Independent journalist arrested at LA anti-deportation protest

Crystal Heath, an independent journalist, was arrested while covering an anti-deportation protest in downtown Los Angeles, California, on June 10, 2025.

Heath was documenting one of a series of protests that began June 6 in response to federal raids in and around LA of workplaces and areas where immigrant day laborers gathered, amid the Trump administration’s larger immigration crackdown. After demonstrators clashed with LA law enforcement officers and federal agents, President Donald Trump called in the California National Guard over the objections of California Gov. Gavin Newsom and LA Mayor Karen Bass.

Heath, a practicing veterinarian who has reported on public health and animal welfare topics, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that she decided to document the protest as an independent journalist.

She said she was not wearing a media badge at the time but was carrying her camera and professional gear.

“I wasn’t planning on getting into any sort of fray of any kind; I wanted to keep my distance,” she said.

When law enforcement began pushing protesters off the street, Heath said she decided to leave the area. However, California Highway Patrol had blocked off the street leading to the metro station she planned to use to get home. She said officers then kettled the crowd — a tactic in which police encircle and block a group from dispersing.

Heath said she repeatedly identified herself as a journalist, but officers dismissed her claims because she lacked a physical credential and they wouldn’t allow her to show her published work online.

“It seemed like they’re just not educated about who is media,” she told the Tracker. “We don’t actually need a press pass in order to be media, and they seem to just want to arrest anybody just to almost dampen our First Amendment right.”

She and others were then zip-tied and taken to the Los Angeles Police Department, where she was fingerprinted, photographed and cited for failure to disperse. Heath said she never heard officers issue a dispersal order. She was detained for about three hours before being released.

Heath has not yet been charged, but prosecutors have a year to decide to file charges. Heath plans to continue reporting, she said in a post to social platform X.

“From now on, I will always carry my press credentials,” she wrote. “But the truth is — no one should need them to be treated with basic dignity and respect. No one should be trapped and arrested for trying to leave.”