals” and says ICE needs to act within the law.
“I would like to do everything peacefully. I’m personally very big on faith. When I see hatred, I try to combat it with love and pray for them,” said Gonzalez. “There’s such a big division. I want to tell the Trump supporters, we’re not against you; why are you against us? We love this country; why do you hate us?”
She also believes ICE agents should be required to read a person their rights, just as police do.
The Riverside protest was organized by a group of women who hailed from different parts of the Inland Empire, including 28-year-old Yvonne Salcedo from Fontana, who created the page Semillas.InlandEmpire to share resources on immigration rights and promote the event.
She said roughly 300 people had come out to show support so far, with more people showing up as the day went on.
“We want immigration reform now. There are immigrants who have been in this country for a long time; they love this country,” Salcedo said. “If it was true that they’re only targeting criminals, then why do they want to do raids in schools and places of worship?”
Salcedo also said many people in her community live in fear, and some residents have volunteered to shop for neighbors who are afraid to go to the grocery store.
“It’s a very sad situation,” she said.
In Los Angeles, meanwhile, police reported at 1:19 p.m. that the demonstration had moved back onto surface streets, opening both north and southbound lanes of the freeway.
The department added that Arcadia, Aliso, Main and Spring streets remained impacted.
Several minutes later, officials said the protesters had moved back onto the freeway.
“Please avoid the 101 freeway in DTLA between I-110 and Mission Road, as we work to remove a protest from the freeway,” the CHP tweeted in a post on X at 1:50 p.m. “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 101 Freeway was shut down between the 110 Freeway and Alameda Street, as police posted another update saying protesters had once again left the freeway.
No arrests were reported as of 4 p.m.
Downtown Los Angeles was already experiencing traffic delays in the area around Crypto.com Arena, where some streets were closed for Sunday’s Grammy Awards.
As of 5:30 p.m., some protesters remained on the streets, but LAPD officials said they were keeping the demonstrators off the freeway.
Elsewhere, anti-ICE demonstrations were held in the San Fernando Valley and in Garden Grove.
Around 250 protesters had gathered in Pacoima, CBS Los Angeles reported.
OnScene.TV, a freelance video news agency, reported some 200 protesters gathered in Garden Grove and were on foot and in vehicles, some waving Mexican flags.
City News Service contributed to this report.
