Mexico’s President, Claudia Sheinbaum, pushed back against US immigration enforcement and defended Mexican nationals living in the United States after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids in Los Angeles led to mass arrests and riots.

“Mexicans living in the United States are good men and women, honest people who went to the United States to seek a better life for themselves and to support their families. They are not criminals. They are good men and women.” Sheinbaum said in a Sunday press conference, per the Daily Mail.
 

"We disagree with this approach to the migration phenomenon," she said. "It's not about raids or violence, but rather working on a comprehensive reform that takes into account the Mexicans on the other side of the border. That is our position, always a call for peace, to not exacerbate any form of violent protest."

The comments came after the waves of ICE raids that started on Friday in the Los Angeles area, where agents carried out coordinated workplace operations. Sheinbaum said that 35 Mexican nationals were among those detained. NPR reported that ICE made a total of 118 arrests in the region as part of a nationwide effort that saw the agency averaging 2,000 arrests per day last week.

The enforcement actions triggered large-scale protests, which led to riots across Los Angeles, including outside federal buildings downtown and in the city of Paramount.

Demonstrators carried signs, chanted slogans like “ICE out of LA!” and raised Mexican flags. Fires were set and agitators were seen throwing rocks at authorities. Federal agents responded with tear gas and flash-bang grenades in an attempt to disperse the crowds.

In response to the unrest, President Donald Trump deployed 2,000 National Guard troops to Los Angeles. The US military confirmed that 300 soldiers from the 79th Infantry Brigade Combat Team were dispatched to secure federal property and personnel at three sites in the greater LA area. Troops in full combat gear were seen posted outside government buildings.

California Governor Gavin Newsom criticized the deployment as politically motivated. “Trump is sending 2,000 National Guard troops into LA County -- not to meet an unmet need, but to manufacture a crisis,” Newsom said Sunday on X. “He's hoping for chaos so he can justify more crackdowns, more fear, more control.”