At a regularly scheduled Los Angeles City Council meeting in August 2025, community leaders from Little Tokyo and a council member urged the city to strengthen enforcement of its sanctuary-city protections after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) operation outside the Japanese American National Museum during Nisei Week.

Council member, Council District 14, opened the remarks by describing two back-to-back impressions in the neighborhood: "Yesterday, we celebrated the grand opening of the Skid Row care campus... But while one neighborhood celebrated, another braced itself." The council member said the ICE operation involved agents who detained "a worker delivering produce" without a warrant and that the action occurred during a cultural celebration near the museum.

June Hibino, of the Nikkei Progressives and the Little Tokyo Rapid Response Network, said the community has organized "Know Your Rights" trainings and rapid-response outreach and warned that the ICE presence echoed the community's history of exclusion and wartime incarceration. "Our Japanese American story... is one of exclusion, exclusionary laws, of being scapegoated," Hibino said, adding that the city must take concrete measures to "put some teeth into our sanctuary city laws ordinance."

Kimi Maru, also with Nikkei Progressives, described responding on the ground: "It was really a terrifying experience to see so many armed ICE and CBP people wearing masks... They were holding large rifles and actually... pointing them at people at different times. It was very intimidating." Maru said members of the Rapid Response Network warned businesses and street vendors, went door to door and used the network to alert neighbors.

Bill Fujioka, former city administrative officer and chair of the Japanese American National Museum board, framed the arrest as a painful historical echo. "When the arrest took place, it hit a nerve... the exact location where individuals of Japanese heritage were forced on the buses and taken to concentration camps," Fujioka said. He told the council the museum stands "for social justice" and urged elected leaders to act.

Speakers tied their concerns to the City of Los Angeles’ sanctuary policy. "Last November, the city council unanimously voted to establish the City of Los Angeles as a sanctuary city," Hibino said, and asked what concrete steps the city will take "to protect our immigrant families who are being terrorized by ICE and CBP." Speakers urged stronger protection for schools, houses of worship, community organizations and small businesses.

Council staff and the presenting member circulated the local rapid-response phone number for residents and advocates: the Los Angeles Rapid Response Network at (888) 624-4752, which the council office asked residents to save for immediate alerts and assistance.

No formal council action on immigration enforcement was taken during the meeting. The council accepted public testimony on the incident and other topics. On routine procedural business the clerk reported that items 1 through 3 and 5 and 6 were called for vote and recorded as "10 ayes." Separately, the clerk said a request to continue item 4 to Aug. 22, 2025, was filed and that items 7 and 8 were referred back to the Budget and Finance Committee by unanimous consent; those procedural referrals were entered into the record during the same session.

Why this matters: speakers and city leaders said the Little Tokyo operation, which occurred during a major cultural celebration, risked retraumatizing a community with a documented history of forced removal and incarceration. Advocates urged the council to translate the city’s sanctuary policy into enforceable actions and to coordinate rapid-response outreach, legal support and public safety measures to protect residents and neighborhood institutions.

Meeting actions at a glance: The clerk recorded votes on items 1–3 and 5–6 as "10 ayes." The council granted a request to continue item 4 to Aug. 22, 2025, and referred items 7 and 8 back to the Budget and Finance Committee by unanimous consent. No immigration- or enforcement-related ordinance or motion was introduced or voted on during the portions of the meeting covered in the record.

Community response and next steps: Advocates said they will continue Little Tokyo Rapid Response Network operations, expand Know Your Rights trainings, and request the council consider measurable changes to sanctuary enforcement. Council offices asked constituents to report ICE activity to the Los Angeles Rapid Response Network phone line and to bring eyewitness accounts to the council record.