'It's going to get ugly': L.A. braces for immigration raids

In a county where 1 in 3 residents are immigrants, a sense of anger and dread erupted Monday as noncitizens and their families realized the immigration raids that rocked their lives this summer could become a never-ending nightmare.

- BRITTNY MEJIA, RACHEL URANGA AND RUBEN VIVES

PROTESTERS at a news conference in L.A.'s Westlake district after the ruling.

Monday's Supreme Court order gave the green light to what critics called “indiscriminate” immigration stops that led to thousands of arrests and set off days of protests in the Los Angeles area. The federal government now says it will continue in earnest.

"DHS law enforcement will continue to FLOOD THE ZONE in Los Angeles," the Department of Homeland Security declared on X shortly after the ruling.

A raft of immigrant rights groups, Democratic politicians and lawyers denounced the ruling. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass called it "dangerous" and an "attack on every person in every city in this country." Gov. Gavin Newsom said the "handpicked Supreme Court majority just became the grand marshal for a parade of racial terror in Los Angeles."

Some fear agents could become even more aggressive during the raids — which have led to at least two documented deaths.

The order comes just as the Trump administration vows to ramp up raids in sanctuary cities across the country, including Chicago this week.

"They've been given carte blanche to go after anyone," said Maegan Ortiz, executive director of a nonprofit group that works with day laborers. "My real concern is that it's going to get ugly."

In Los Angeles, nowhere was the sting felt more keenly than at the car washes and Home Depots targeted by Border Patrol agents throughout the late spring and summer—where they have continued to arrest people even after a federal judge ordered a temporary halt to sweeps that use race as a factor to stop individuals. The ruling Monday gave authorities the goahead to continue operating with those tactics while the issues are litigated in the lower courts.