Los Angeles crisis

AP News -  More than two dozen journalists have been injured or roughed up while covering protests against immigration raids in Los Angeles, leading press freedom groups to question whether law enforcement has been deliberately targeting reporters on the story.

Journalists have been pelted with rubber bullets or pepper spray, including an Australian TV reporter struck while doing a live shot and a New York Post reporter left with a giant welt on his forehead after taking a direct hit. A CNN crew was briefly detained then released on Monday night.

The advocacy group Reporters Without Borders said Wednesday there have been at least 35 attacks on journalists — 30 from law enforcement — since the demonstrations started.

The Committee to Protect Journalists, the First Amendment Coalition and Freedom of the Press Foundation were among the groups to express concern to Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem. In a letter, they said “federal officers appear to have deliberately targeted journalists who were doing nothing more than their job covering the news.” 

NBC - President Donald Trump, for now, can keep control of the thousands of National Guard troops he deployed in response to immigration protests in Los Angeles, an appeals court ruled last night, pausing a lower court's order that found his actions to be unlawful. The decision from a three-judge panel in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals came hours after U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer issued a temporary restraining order that had been set to go into effect today, saying Trump's deployment of the troops was unlawful. While Breyer's order did not apply to the deployment of 700 Marines to L.A., the appeals court ruling does. The appeals court hearing on the matter is scheduled for Tuesday. 

The Guardian -   A Los Angeles protester charged with assaulting a federal officer at a recent demonstration against immigration raids says he himself was brutally attacked by law enforcement and is strongly rejecting prosecutors’ allegations.

Jose Manuel Mojica, a 30-year-old born in LA, spoke to the Guardian on Wednesday at his apartment, two days after he was released from jail and charged with a federal crime carrying up to eight years in prison.

The father of four said he had gone to a Saturday demonstration in Paramount, in southern LA county near his home, after hearing reports of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) indiscriminately targeting workers and neighbors in his predominantly Latino community.

When he tried to de-escalate tensions between federal agents and protesters, he said, a group of officers took him to the ground, held him in a chokehold and pushed him into the pavement, causing a large contusion on his nose and bruises all over his body. His lawyer provided cellphone footage that partially captured the scuffle.

“We are not the violent ones. They escalated it. They are chasing down innocent people,” said Mojica, who lifted his shirt to show the bruises on his ribs. “There was a different way to handle the situation than to beat me.”

NPR - Federal agents handcuffed and forcibly removed Sen. Alex Padilla from a Homeland Security press conference held by DHS Secretary Kristi Noem. A statement on the department's X account accuses Padilla of "disrespectful political theatre." NPR's Claudia Grisales says Democrats are furious. She adds that some have said this was a defining moment for the U.S, and Padilla's removal is part of a series of actions by the administration signaling a new era of authoritarian rule.