EXCLUSIVE: LA ICE director reveals officers followed home, harassed as police fail to help in sanctuary city

EXCLUSIVE: From agents being followed home and harassed to dealing with riots and local police refusing to assist, ICE Los Angeles Field Office Director Thomas Giles gave Fox News Digital an inside look at the daily risks of conducting operations in one of America’s largest sanctuary cities.

Fox News Digital accompanied Giles and a team of ICE officers on an immigration enforcement operation in the Los Angeles area early Thursday morning. In an interview from inside his vehicle during the operation, Giles emphasized that while “it’s not going to shut us down and stop us,” California’s sanctuary policies put both his agents and the community at risk.

“The sanctuary policies definitely impact our operations in terms of it’d be a lot easier for us to have that transfer of custody in a secure environment,” he explained. “So, what it does for us is it sends our officers out into the community, putting our officers at risk and other community members at risk to go out and try to apprehend this individual.”

Fox News Digital witnessed ICE arrest six illegal immigrants Thursday morning, including one who had been convicted of assault with a baseball bat and another who had been convicted of illegally re-entering the U.S. multiple times.

“We’re out doing our job; we are sworn law enforcement officers. We’re out trying to keep the community safe just like other law enforcement officers,” he said. “I just think there’s a lot of rhetoric out there that a lot of people don’t know exactly what we do and we’re trying to portray that out to the public.”

Fox News Digital witnessed ICE process Aroca-Rodriguez and was told he would remain in custody pending removal to Honduras. Five other illegal immigrants were also processed for removal proceedings during the operation.