NoStupidQuestions

Serious Question…Why are the immigration raids so prevalent in LA. Is it just the news media that is driving so much coverage? Why don’t we see this happening in upstate NY for example.

https://www.reddit.com/r/NoStupidQuestions/comments/1lv5cej/serious_questionwhy_are_the_immigration_raids_so/
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Discussion

GuavaShaper

There has been a significant increase in the amount of immigration raids in Western Pennsylvania, far away from LA. I can't speak for upstate NY.

17 hours ago
henchman171

https://www.wivb.com/news/local-news/erie-county/kenmore/kenmore-residents-startled-after-police-raid-neighborhood-home/

16 hours ago
WeatherHunterBryant

Mainly because California, specifically Los Angeles, has a high Hispanic population. Another reason is because Los Angeles is just a few hours away from the border, Upstate New York is very far from the border.

18 hours ago
Ebice42

Upstate NY has had raids. Sackets Harbor pestered Tom Holman and got them back.
But there are far fewer people in upstate NY than in LA. https://www.nyic.org/2025/04/sackets-harbor-family-has-been-released-from-ice-detention/

17 hours ago
henchman171

https://www.wivb.com/news/local-news/erie-county/kenmore/kenmore-residents-startled-after-police-raid-neighborhood-home/

16 hours ago
dwpea66

It's also a revenge thing. It's a big liberal city.

16 hours ago
Hopeful_Ad_7719

A big liberal city that made a big fuss about being a sanctuary for the targets of these raids, no less. Going after LA is both efficient and effective at removing a concentration those targets (versus, say, targeting somewhere like Erie, PA), and calculated at sending a message that sanctuaries are not safe.

It's vicious, but it's not a bad strategy given the stated and implied goals.

7 hours ago
Material_Policy6327

Also conservatives hate dem cities and la is huge one

17 hours ago
PreparationKey2843

That's my take on it, it's a blue city in a blue state. He's pushing the boundaries there, itching for a reason to pull out his army. Once he does it there, he'll have an "excuse" to do the same across America, wherever people push back.
He's invading America to "save" America.

17 hours ago
Syringmineae

Not just a blue state, but a blue state that has a governor who hates Republicans.

17 hours ago
Pantherdraws

lmao Newsom doesn't hate Republicans, he practically IS one and has been bending over backwards to appeal to them, presumably because he wants to run for President and thinks that will help him.

14 hours ago
Icy-Bicycle-Crab

Yeah, Trumps ICE thugs aren't raiding the red state businesses owned by his donors. 

11 hours ago
nickleback_official

Yes they are. Just yesterday on NPR they had an Idaho farmer talking about how they weren’t able to get any labor. Here in Texas it’s been well documented too.

5 hours ago
bionic_cmdo

They hate Democratic run cities but sure love them sweet socialism tax money from them.

15 hours ago
Bodydysmorphiaisreal

That's because those people are in the "in-group" and money is being taken from the "out-group". There's zero nuance to be had, everything boils down to this for the right.

14 hours ago
Icy-Anything-9506

Also traditionally, northern NY (I’m assuming OP means the land of New York near the Canadian border) is filled with pasty Canadians and Native Americans who smuggle booze into the US in an attempt to avoid taxes. Sure there are Hispanics up there, but there are far more Hispanics in LA (the real target of ICE) than NY. It has nothing to do with actual immigration enforcement. It has everything to do with getting rid of brown people.

I would challenge OP to think of it like this. If you lived in a small village in Bavaria with relatively few Jews in 1939, would that mean that the holocaust isn’t ongoing? You never see the SS or Gestapo rounding up people, you never hear of your neighbors going missing. So perhaps the holocaust isn’t as bad as we think.

I recognize the severe hyperbole in my example, but it’s to show O0 how utterly rediculous it is to say “because it’s not happening here, is it really happening??”

10 hours ago
WarmHugs1206

LA is the most populous sanctuary city on the Wear Coast. Sanctuary city refers to the policies, not to the population demographics.

16 hours ago
seeasea

New York is a border state. Has a longer border than California 

18 hours ago
AcmeCartoonVillian

I am reminded of a stupid joke I heard about Walls in the 2016 election:

"Walls work. China has a bigass wall... Hardly any Mexicans"

The point is that New York's border is with Canada, and the racists don't care about illegal Canadians as much... (if at all)

18 hours ago
squirrelcat88

Also - very few of us have any interest in illegally entering the US!

