Senator Pérez Demands Trump Administration Halt Immigration Raids After Monrovia Fatality

State Senator Sasha Renée Pérez (D-Pasadena) is calling on the Trump administration to immediately stop immigration raids in Los Angeles County following Thursday’s death of a man during an enforcement action in Monrovia.

The man was reportedly killed on the 210 Freeway after fleeing into traffic during a raid.

Pérez, who represents communities including Pasadena and Altadena, condemned the incident as part of “President Trump’s terror campaign,” and urged federal compliance with a court order barring such operations.

“President Trump’s terror campaign has taken another life,” Pérez said in a statement Thursday. “My heart goes out to the family of the man killed today on the 210 freeway in my district. There is such incredible fear in our immigrant communities, so much so that people will run into freeway traffic out of fear when all they want is a chance to support their family and seek the American Dream.”

Pérez spotlighted that the raids violate a federal court order issued by the U.S. District Court’s Central District of California, which includes Los Angeles County. The judge previously ruled the raids constituted illegal racial profiling and imposed a temporary restraining order.

“The bottom line is these violent, sweeping raids should not be happening,” she said. “The Trump Administration is violating a federal court order by continuing to conduct deadly roving immigration raids within the area of the U.S. District Court’s Central District of California that includes Los Angeles County. These raids have been ruled to be illegal racial profiling by a federal judge and the Trump Administration has been ordered to comply with a temporary restraining order.”

“How many more brown-skinned people have to die before the President will obey the law?” Pérez added. “There is a better way. Comprehensive immigration reform that both parties work on is the only solution. I renew my call to pursue this path and stop the terror.”

Pérez is the author of SB 98, the SAFE Act, which would require schools to notify communities if immigration enforcement authorities appear on campus. She also introduced SB 805, the No Vigilantes Act, which expands police impersonation laws, requires law enforcement to clearly display agency ID and badge or name, authorizes officers to request ID from anyone claiming to be law enforcement, and bans bounty hunters from engaging in immigration enforcement in California.

She chairs the Senate Education Committee and represents the 25th Senate District, which includes Glendale, Pasadena, Alhambra, Altadena, Arcadia, Claremont, Glendora, La Cañada Flintridge, La Crescenta-Montrose, Monrovia, Monterey Park, Rosemead, San Gabriel, San Marino, Sierra Madre, South Pasadena, Temple City, Fontana, Rancho Cucamonga, Upland, and San Antonio Heights.