A group of protesters clashed with federal officers during an anti-ICE protest in Los Angeles on January 30, 2026, prompting officers to deploy pepper spray, make arrests, and issue a citywide tactical alert.
According to multiple outlets, including NBC Los Angeles, crowds gathered in downtown Los Angeles as part of a nationwide protest aimed at cutting funds for ICE.
Although the protest remained peaceful for most demonstrators, a group broke away and marched towards the Metropolitan Detention Center where federal officers were present.
Water bottles were thrown at the building, and protestors blocked the garage entrance with a dumpster.
At the loading dock, protestors pushed into a restricted area despite two warnings to leave, prompting authorities to deploy chemical irritants, per USA Today.
The LAPD made a series of X posts describing the live events. In one post, federal authorities reported that protesters were throwing “debris, bottles and other objects,” which prompted the department to issue a tactical alert and then a dispersal order.
⚠️Community Advisory⚠️
Due to violent agitators on Alameda between Temple and Aliso the City of Los Angeles has gone to TACTICAL ALERT.
Federal Authorities are taking debris, bottles and other objects. Federal Authorities have declared an Unlawful Assembly at the Detention…
— LAPD Central Division (@LAPDCentral) January 31, 2026
Attributing to protestors as “violent agitators”, the LAPD added that “Federal Authorities have declared an Unlawful Assembly at the Detention Centre, and they have deployed pepper balls and tear gas.”
“Due to violent agitators on Alameda between Temple and Aliso the City of Los Angeles has gone to TACTICAL ALERT,” the LAPD Central Division wrote in a post on X.
Later that day, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass spoke to the media, claiming that around five people had been arrested at the time for failure to disperse.
“I think the protest are extremely important, but it is equally important for these protests to be peaceful, for vandalism not to take place. That just hurts the city,” she added.
In another X post, the Los Angeles Police Department wrote that officers arrested a suspect “who was allegedly using a sling shot to shoot hard metal objects at officers who were standing on the line.”
⚠️Community Advisory⚠️
Officers have arrested a suspect who was allegedly using a sling shot to shoot hard metal objects at officers who were standing on the line.
— LAPD Central Division (@LAPDCentral) January 31, 2026
The January 30 protests were part of a “national shutdown,” calling on people to skip school, work, and shopping amid the fatal shootings of U.S. citizens Renee Good and Alex Pretti in Minneapolis.
Pretti was shot dead by a U.S. Border Patrol officer in Minneapolis on January 24, 2026. The DHS shared a statement on their X account shortly after Pretti’s passing, stating that the ICU nurse “approached US Border Patrol officers with a 9 mm semi-automatic handgun,” as the DHS law enforcement officers “were conducting a targeted operation in Minneapolis against an illegal alien wanted for violent assault.”
As the officers attempted to disarm Pretti, the DHS alleged that he “violently resisted,” prompting an officer to fire “defensive shots.” “Medics on scene immediately delivered medical aid to the subject, but was pronounced dead at the scene,” the statement added.
It further continued, “The suspect also had 2 magazines and no ID—this looks like a situation where an individual wanted to do maximum damage and massacre law enforcement.”
However, multiple individuals came to Pretti’s defence as footage verified by The New York Times appeared to contradict the authorities’ statement. According to the footage, Alex was seen holding his phone in one hand, instead of a gun, during the altercation.
A few days before Pretti’s fatal shooting, 37-year-old mother of three, Renee Nicole Good, was killed in Minneapolis by an ICE agent on January 7.
