Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass erupted on Thursday after Border Patrol agents detained an illegal immigrant outside Governor Gavin Newsom’s high-profile press conference—an arrest she framed as a deliberate humiliation of California’s Democratic leadership.
The raid unfolded just outside the Japanese American National Museum in Little Tokyo, where Newsom was unveiling his controversial plan to wrest redistricting powers away from California’s independent commission and hand them to the Legislature.
His stated goal: redraw maps to oust up to six Republican members of Congress, a move he pitched as retaliation against what he called Texas-style “election rigging.”
Bass, flanked by reporters, made no attempt to hide her fury at the agents’ timing. “There is no way this was a coincidence!” she shouted. “This was widely publicized that the governor and many of our other elected officials were having a press conference here… and they decided they were going to come and thumb their nose in front of the governor’s face. Why would you do that? That is unbelievably disrespectful.”
BREAKING: Karen Bass is MELTING DOWN over the ICE officers arresting illegal aliens outside Newscums press conference.
Trump has OFFICIALLY broken Karen Bass.
She is TRIGGERED!!!
pic.twitter.com/DKvYzjpEla— Gunther Eagleman™ (@GuntherEagleman) August 14, 2025
She doubled down, calling the arrest “a provocative act” and accusing federal officers of being “the source of the disorder in Los Angeles right now.” The mayor insisted there had been “no danger” at the scene, and denounced what she described as a Border Patrol “gone amok.”
But Border Patrol officials told a very different story. FOX 11 cameras captured at least one arrest, while El Centro Sector Chief Gregory Bovino insisted the operation was part of routine “roving patrols,” not political theater. “We’re here making Los Angeles a safer place,” Bovino said. “If politicians won’t do it, we will. Already making it safer today—we’re glad to be here. Not going anywhere.”
His comments underscored a broader rift: Los Angeles, long a self-declared sanctuary city, has seen a sharp increase in federal immigration operations since June. ICE and Border Patrol have carried out high-visibility raids, often in areas that city leaders prefer to shield. Federal officials argue that unchecked migration and criminal activity demand enforcement; city officials see the operations as hostile incursions into their political turf.
For Newsom, the disruption was particularly ill-timed. Instead of basking in the rollout of a campaign aimed at reshaping the state’s political map ahead of the November 4 special election, the narrative shifted to Border Patrol and federal power. For Bass, the images of uniformed agents overshadowing a Democratic event fed her warnings of disrespect and “provocation.”