If you know you would make far more money in the US, and be better off - you’re doing something that means you wouldn’t have any problem immigrating legally to the US anyway. Doctors and tech bros etc etc will be able to get a green card.

Semi skilled construction workers and bus drivers and servers - the sort of jobs where you are less likely to be able to get a green card - are much better financially staying here anyway.

17 hours ago
Electronic_Stop_9493

Canadians generally don’t but some use Canada as a third country to illegally enter. There was a big human smuggling article a few years ago because Indian immigrants were being smuggled and I think some died in the snow unfortunately

17 hours ago
squirrelcat88

You know what? Whichever side of the border you’re on, fair point.

16 hours ago
nachosmind

They don’t have enough ‘illegals’ to satisfy their hatred and have been repealing green cards of doctorates recently 

17 hours ago
squirrelcat88

Oh, we hear this here, believe me. It doesn’t make any of us more eager to move there.

17 hours ago
LittleMsSavoirFaire

How goes the boycott? Haven't heard much about it lately 

17 hours ago
squirrelcat88

That’s because we’ve gotten new buying patterns. It took some mental energy at the beginning to find alternatives but now we’re just buying the same non-American stuff we bought last week and the week before.

16 hours ago
Mojicana

Yes, but Canadians are mostly white.

16 hours ago
helloimhere01234

Upstate NY is very close to the border… and there is a LOT of ice action happening up here, just not reported nationally

15 hours ago
EffRedditAI

That is true.

Also: the president loathes California and will do anything he can to interfere with the state's governance and it's people. He loves nothing more than to create a bad situation and then blame Democratic leaders who had nothing to do with it.

17 hours ago
SuccessfulTwo3483

Democrats have everything to do with what’s going on here.

13 hours ago
EffRedditAI

Sure, sure, sure. Hey, just to enlighten others, why don't you post FOX's top 10 talking points about this?

2 minutes ago
Jingoisticbell

No.

16 hours ago
willin21

There is another border. It’s in upstate New York.

15 hours ago
Gloomy_Setting5936

You’re on the money. Here in SoCal it’s a big deal because Hispanics are the biggest group.

Hell, it’s not just Hispanics who are riled up over the ICE raids, it’s also white, black, and Asian folks who grew up alongside their Hispanic friends and they’re out there protesting.

13 hours ago
rubikscanopener

I've seen estimates that 7% or so of LA's population is undocumented. For ICE, it's a target rich environment.

1 hour ago
bigyellowjoint

Upstate New York is literally on the border lol

17 hours ago
RGV_KJ

Border with Canada, not Mexico. Big difference.

17 hours ago
henchman171

https://www.wivb.com/news/local-news/erie-county/kenmore/kenmore-residents-startled-after-police-raid-neighborhood-home/

16 hours ago
Snoobunny3910

Upstate NY HAS had immigration raids recently… and a few small protests against them that have made the local news… but it’s very rural and a lot of immigrants work and live on the farms. You’ll see them occasionally come into the stores to buy food and necessities (they usually arrive on repurposed school buses) but overall they are somewhat isolated from the communities. So I imagine when raids happen, there’s not many people/small town journalists around to witness it. 

17 hours ago
LittleMsSavoirFaire

Yeah, I saw an article about how dismayed the dairy farmers are because ICE cleared out their staff 

17 hours ago
Snoobunny3910

Yes it’s a mixture of Amish farms and “English” (as they refer to us) farms in upstate NY. The Amish farm amongst themselves and sell their food and other homemade goods to the locals. They also have construction (carpentry, roofing/siding) businesses. Then we have a large population of Mennonites who fall somewhere between the Amish and the English (depending on the group)and they usually farm or do skilled labor as well.  The English farms often rely on immigrants for labor here. 

17 hours ago
Archarchery

The farmers ought to be the ones in jail, not the illegal immigrants.

6 hours ago
gogo_sweetie

NOWWW you’re thinking. because here’s a better question- wheres the raids in Texas? Everyone claims its happening in Cali because of the density but Texas has just as high of a population of Hispanic people concentrated into one area, and we havent had any of those sensationalized raids. if they really wanted to scoop up a bunch of people, Texas is easy. But they dont. Its about the headlines.

17 hours ago
Ok_Award_8421

https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/ice-houston-arrests-422-illegal-aliens-deports-528-during-week-long-operation-aimed

12 hours ago
clemdane

Texas isn't fighting them. California is.

12 hours ago
richardblack3

Good point. Big ole upvote for you

13 hours ago
Nervous-Law-666

They happen just as regularly in Texas. We just don’t have the sensationalized media coverage and rioting to draw the same attention.

