Anti-ICE rally planned for DC following protests in LA

WASHINGTON - An "ICE OUT!" rally is scheduled to take place in Northwest D.C. Tuesday evening.

What we know:

The D.C. branch of the Party for Socialism and Liberation (PSL) is hosting an "emergency protest" Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. at Columbia Heights Plaza. The rally comes days after President Donald Trump ordered the deployment of the National Guard to the Los Angeles area following anti-ICE protests. 

"Trump's National Guard deployment is a desperate attempt to intimidate people out of exercising their First Amendment rights. The Trump administration aims to set a precedent to use greater and greater repressive force all across the country, against any expression of dissent, regardless of the issue in question," said the PSL in an Instagram post on Monday. 

Growing concerns over immigration raids and deportations have sparked fear in communities across the DMV. Rumors of ICE vehicles parked near homes, restaurants, and even playgrounds, have circulated on social media, leaving many fearful.

Some commenters on the PSL Instagram post call for a location change over fears that the Columbia Heights Plaza location would put local business owners and their families at risk. The Columbia Heights neighborhood is one of the most diverse neighborhoods in D.C., and home to a number of immigrant communities.  

LA ICE riots

Big picture view:

Protests against immigration raids in Los Angeles turned destructive over the weekend: Officers were injured, vehicles were set on fire, and protesters spilled onto major freeways to block traffic.  

Roughly 300 troops were sent to Los Angeles Sunday by President Donald Trump after confrontations between federal immigration officers and protesters who tried to stop them from carrying out deportations. 

The protests are in response to intensifying immigration enforcement in Los Angeles and around the country. 

Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff and chief architect of Trump’s immigration policies, said late last month that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement should make at least 3,000 arrests a day. That would mark a dramatic increase from Jan. 20 to May 19, when the agency made an average of 656 arrests a day.

ICE activity in Washington, D.C.

Local perspective:

Last month, ICE agents conducted "workplace inspections" at 100 restaurants in D.C., putting workers and businesses on edge. Immigration officials visited restaurants throughout the District, requesting employee verification forms. Nearly 200 immigration arrests were made last month in D.C. 

"It's very high anxiety, anxiety-inducing. I think it's really terrible right now that ICE is taking people and sending them away to El Salvador and these other countries to what are basically concentration camps," one D.C. resident, Isa, told FOX 5.

ICE's Enforcement Removal Operations for the Washington Field Office, Russell Hott, told FOX 5 the arrests would continue in the District.  

"These are not raids, these are not roundups, this a very acute precision effort focused on the worst first," Hott said.