Marchers protesting planned deportations block major freeway in Los Angeles

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Thousands of people protesting mass deportations planned by President Donald Trump marched in Southern California on Sunday, including in downtown Los Angeles where demonstrators blocked a major freeway.

Protesters gathered in the morning on LA’s historic Olvera Street, which dates to Spanish and Mexican rule, before marching to City Hall. They called for immigration reform and carried banners with slogans like “Nobody is illegal.”

By the afternoon, marchers had blocked all lanes of U.S. 101, causing traffic to back up in both directions and on downtown surface streets. The demonstrators sat down in freeway lanes, while a cordon of California Highway Patrol officers stood by.

The CHP and the Los Angeles Police Department said there were no immediate reports of arrests.

To the east, hundreds of people protested in the city of Riverside. Passing motorists honked and yelled out in support of demonstrators waving flags at an intersection, the Southern California News Group reported.

Marchers protesting planned deportations block major freeway in Los Angeles | iNFOnews.ca — Demonstrators shut down the 110 freeway during a protest calling for immigration reform Sunday, Feb. 2, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer)

In Texas, demonstrators gathered in downtown Dallas on Sunday in a pair of protests against recent arrests by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Dallas police told The Associated Press that approximately 1,600 people gathered between the two rallies.

Marchers carried Mexican and American flags and speakers expressed outrage about the rhetoric from Trump and his administration’s moves to increase deportations.

Signs held by the protesters included one that read “Immigrants Make America Great.”