4 hours ago
FieryFiya

Big city, big Hispanic population. San Antonio is also being targeted but it’s not considered a big city like LA. San Antonio does not get many clicks when it shows up in the news outlets

18 hours ago
Prize-Interaction755 OP

So then with the recent announcement in funding for ICE, what happens then? Now they start spreading out over the country in larger numbers? Start with high density and work down from there? Suppose I’m just trying to grasp why in my mind I would expect to ICE everywhere. 🤷‍♂️

17 hours ago
No-Strawberry-5804

They’ve made it clear they intend to be everywhere; they’re just starting in high density areas

17 hours ago
PinkSlimeIsPeople

The answer is pretty simple: fascists today are targeting left wing cities just like fascists in the 1930s did in Germany. LA is currently in their sights, SF or NY could be next.

14 hours ago
Stunning_Cause6923

california right next to mexico pal

18 hours ago
Efarm12

So is Arizona, New Mexico and Texas, buddy!

10 hours ago
Uhhyt231

Theyre targeting specific cities

18 hours ago
bigyellowjoint

Because Stephen Miller is from LA and he got bullied in high school

17 hours ago
Prize-Interaction755 OP

🤣 wouldn’t surprise me

17 hours ago
Witty-Individual-229

1 in 9 undocumented

17 hours ago
Some_Troll_Shaman

They are trying to do the raids in secret, like proper unaccountable secret police.
So we may not know where all of them are happening.
But,
The Administration HATES California for a laundry list of reasons including but not limited to;
Liberal, Multicultural and it is the 4th largest Economy in the world and the USA can't live without it.
So it will be targeted more.

The interesting thing to see is if this roundup and purge is going to cause a famine because farms are not getting harvested because even appropriately licensed and papered seasonal workers are too scared to show up in case the men with guns show up and kidnap them.

No doubt it is happening everywhere, but there are far more people and far more victimizable people in California. The way bullies work is to punch down against the weak until people with compassion stop interfering with them.

9 hours ago
Intelligent-Invite79

I feel like along with a significant immigrant population, LA is showing a lot of resistance, and the government is trying to crush their will as well as use them as an example.

7 hours ago
LongDistRid3r

California attracts illegal immigrants with free health care and free social support. Great attractant for ICE. Makes for easy prey.

17 hours ago
Ruthless4u

It’s not free though, at least to the citizens.

4 hours ago
LongDistRid3r

No it is not. We pay higher rates to compensate for social programs and insurance reductions. Making healthcare unaffordable for many.

4 hours ago
Top_Wop

Because it's a blue state.

16 hours ago
Jumpy_Childhood7548

Upstate NY is not exactly a media center. LA is being targeted politically, and because it is a media center.

16 hours ago
Delta-IX

More OTW(other than white) in LA

14 hours ago
Cmacbudboss

It’s an intentional political strategy to cause violence in Democratic controlled cities because then they spin it to thier base that liberal cities are out of control and only an authoritarian crackdown can restore order. Red states clap and applaud and go along with the decent into fascism because hating liberal Californians is more satisfying than preserving democratic insitutions.

13 hours ago
SlamJansen

Because it's a big blue target and Hollywood never accepted him.

13 hours ago
Embarrassed_Flan_869

It's for his fangirls. It's nothing more than media clicks.

LA IS OVERRUN WITH ILLEGALS! RAPISTS! MURDERS! THIS IS WHAT DEMOCRATS DO!!!

No one cares that a bunch of farm workers get kicked out in upstate NY.

It's the same reason why in Florida or Texas, you don't see the same headlines for the raids that happen. Red states. How else can Krusty Noem have another commercial using taxpayer money?

7 hours ago
KingPen15

The actual reason is that la policy prevents ice from working directly with local law enforcement. This means that they are forced to carry out operations in the street, in the view of the public, where panic and fear lead to riots and looting. It's called manufactured outrage, and you are a victim. Blame your mayor.

7 hours ago
Throwaway472025

What was it that the guy said, "Why do you rob banks?" "Because that's where the money is."

You must not ever have been to upstate New York.

6 hours ago
Spiritual-Pear-1349
  • Large Hispanic population
  • Close to the border
  • Most populous state
  • Largest agriculture sector
  • Wealthiest state
  • Democratic state
5 hours ago
BrettV79

Media

Media drives the fear in every "story"

They're going to report where they can stir up the most fear and division.

4 hours ago
zeus64068
  1. Because L. A. has the highest population of illegal immigrants in the country. It has been a sanctuary city longer than anywhere else.

