Thousands protest against Trump’s immigration crackdown, blocking traffic on Los Angeles freeway

Thousands of raucous protesters rallied against President Trump’s renewed effort to deport illegal migrants and ground traffic to a standstill on a Los Angeles freeway Sunday afternoon.

The throngs of demonstrators waving flags of Mexico and other countries south of the border shut down a portion of 101 Freeway for hours – though no arrests were reported into the evening.

Footage from KTLA showed protesters marching directly on the highway while another video shot by an independent reporter showed a line of officers staring down some of the demonstrators a few hundred feet away. Other protesters lined the side of the overpass and roads.

California Highway Patrol urged motorists to avoid part of the freeway occupied by protests as authorities worked to get them off the road.

“Accessing state highways or roads to protest is unlawful and extremely dangerous because it puts protesters, motorists and first responders at great risk of injury,” the agency tweeted.

It took about five hours for police to fully reopen the freeway Sunday afternoon, a CHP spokesperson said.

There were no reported arrests during the afternoon protests, according to state police and the LAPD.

But protesters again converged on part of the freeway as cars returned to US Route 101 Sunday night, according to social media footage from a CalMatters reporter on the scene.

Some of the signs throughout the day read “MAGA – Mexican always get across,” “We Are Not Criminals,” and “The real criminal is in the White House,” according to social media footage and reports.

“We thought we were done with his administration,” Rey, who is Mexican American, told the Los Angeles Times. “And now we have to do this again.”

Supporters of Trump’s immigration policies blasted the protest for causing gridlock in one of America’s most congested cities.

“Mexico is beautiful this time of year,” Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s former running mate Nicole Shanahan tweeted.

“Keep walking down 101 South a few more hours – wishing those that are undocumented a warm adios!”

“I will soon reintroduce legislation to make blocking a highway intentionally a federal crime,” House Rep. Mike Collins (R-Georgia) wrote on social media.

“First Hamas supporters, now illegals and their enablers, are stopping traffic. To make America safe again, we must have law and order,” he added.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement and other agencies have conducted sweeping deportation raids across major US cities after Trump made the crackdown on illegal immigration an early priority of his presidency.