Curfew in place in downtown LA after 5 days of protests, unrest
Police take cover from projectiles during protests over the Trump administration’s immigration raids in Los Angeles, Monday, June 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
LOS ANGELES – A one-square-mile section of downtown Los Angeles will again be under a dusk-to-dawn curfew tonight following five days of protests and unrest sparked by federal immigration enforcement in Los Angeles.
Mayor Karen Bass announced the 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. curfew Tuesday in an attempt to stop looting and vandalism that has beset the area since Friday. The curfew applies to an area between the Golden State (5) and Harbor (110) freeways, and from the Santa Monica (10) Freeway to where the Arroyo Seco (110) Parkway and Golden State Freeway merge, Bass said Tuesday evening.
A person carrying multiple flags walks past a burning car during protests over the Trump administration’s immigration raids in Los Angeles, Monday, June 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
That area includes Skid Row, Chinatown, and the Arts and Fashion districts.
“If you do not live or work in downtown L.A., avoid the area,” Bass said. “Law enforcement will arrest individuals who break the curfew, and you will be prosecuted.”
Police block a street during a protest on Tuesday, June 10, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer)
There will be “limited exceptions” to the curfew — including for residents of the area, “people traveling to and from work and credentialed media representatives,” the mayor said.
A protester is arrested by by law enforcement officers in downtown Los Angeles near the federal building on Tuesday, June 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer)
Bass said she expects the curfew to be in effect for “several days,” and that she will consult with law enforcement officials Wednesday about extending the curfew for additional days.
Police began enforcing the curfew immediately. According to the Los Angeles Police Department, officers advanced on large crowds that were gathered downtown when the curfew took effect Tuesday night, and “the majority of the crowd left the area.”
Police block a street during a protest on Tuesday, June 10, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer)
Police said those with a valid ID were cited at the scene and released, unless they had outstanding warrants. On Wednesday morning, LAPD officials said 17 people were arrested for curfew violations on Tuesday night.
Throughout the day Tuesday, the LAPD arrested 203 people for failure to disperse. Three people were arrested for possession of a firearm, one for assault with a deadly weapon and one for discharging a laser at an LAPD airship.
Two officers were injured during Tuesday’s unrest, according to the LAPD.
Los Angeles Archbishop José Gomez celebrated a special Wednesday Mass at the Cathedral of Our Lady of the Angels in downtown L.A. to “unite our communities in prayer during this time of unrest.”
The mayor’s curfew announcement followed yet another day of protests that saw demonstrators gathered outside the downtown Metropolitan Detention Center — while a splinter group made its way onto the Hollywood (101) Freeway, briefly blocking both directions of traffic.
The federal detention center on Alameda and Aliso streets has been a common site of protests over the previous four days, along with the nearby federal building and federal courthouse. The MDC is believed to be the facility where immigrant detainees taken into custody in recent days are being held.
The nearby federal building on Los Angeles Street houses the local office of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Hundreds of people gathered outside MDC Tuesday afternoon, but National Guard troops formed a skirmish line to prevent them from entering the facility. By early afternoon, the LAPD had ordered the crowd to disperse, and many protesters made their way either north or south on Alameda Street, away from the MDC.
Several dozen protesters, however, remained near the facility, and LAPD officers in skirmish lines quickly surrounded the group and began making arrests, loading the protesters into buses.
As those arrests were made, a group of several hundred protesters marched east on Temple Street then made their way north to the 101 Freeway, crawled through a gap in a chain link fence and walked onto the freeway, blocking traffic on both sides.
California Highway Patrol officers, however, took aggressive action to push the crowd off the roadway. The protesters then marched back toward the downtown area.
Protests have been occurring daily in the area since Friday, when ICE agents carried out a series of immigration enforcement raids, detaining dozens of people. (CNS)