  2. The so called mainstream media isn't covering the other states due to them not being an "dramatic." The protests around ICE get the coverage due to the media not actually caring about the people involved.

  3. A raid where everything goes quietly and there is not enough protesters gets ignored.

  4. Dallas and New Orleans have had far more deportations and no one is reporting anything about those cities.

4 hours ago
LayneLowe

Because California is a liberal state and Gavin Newsom is likely the 2028 Democratic nominee

1 hour ago
Bobtheguardian22

My wife told me that the local Spanish music radio station plays a song when they get wind of ICE raids happening in the Hispanic neighborhoods.

17 hours ago
Tackysock46

Taking away population from California so that way they lose house seats at the next census ;)

17 hours ago
Thick-Matter-2023

It’s just a matter of time. How much money did ICE just get in the OBBB? $45 million? Just wait until you run to Home Depot and there are armed, masked men standing outside the store. It freaks me out.

16 hours ago
TacticalSkeptic2

Because since 1990s ICE has claimed half of illegals in U.S. are in California!

17 hours ago
LittleMsSavoirFaire

California has the world's 4th largest economy so clearly the illegals are not a drag on the system 

17 hours ago
Kamirose

ICE wasn’t established until 2003.

13 hours ago
TacticalSkeptic2

PREDECESSOR agency INS.

10 hours ago
lordvitamin

ICE and the regime in power are purposely pushing videos showing ICE activity in California in order to provoke a violent response from their democratic counterparts.

17 hours ago
Dazzling_Pink9751

Because Los Angeles has one of the largest undocumented immigrant populations in the United States.

16 hours ago
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16 hours ago
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16 hours ago
Phreenom

In addition to what others have said, I also think it’s part of a larger agenda to sow fear and discord, get people used to the reality of a militarized federal police force with actual (illegal) military elements, and finally, to provoke civil unrest which will then be used to declare a national “emergency” (he loves to create those to justify seizing more power). Once the emergency order is in effect, his new, very well funded federal police force can then crack down hard on everyone considered an “enemy”. Oh, and no more elections. He did tell us as much…

Edit: And yeah, he hates California and all those evil Democrats there.

14 hours ago
GuessSad6940

LA is hugely Mexican, and you know discount Mussolini doesn’t like that.  He’s been targeting small islands off the coast of Massachusetts, that feels weird. It’s a grudge based Presidency. In the 98% of the country he hasn’t bothered to learn about, you’re safe

13 hours ago
RingGiver

Almost everyone who lives in upstate New York was born in New York.

13 hours ago
slothboy

There are a lot more illegal immigrants in Los Angeles than NY. This is because it's like 2000 miles closer to Mexico. 

Thanks for attending my TED talk

12 hours ago
somerandomshmo

There are an estimated 1 million illegal aliens in the Los Angeles area. Its also the area most entrenched in defending illegal immigration. ICE will have the biggest presence there due to these to points.

With the huge increase in ICE funding, you'll see more ICE activity in the next year.

12 hours ago
grumpy_pants

Because that's the location for infamous riots and they're banking on some riots for the next stage

12 hours ago
JNA_1106

There’s a lot of brown in LA. That’s all they care about.

11 hours ago
CynicalOne28

Do you know a lot of illegal Norwegian’s?

9 hours ago
JNA_1106

Yea because Norway is a horrible place and those people are coming here in hoards lol

1 hour ago
Cookiesoncookies

Hella Mexicans in LA, and Cheeto face is obsessed with “bad hombres,” it’s his kink.

11 hours ago
Googlyelmoo

Numbers

11 hours ago
Sweaty-Art-8966

LA is full of Mexicans?

10 hours ago
redditnz1

Check the population of illegals in LA. It's higher than 20%.

9 hours ago
Savings_Thing51

Same for Florida. Huge illegal immigrant population. Small raids so far.

9 hours ago
Prize-Interaction755 OP

Based off others comments he likes Florida right, so they wouldn’t be targeted right away???

9 hours ago
peter303_

L.A. area is about 38% foreign born, with a significant fraction without legal papers. Immigration enforcement could profile anyone brown and with an accent and find someone almost every outing. There is a huge pressure from the administration top officials (S.M.) for regular arrest quotas.

I suppose San Diego, NYC, Texas and Florida could be in the same situation at some time.

8 hours ago
xXtechnobroXx

California is far more Left, than Upstate NY.

8 hours ago
Federal_Formal5783

Or construction sites in Texas?

