ICE officers working in Los Angeles are being followed home, harassed on social media and confronted in person while carrying out immigration enforcement, the agency’s local field office director said this week.
Those officers receive little assistance from local police.
LAPD policy, rooted in Special Order 40 and the city’s sanctuary ordinance, bars officers from initiating action solely to determine immigration status or assisting in civil immigration enforcement, according to a statement from Chief Jim McDonnell.
Los Angeles ICE Field Office Director Thomas Giles told Fox News Digital that the sanctuary rules force his agents into the community instead of allowing secure transfers at local jails. Fox News Digital accompanied Giles and a team of officers on an enforcement operation in the Los Angeles area early last Thursday morning.
“The sanctuary policies definitely impact our operations in terms of it’d be a lot easier for us to have that transfer of custody in a secure environment,” Giles said. “So, what it does for us is it sends our officers out into the community, putting our officers at risk and other community members at risk.”
Giles said that before the current rules, officers picked up hundreds of people a day at local jails. Now local law enforcement “can’t even work with us,” creating what he called “a big, huge public safety threat.”
One target in Thursday’s operation illustrated the problem. Local police had arrested 20-year-old Honduran national Julio Alberto Aroca-Rodriguez the week before for assault with a deadly weapon using a baseball bat. He had been subject to a removal order since 2019. Authorities declined ICE’s detainer request and released him.
When ICE officers later encountered Aroca-Rodriguez, they also detained four other illegal immigrants identified as collaterals. A crowd of anti-ICE agitators began to form, and the team quickly relocated.
“My officers have been followed home and been harassed, harassed on social media, harassed just personally, and they get in your face and everything else,” Giles said.
He criticized agitators who wear masks while complaining about ICE officers doing the same. “They look the same as we do as well,” he said.
Giles described the treatment of ICE officers by many California politicians, the media and some members of the public as “degrading to the work that the men and women of ICE do.”
Yet he stressed the policies will not stop operations. “It’s not going to shut us down and stop us,” Giles said.
Fox News Digital witnessed the processing of Aroca-Rodriguez, who remained in custody pending removal to Honduras. Five other illegal immigrants were processed for removal proceedings during the operation.
The officers’ decision to leave the area quickly after the crowd formed underscored the daily operational pressure created by non-cooperation from local authorities.
The result is that federal officers must operate without local backup in a high-risk environment. Supporting officers who face stalking and harassment while enforcing the law reflects a core American commitment to the rule of law and public safety.
Readers should care about this story because sanctuary rules shift risk onto federal agents and the community. When local authorities decline detainers for people already arrested for violent crimes, ICE must conduct more dangerous street operations.
Giles praised his team as Americans who “love this country” and “want to support the Constitution.” “We’re out doing our job; we are sworn law enforcement officers. We’re out trying to keep the community safe just like other law enforcement officers,” he said.
As long as those policies remain in place, the agency’s field teams will continue operating under elevated risk, relying on their own resources and determination to carry out the same enforcement mission that local non-cooperation has made more difficult and more exposed.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
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