Federal immigration authorities have withdrawn from the Coast Guard base at Terminal Island in San Pedro, which activists and local officials say was used since the summer as a staging ground for immigration raids carried out across the Southern California region.
In a statement Saturday, Rep. Nanette Barragán said she had confirmed with the U.S. Coast Guard late Friday that ICE and Border Patrol agents vacated the base at the Port of Los Angeles.
It’s unclear whether this is a permanent withdrawal or a temporary move to another site elsewhere in Los Angeles County, Barragán said.
A DHS spokesperson did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Coast Guard’s Los Angeles press office has not yet confirmed the withdrawal to the Long Beach Post.
County Supervisor Janice Hahn, along with Los Angeles Councilmember Tim McOsker, who represents Wilmington, San Pedro and the Harbor Area, celebrated the agent’s departure.
“While I am still awaiting confirmation from the federal government of the demobilization, I believe these accounts to be true,” McOsker wrote in a statement. “Although we do not know the reason for their departure, in moments like this, we will take any good news we can get.”
“While this is good news, we still need to remain vigilant — don’t put away your whistles just yet,” Hahn said in a statement, referencing tactics used by community groups to alert neighbors to immigration raids.
Barragán urged immigration agents to stay away. “We want ICE out of our communities,” she wrote on X. “Let’s hope this is a first step towards that goal.”
Her confirmation that they’d withdrawn comes after local officials and several watchdog groups announced on social media that enforcement agents were seen leaving the facility, which holds a U.S. Coast Guard base and low-security prison.
Most say that agents have used the area since last summer to stage operations across the county. In a press conference last June, activists told reporters they had observed federal officers in “ICE” marked military vests driving either green-stripe Border Patrol vehicles or unmarked cars through the facility’s entrance.
Several officials, including McOsker, attribute the agency’s withdrawal to continued pressure by Harbor Area Peace Patrols, which has regularly watched the entrance for the past eight months.
The group said they’ve been able to connect dozens of government vehicles passing through the terminal to raids observed around the state.
In an online post Friday, Harbor Area Peace Patrols said there has been a dip in the number of agents entering and exiting Terminal Island last week, which they believe correlates to a “dramatic drop in sightings and kidnappings across Los Angeles.”
“We have credible reports that ICE/CBP has demobilized from the Coast Guard base on Terminal Island,” the post read. “While we are awaiting final confirmation, we are claiming this as a tentative victory for the people of Harbor Area.”