The D Brief: Masked show-of-force in LA; US restarts aid to Ukraine; Israel’s plans for Gazans; DHS intel chief testifies; And a bit more.
Ben Watson and Bradley Peniston | July 8, 2025
The D Brief Deportations National Guard Homeland White House Ukraine Missile Defense Russia Israel
Guard troops, ICE stage photo op in Los Angeles park. A masked and heavily-armed assortment of agents from nine agencies and the National Guard flooded a public park in California Monday morning for an hourlong “show of force akin to a Hollywood movie,” the Los Angeles Times reported after images surfaced online and via embedded Fox TV cameras.
Agency representation included Customs and Border Protection; Immigration and Customs Enforcement; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; the Drug Enforcement Administration; the Federal Bureau of Investigation; the Federal Protective Service; Homeland Security Investigations; ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations; the U.S. Marshals Service; the Internal Revenue Service; the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department; and the LA Police Department. “They came with horses and armored vehicles, carrying rifles and in tactical gear…But there were few of their supposed targets to be found Monday—immigrants without documentation,” three Times reporters write.
Involved: 17 Humvees, four tactical vehicles, two ambulances, horses, and around 80 armed National Guard soldiers.
The multi-agency presence lasted “for about an hour before abruptly leaving” after Mayor Karen Bass showed up and began asking questions, the Associated Press reports. Bass shared a short video of the immigration raid sweeping across the park Monday, calling it “Absolutely outrageous,” and said, “It’s the way a city looks before a coup.”
https://www.defenseone.com/threats/2025/07/the-d-brief-july-08-2025/406568/?oref=d1-homepage-river
