LOS ANGELES, CA— The prevailing media narrative that the riots in Los Angeles began with an ICE enforcement action and the popular narrative among Democrat politicians that President Donald Trump created “chaos” by enforcing U.S. Immigration law were both revealed to be provably false by White House Executive Associate Director of Enforcement and Removal Operations and ‘Border Czar’ Tom Homan during an interview with KFI’s John Kobylt Show last week.
Homan unflinchingly revealed that the law enforcement action that touched off the protests-turned-riots in LA was a "criminal conspiracy investigation involving money laundering, tax evasion, and customs fraud where one of the companies didn't declare over $80 million in criminal imports and failed to pay $17 million in taxes and tariffs." He told the KFI host, "It was a criminal investigation and while we served a criminal warrant, we arrested about 40 illegal aliens," according to PJ Media’s Victoria Taft.
Homan reiterated this in an interview with MSNBC’s Morning Joe that same Monday, adding that the money involved was allegedly being laundered into Mexico to fund cartel activity. He added, “We arrested a murderer. We arrested several child sex predators. We arrested a rapist. We arrested someone who [was] convicted of armed robbery. We arrested a Vietnamese national who murdered two teenagers at a graduation party. We made Los Angeles safer, and people don't want to hear that, they just want ... to take action against ICE officers. “
None of this, however, seemed to deter SEIU boss David Huerta from intervening in what he incorrectly assessed to be an ‘ICE Raid’, nor would it give pause to Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass or California Governor Gavin Newsom, who both characterized the arrests as being strictly immigration enforcement carried out at the behest of President Trump.
The subsequent “Home Depot raid,” in the Paramount area was no different and was reported with equal falsehood according to the U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, Bill Essayli. He told John Kobylt that after Friday’s tense demonstrations, law enforcement requested backup from ICE for warrant service on Saturday, with hundreds of Border Patrol agents staging near a Home Depot, which was reported by the mainstream media as a raid on the home improvement store.
“Reinforcements were called in and Saturday we had hundreds of Border Patrol agents up here to continue our operations They were staging in Paramount—there's a facility next to the Home Depot—when we were staging someone spotted them and reported that we were raiding the home depot and that launched the next wave of attacks,” Essayli said.
“We were much better prepared on Saturday. They held the perimeter, they fought back, they shot so much gas and less lethals that we had to bring in a Black Hawk helicopter to resupply them in the middle of this operation.”
Seeing the gathering of illegal immigrants there, ICE later performed a sweep of the parking lot; however, the order of cause and effect seems to have been lost in initial reporting.
Homan unflinchingly revealed that the law enforcement action that touched off the protests-turned-riots in LA was a "criminal conspiracy investigation involving money laundering, tax evasion, and customs fraud where one of the companies didn't declare over $80 million in criminal imports and failed to pay $17 million in taxes and tariffs." He told the KFI host, "It was a criminal investigation and while we served a criminal warrant, we arrested about 40 illegal aliens," according to PJ Media’s Victoria Taft.
Homan reiterated this in an interview with MSNBC’s Morning Joe that same Monday, adding that the money involved was allegedly being laundered into Mexico to fund cartel activity. He added, “We arrested a murderer. We arrested several child sex predators. We arrested a rapist. We arrested someone who [was] convicted of armed robbery. We arrested a Vietnamese national who murdered two teenagers at a graduation party. We made Los Angeles safer, and people don't want to hear that, they just want ... to take action against ICE officers. “
Border Czar Tom Homan clarified today that the so-called “ICE raids,” which sparked riots in LA, were tied to criminal investigations involving various offenses, including a money-laundering conspiracy linked to cartel activity, not routine immigration enforcement actions. pic.twitter.com/vb3vsdDHXN
— Laura Powell (@LauraPowellEsq) June 9, 2025
None of this, however, seemed to deter SEIU boss David Huerta from intervening in what he incorrectly assessed to be an ‘ICE Raid’, nor would it give pause to Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass or California Governor Gavin Newsom, who both characterized the arrests as being strictly immigration enforcement carried out at the behest of President Trump.
The subsequent “Home Depot raid,” in the Paramount area was no different and was reported with equal falsehood according to the U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California, Bill Essayli. He told John Kobylt that after Friday’s tense demonstrations, law enforcement requested backup from ICE for warrant service on Saturday, with hundreds of Border Patrol agents staging near a Home Depot, which was reported by the mainstream media as a raid on the home improvement store.
“Reinforcements were called in and Saturday we had hundreds of Border Patrol agents up here to continue our operations They were staging in Paramount—there's a facility next to the Home Depot—when we were staging someone spotted them and reported that we were raiding the home depot and that launched the next wave of attacks,” Essayli said.
“We were much better prepared on Saturday. They held the perimeter, they fought back, they shot so much gas and less lethals that we had to bring in a Black Hawk helicopter to resupply them in the middle of this operation.”
Seeing the gathering of illegal immigrants there, ICE later performed a sweep of the parking lot; however, the order of cause and effect seems to have been lost in initial reporting.
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