At a gas station on Alondra Boulevard, a quiet reminder of the local protest that became a pivotal national moment can be found in the hot food aisle.
On the roller, there are no hot dogs broiling. The heated box is emptied of chicken sandwiches and empanadas. And a single urn has fresh coffee, no decaf.
Ricky, the store manager, said he knew not to prepare anything Monday morning because none of his regulars — gardeners, construction workers and laborers, some without papers — would show.
“We usually get big trucks and crews who all buy food, … nothing today,” he said, standing outside the store.
Two days after violent clashes tore across the boulevard in Paramount — a small, predominantly Latino city that borders Long Beach — the city has become a Ground Zero for a national political fight that’s played out in screaming headlines, chaotic social media videos and dire warnings from Republicans and Democrats alike.
As local officials lobby and state officials sue to try to remove troops President Donald Trump ordered in, residents are dealing with the aftermath, as armored National Guard vehicles arrive uninvited into their community with no indication of when they’ll leave.
“I’m not happy that they came to town,” Paramount Mayor Peggy Lemons said. “I don’t think it was necessary.”
In recent days, protesters had already risen up against sudden, sweeping immigration raids in LA County, but the resistance escalated Saturday when hundreds of demonstrators assembled along Alondra Boulevard, when rumors spread that agents intended to raid a Home Depot across the street.
Jose “Bear” Gallegos, a former high school Spanish and literature teacher, said he caught wind of the protest through social media from his former students.
“They f—ed around and found out,” Gallegos said of the authorities. “They woke up the young people, and we can’t control the young people. It just started. (And) they picked the wrong place.”
Protests began that morning outside Paramount Business Center, an office park at the 6400 block of Alondra Boulevard, which houses a Department of Homeland Security office that served as a staging point for federal forces. Protesters kicked and threw objects at agents, while officers used flashbang grenades and shot tear gas and rubber bullets.
Federal authorities reported 29 arrests on Saturday and at least three fires in the Paramount-Compton area that included a car scorched in the middle of an intersection across the LA River from the business park.
Clashes unfolded up and down the boulevard. They continued west into Compton and splintered off into intersecting streets, and shuttered businesses, including the ExtraMile gas station at Hunsaker Avenue and Alondra Boulevard.
Ricky, who did not provide a last name, said the gas station took a hit in sales, as the police cordoned off most of the building from public access until 4 a.m. Sunday.
On a day they normally sell 4,000 gallons of gasoline, the station sold about 700 gallons.
“It was sad,” Ricky said of the protests over the weekend. “The whole situation just made me sad. We had to lock our doors no matter who the customer was.”
As tensions escalated and confrontations played out between the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and demonstrators along several intersections, President Trump ordered thousands of National Guard members to Los Angeles to protect federal officers conducting immigration operations.
Trump on Monday ordered an additional 2,000 troops and also tapped 700 Marines from Camp Pendleton, which he said were needed to help quell the unrest that included burned-out cars, fireworks and reports of looting in limited portions of downtown Los Angeles.
The president said in a social media post he intends to “liberate Los Angeles from the Migrant Invasion, and put an end to these Migrant riots. Order will be restored, the Illegals will be expelled, and Los Angeles will be set free.”
Trump’s order is expected to last 60 days, California Attorney General Rob Bonta said Monday.
The decision overrode objections from California Gov. Gavin Newsom and LA Mayor Karen Bass, who have both condemned the order as muscle-flexing that will only provoke more violence.
“This is a manufactured crisis to allow him to take over a state militia, damaging the very foundation of our republic,” Newsom said in a statement.
It’s a battle of political giants, from Washington to Sacramento, that dwarfs the political muster of Paramount: a city with a size of 5 square miles, a population of roughly 51,000 and an annual budget of $45 million.
Mayor Lemons said Monday the decision to send troops was a “huge waste of resources” and undermines a situation she said “was already under control.”
The chaos “was all done and over with before the National Guard even came to town,” she said. “So I really don’t know why they’re here.”
