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MONDAY, JUNE 30-JULY 06, 2025
SoCal politicians blast tactics of federal immigration agents
Feds say state violated law by allowing trans athletes in girls sports By Joe Taglieri
By City News Service
joet@beaconmedianews.com
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outhland leaders continued to lash out at ongoing immigrationenforcement raids in the area, saying masked federal agents were employing questionable tactics by traveling in often unmarked vehicles and making arrests without showing identification or producing warrants. The criticism followed another weekend of immigrants being detained, with some actions captured on cell phone video and generating allegations of excessive force or unwarranted arrests. On June 21, a man identified as Narciso Barranco — father to three sons who served in the U.S. Marines — was taken into custody in Santa Ana. The video shows several masked agents taking the man to the ground, striking him several times. One of his sons said his father was working as a landscaper at an IHOP restaurant at Edinger Avenue and Ritchey Street when he was arrested. His son said Barranco had recently applied to become a U.S. citizen. After video of the arrest was widely circulated on local media, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security posted its own video online and said the man assaulted federal agents with a “weed whacker.” The video shows Barranco wielding the weed whacker, briefly pointing it
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A rally against Trump administration policies takes place earlier this month in Pasadena. | Photo courtesy of Marvin Steele/X
toward one of the agents. It was unclear if any of them were actually struck by the equipment, which is later seen on the ground as Barranco is being taken into custody. “He assaulted federal law enforcement with a weed whacker,” according to the DHS post. “Perhaps the mainstream media would like our officers to stand there and be mowed down instead of defending themselves? What a completely slanted portrayal of what actually happened.” In a separate incident
June 22, masked men who appear to be federal agents storm a Bubble Bath Hand Car Wash in Torrance and forcibly take two men into custody. Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn condemned the arrests, which were also caught on cell phone video. “Just a block away from a monthly street fair where Torrance families were enjoying a normal Sunday afternoon, these masked thugs sent by our own See Immigration Page 28
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federal government violently raided a local car wash — shoving a worker’s face into a gate and throwing another onto the ground,” Hahn said in a statement the following day. “All the while, another federal agent films the raid with camera equipment. They are trying to make an example of these hardworking people, robbing businesses of their workers and families of their breadwinners.” Video of the arrests
n investigation by the U.S. Department of Education has found that California violated Title IX by allowing transgender athletes to compete against biological females, officials said Wednesday. Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972 requires schools to guarantee equal opportunities for girls in sports and other school activities. “Although Governor Gavin Newsom admitted months ago it was ‘deeply unfair’ to allow men to compete in women’s sports, both the California Department of Education and the California Interscholastic Federation continued as recently as a few weeks ago to allow men to steal female athletes’ well-deserved accolades and to subject them to the indignity of unfair and unsafe competitions,” U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon said in a statement. “The Trump administration will relentlessly enforce Title IX protections for women and girls, and our findings today make clear that California has failed to adhere to its obligations under federal law. The state must swiftly come into compliance with Title IX or face the consequences that follow,” McMahon said.
Izzy Gardon, director of communications for Newsom, said in a statement, “It wouldn’t be a day ending in ‘Y’ without the Trump administration threatening to defund California. Now Secretary McMahon is confusing government with her WrestleMania days — dramatic, fake, and completely divorced from reality. This won’t stick.” The governor’s office also noted that California is one of 22 states that have laws requiring transgender students to participate in sports consistent with their gender identity. California Assembly Bill 1266 was enacted in 2013 during Gov. Jerry Brown’s administration. State officials added that only about 10 transgender athletes compete among 510,000 NCAA studentathletes, and in California’s 5.8 million-student K-12 public schools, the number of active transgender student-athletes is estimated to be in the single digits. Scott Roark, a spokesman for the California Department of Education, said in a statement, “The California Department of Education believes all students should have the opportunity to learn and play at school, and we have consistently applied existing law in support of students’ rights to do so.”
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