8 hours ago
mishaxz

If you want better coverage of some of these raids and without all the media bias. Then watch the cash Jordan YouTube channel.. from what I saw of it, it was good..

7 hours ago
HottieNbusty

My friend lives in Rochester and she always asks me the same thing. The difference is that upstate NY doesn't have the same concentration of people without status. LA has entire neighborhoods where this affects families so when raids happen it's impossible to ignore.

7 hours ago
Ragazzatl

We’ve had raids in suburban Atlanta, but we aren’t as densely populated OR there is significantly less coverage. For example, they had a raid at a Hispanic grocery store in Roswell. 46 people.

7 hours ago
zkfc020

Because this is ALL a show….there are no riots….but you have ICE, the FBI, US Marines, and the California National Guard….all armed, and cosplaying…..driving around and picking up ONE PERSON….who usually is an American Citizen….Think about the videos you have seen….10-30 fully armed cosplayers grabbing ONE PERSON….we should be able to deport the 3 million people TACO wants…..it will take 500 years…..think about the cost….the resources…..6 months of this cosplaying….and how many has he deported…100,000.

7 hours ago
Then-Ticket8896

I live i a rural community and the bastards are attacking brown people. The government is a bully atm. Just like TACOboy.

6 hours ago
Difficult_Prize_5430

MSM want you to feel sorry when they are the problem.

5 hours ago
agmccall

Because politicians are not interfering in order to get on the news

5 hours ago
External_Union3316

LA is a sprawled city with a high population. They can control areas of operation while still not spreading themselves too thin geographically. Targeting upstate New York means they have to mobilize farther, spreading their lines thin and reducing their ability to reinforce themselves. Targeting population centers that built vertically means the population can mobilize en masse much faster, meaning they can easily be trapped by the population instead of the other way around. The most vulnerable cities will be ones that are build wide, not tall.

5 hours ago
Dorado-Buster28

What about the Hamptons?

5 hours ago
mickeyflinn

They are happening all over the place. The LA ones are the ones in the news.

4 hours ago
besume1980

I would guess the sheer numbers of Latinos in sounthern CA. And the gigantic physical area, which makes it difficult for resistence to coordinate actively trying to stop/block them.

3 hours ago
andreamichele6033

Maybe it’s because the news you see is geared toward where you live? I live in FL and I am seeing info about deportations all day, every day on all platforms. However, we also don’t have lots of drama when large busts are made. People here don’t block interstates or tie themselves to ICE vehicles (our laws are very strict), so these antics certainly make the news in places like CA where someone is always doing something crazy.

3 hours ago
Remarkable_Noise453

There is an uptick, but it is the news media AND social media that is driving attention to the issue, to make people feel like this is happening everywhere and all the time. ICE raids were happening at a certain frequency even during the Obama administration. This is how we are manipulated into feeling and acting a certain way. But this is for everything you have an opinion on. No one truly believes they are being manipulated though, me included.

3 hours ago
largos7289

LA just gets national news because of what's going on down there. We had a few ICE raids here and they make the local news but it was more they went in, got a bunch of people and let maybe one go who was legit.

2 hours ago
ChemicalExample218

It's supposed to be a spectacle. It's to show their base, look we are doing that thing we said we would do. They're being intentionally dramatic.

1 hour ago
savydud3

Conman gonna con all of the simple folks that follow him into thinking how tough he is on these liberal cities.  Step 1- pick a liberal strong hold,m with large Latino pop  s2- send in the goons (ice) , s3- create chaos with said goons by snatching people off streets and creating confrontation with people that care about democracy ,  S4- watch the media over cover and then use footage to say... see how bad it is there. S5- declare Marshall law and brag about how awesome you are to the simple tards that love the cruelty.  Repeat in other cities coming soon...

17 hours ago
LivingInspection6187

The reason there aren't any in Upstate NY in particular is because many of the immigrants there work in the dairy industry. They're both not very concentrated due to it being so rural (so hard to get as many people), and are somewhat protected by the dairy industry that relies on them and has a powerful lobby. There were immigration raids in NYC.

18 hours ago
GlassCannon81

It’s happening everywhere, it’s just happening more in LA. Il Douche is targeting CA because Newsom says mean things about it.

17 hours ago
AllEliteSchmuck

Because there’s a lot of Latinos in LA.

16 hours ago
Longj_Carpenter7969

California is a VERY BLUE state and orange shitler is trying to use scare tactics to incite violence and be able to declare martial law.

16 hours ago
JohnnyBananas13

Gangs in LA maybe

16 hours ago