Livestreamer arrested at LA immigration protest

Livestreamer Gonzalo Gonzalez was arrested while documenting a protest against immigration raids in Los Angeles, California, on June 10, 2025.

The protest was one of a series 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.

Gonzalez, who broadcasts live and publishes videos through his YouTube channel EastLos Audits, told the U.S. Press Freedom Tracker that he went to the protest to document it as a journalist.

At one point, California Highway Patrol corralled dozens of people using a tactic known as a kettle. Officers allowed only those with press credentials to leave the area.

“I kept saying, ‘Well, I don’t need a press credential. I’m exercising the First Amendment,’” Gonzalez recalled. “They didn’t accept that.”

In a YouTube video Gonzalez recorded from inside the kettle, officers can be seen advancing on the crowd. Gonzalez, carrying a cellphone in each hand, walked around and narrated what he saw.

“I think this time I’m getting arrested,” he told viewers. He had been detained by federal officers at a protest two days earlier.

The video showed officers detaining people one by one. Gonzalez said he was the last person remaining when he approached officers. They ordered him to put his hands behind his back and removed his backpack.

Gonzalez’s phone continued recording as officers took him into custody. The footage captured the sound of officers fastening zip ties around his wrists as the phone jostled. Gonzalez did not identify himself as a journalist in the footage, which cuts off after briefly showing him being detained.

Gonzalez and at least one other journalist in the kettle were taken to an LA Police Department station, where they were booked and cited for failure to disperse.

Gonzalez said he spent eight hours restrained in plastic handcuffs, causing his shoulders and arms to burn. He went to an emergency room the next day because of the pain but did not suffer a major injury.

Gonzalez said the charges were not filed after he appeared in court and that the city attorney declined to prosecute.