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Despite court order, federal officials use Penske truck to fool and arrest immigrants in LA

August 6, 2025

Federal agents apparently tried to fool immigrants by arriving in the MacArthur Park area of Los Angeles in a Penske rental truck.

In video on Fox11, U.S. Border Patrol personnel — dressed in green fatigues — hopped out of the storage compartment in Wednesday morning, Aug. 6, to make arrests.

The operation took place, even though there is a federal court order limiting immigration-enforcement arrests in Southern California.

The operation took place around 7 a.m., near a Home Depot about three blocks west of MacArthur Park.

According to the video taken by Fox11, which had a crew embedded with the Border Patrol, the agents ran toward a group of people near a sidewalk food stand. The crowd scattered.

But Fox11 reported that 16 people were taken into custody. Many of them were put into the truck’s storage area.

Department of Homeland Security officials told Fox News that the notorious MS-13 gang has a “chokehold” on the area, necessitating such operations. Federal officials made similar comments last month when 100 or so personnel swept through MacArthur Park. Mayor Karen Bass showed up and ask them to leave.

The Border Patrol is one of the agencies that falls under Homeland Security’s umbrella.

In reaction to Wednesday’s raid, Penske Truck Rental put out a statement saying it strictly prohibits the transportation of people in the cargo areas of its vehicles under any circumstance.

“The company was not made aware that its trucks would be used in today’s operation and did not authorize this,” it said. “Penske will reach out to DHS and reinforce its policy to avoid improper use of its vehicles in the future.”

In addition to Wednesday’s operations, there were reports on social media of immigration raids over the weekend.

The nonprofit American Civil Liberties Union is looking into those reports and Wednesday’s operation.

“Per the court orders from July, the federal government — including DHS — is barred from continuing its unlawful actions in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, and Ventura counties,” said Mohammad Tajsar, a senior staff attorney at the ACLU Foundation of Southern California.

The court’s temporary restraining order, he said, bars immigration agents from stopping people without reasonable suspicion, and prohibits them from just relying apparent ethnicity, speaking Spanish, or because of the workplace.

“We will continue monitoring and alert the court of any further unlawful actions,” he added.

On X, U.S. Attorney for Los Angeles Bill Essayli acknowledged the operation, writing, “For those who thought immigration enforcement had stopped in Southern California, think again. The enforcement of federal law is not negotiable, and there are no sanctuaries from the reach of the federal government.”

The federal government appealed the ruling, but last week the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals declined to halt the ruling. The federal government is likely to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

City News Service contributed to this report.

Orange County Register

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Despite court order, federal officials use Penske truck to fool and arrest immigrants in LA

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