LA Mayor Compares Trump’s ICE ‘Kidnappings’ to Japanese Internment Camps and Fugitive Slave Patrols

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass (D) compared President Donald Trump’s sending ICE agents to arrest illegal immigrants to “fugitive slave patrols” and to the U.S. putting Americans of Japanese heritage into internment camps during World War II.

Bass made the comparison during an appearance on the At Our Table with Jaime Harrison podcast on Tuesday. Harrison is a former chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

The mayor lamented ICE’s “kidnappings” were wrecking her city and had turned several neighborhoods into “ghost towns.” Bass also said it was disgusting that many Latino high schoolers ditched their June graduation ceremonies — which coincided with ICE raids — because they were afraid of getting deported.

“That’s such a significant milestone,” Harrison added dejectedly.

A moment later, Harrison asked, “What can average people do to pushback on this authoritarianism?”

“I always look at history, and I think this is a moral assault on our democracy,” Bass said. “And we need to look back at history when things like this have happened before — the internment of the Japanese, the fugitive slave patrols, which is what this has felt like.”

Bass continued by saying it was “extremely important” for people to protest the Trump Administration.

“Part of what they’re doing is they’re trying to normalize military intervention. They’re experimenting with all of our cities,” Bass said. “So should they need to have martial law, should they need to cancel an election, well, okay, the military [is ready]. This has never happened in our country before.”

Her comments follow Trump sending ICE and Border Patrol agents to several major cities beyond LA in 2025, including New York City, Chicago, and Charlotte.

Those raids were often met with protestors and rioters. Anti-ICE rioters at one raid in Manhattan in November “threw planters” and “chased” federal agents during an operation targeting a parking garage in Chinatown, leading to multiple arrests.

NewsNation, the month prior, captured another anti-ICE protest in NYC. Reporter Jessica Kartalija captured the frenzied clash, reporting protestors were “yelling racial slurs” and “pushing” federal agents as they swarmed their vehicles.

Trump told 60 Minutes in November he felt the ICE raids hadn’t “gone far enough” and had been stifled by “liberal judges.”

Watch Bass above.