While she’s certain that residents are infuriated by their presence, Lemons said there is nothing the city can do to remove them.
“It is the federal government,” she said. “It’s not like we have the authority to say, ‘please leave.’ I mean, the mayor of LA has not been able to do that, nor has the governor. I doubt the lowly city of Paramount has any authority to do that.”
According to Paramount City Manager John Moreno, camouflaged National Guard troops arrived in the city by early Sunday morning.
For now, the building inside the office park will remain a staging area for them and federal agents. Guardsmen stood sentry inside the fenceline, flanked by armored vehicles and checking with those who drove through the gate. Foot patrols walk the perimeter, while the majority of Humvees and other vehicles remain parked at the front.
And this has already begun to affect business, said Jose Torres, who runs a print shop inside the office park. Apart from losing customers Saturday, he said they’re experiencing delays in customers picking up their orders.
“A lot of our clientele are Latinos,” Torres said. “A lot of them are immigrants… that are even afraid or concerned to come through to pick up their orders. So obviously, I’m not thrilled about that, and so we’re trying to kind of figure that out. … This is not something we’ve ever been through.”
For years, Torres said, the 30 or so businesses inside the park coexisted with the nearby Department of Homeland Security office without issue. Federal agents have operated out of the building since 2007, according to the city manager.
“They go about their business, we go about our business every day,” Torres said. “No big deal. But now that it’s been made public … I don’t know how it’s gonna affect us.”
Torres acknowledges he’s conflicted in what to make of the protests. He and his wife are first-generation Americans. They’re uneasy about the National Guard’s presence, but also were quick to accept them as a deterrent against vandals and looters who they felt took advantage of the mayhem over the weekend.
“We do feel grateful that, you know, their presence is here, because nothing will come through the front gates,” Torres said.
Federal activity has since picked up across the region in Southeast LA, including Huntington Park and in Long Beach at Fourth Street and Elm Avenue on Saturday morning, according to local officials.
It’s unclear how long agents were in Long Beach or why. The Long Beach Police Department deferred questions about that operation to ICE, which did not immediately respond to inquiries.
Lemons said she has not heard of any Paramount resident being detained by federal agents. She assured residents that the city will not assist in immigration operations.
When asked, Lemons said the weekend has brought the worst kind of attention to Paramount.
Her advice: Have a little compassion.
“These people are frightened that their families are going to be ripped apart,” Lemons said. “They don’t know if Dad’s coming home from work, Mom’s coming home from work, children are going to be picked up at schools.”
Depending on how long the National Guard remains, the city of Paramount said it may hold town hall meetings to give residents any updates they’re able to gather.
In the meantime, locals are trying to reestablish normality.
Cleanup efforts, which began Sunday with city employees and volunteers, continued Monday.
Crews replanted shrubs in the median along Alondra Boulevard, while workers at the Home Depot across the street cleared lawn clippings covered in tear gas solvent.
At the end of the bridge in Compton, an ARCO gas station had its doors boarded up. A camera tower remained keeled over and graffitied.
Gallegos, who assisted in the cleanup, said he didn’t want Saturday’s events to leave outsiders with the wrong impression of his home city.
“It’s a hardworking, immigrant, beautiful community,” Gallegos said.
It’s also a poor community, he said, where the median household makes an average $70,900, where people struggle to make a living but nearly half of whom own their homes.
“That’s it, there’s not the criminal element that we saw [on Saturday],” he said.
Paramount, a city that is 82% Latino — more than a third of whom are foreign born — has seen a 39% decline in overall crime in the past 20 years, according to the city’s website.
It’s also a proud city, according to Gallegos, where he assured people will not take well to federal authorities’ confrontive tactics, strong-arm military presence, and sweeping raids being deployed out of their hometown.
“We’re not afraid,” he said. “People are frustrated, and the word is we just started fighting and we’re going to continue to fight.”
Staff writer Jacob Sisneros contributed to this report.