Los Angeles city officials may direct port police to look into the presence of federal immigration authorities at or around the federal prison on Terminal Island in San Pedro.
On Tuesday, LA Councilmember Tim McOsker, who represents the area, asked Port of Los Angeles authorities to report back to the city on “procedures, protocols, and jurisdictional roles related to federal immigration enforcement or engagement in and around Port property, including off-site terminals, warehouses and other Port-adjacent operations.” His request, which was also supported by Councilmember Hugo Soto-Martinez, must now go before the LA City Council for approval.
This comes about one week after a handful of San Pedro and Los Angeles-based activist groups say they began to notice a growing presence of federal agents entering and exiting Terminal Island.
At a press conference Tuesday morning, activists told reporters that volunteers have observed federal officers in military vests marked with “ICE” driving either green-stripe Border Patrol vehicles or unmarked cars.
“What we know, what we suspect, at least, is that folks are staying here in LA, driving out to Terminal Island early in the morning, doing their staging on Terminal Island, likely on the Coast Guard base, and then leaving in groups, smaller groups, to spread out across the LA basin,” Maya Suzuki-Daniels, a teacher in San Pedro that volunteers with San Pedro Neighbors for Peace and Justice, as well as Harbor Area Peace Patrols.
Scott Taylor, a public affairs officer with the Federal Bureau of Prisons, said that any claims of immigration agents using the facility for a staging area are “100% false.”
A federal official who had knowledge of the local ICE and DHS operations but was not authorized to discuss them publicly said agents are on the island but are “not currently utilizing the official facilities.”
Media representatives for ICE, as well as those with the adjacent Coast Guard station, did not immediately respond to questions. One supervisor with the Coast Guard’s communications team in San Diego said they have no reports of federal agents using the site for staging operations.
Several speakers at Tuesday’s press conference made parallels between the current immigration raids and the forcible removal of Japanese Americans from Terminal Island following the bombing of Pearl Harbor in World War II.
Once home to a 3,000-member Japanese community of fishermen, fish-cannery workers and merchants, the island was cleared in February 1942 amid wartime rumors that the village, then known as “Fish Harbor,” was a spy colony.
Once removed, residents’ homes were picked clean, then bulldozed. Fishing boats were repossessed or stolen.
Speakers described scenes of federal agents and soldiers evicting people at gunpoint, under the same directive — the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 —invoked by President Donald Trump in March.
“Today, ICE is going around and arresting people for doing the same thing as my grandparents — trying to make a better life for themselves,” said John Tonai. “Some people will argue that it isn’t the same, because my grandparents were here legally. If that’s the case, why were they incarcerated? If they haven’t done anything wrong, then why was my grandfather separated from his family?”
As of June 15, ICE has arrested 56,397 immigrants nationwide — including 3,199 in California. Of those in custody, 71.7% had no criminal history at the time of their detainment.
More than approximately 1,600 immigrants in Southern California were arrested between June 6 and 22, according to the latest data from the Department of Homeland Security.
McOsker said that given the port’s significance as an economic driver and point of access for “thousands of workers,” it was critical that officials know “what protocols exist regarding ICE enforcement actions within this area and ensure that such actions are transparent, legally sound, and respectful of community rights.”