"Why did they get us here if they weren't going to let us in?" grumped a longtime KNX News reporter, one of two dozen media people queued up Thursday morning outside the federal building in West Los Angeles. Unlike the scenes in front of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) building downtown, where hundreds had been gathering since last Friday, there were no protesters around, apparently either not knowing or not caring that DHS Secretary Kristi Noem would be holding a press conference at 10:30 a.m.
By 10:45 a.m., when it became clear we were not going to be let inside, a few of us gathered around an L.A. Times reporter's phone to listen to a live feed coming from a local station. Noem started by thanking law enforcement ("They've been absolute rock stars") and reaffirming the Trump administration's commitment to continuing the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids, which Noem said had so far resulted in more than 1,200 arrests.
"Let me give you a few examples," she said, citing "a Vietnamese illegal alien who committed a mass shooting at a graduation party in 1994" before her voice was lost under the sound of a scuffle, and someone shouting "I have questions for the secretary," and then "Hands off!"
