Immigration agents in military green surrounded MacArthur Park as the convoy readied for a show of force akin to a Hollywood movie.

They came with horses and armored vehicles, carrying rifles and in tactical gear in the middle of what is the heart of immigrant Los Angeles. But there were few of their supposed targets to be found Monday — immigrants without documentation.

Since at least Sunday, rumors had spread about an operation at the park. Fliers were plastered around the area, warning that Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or la migra as they’re also known, were coming.

It’s unclear if anyone was arrested during the sweep. “We don’t comment on ongoing enforcement operations,” said a senior Department of Homeland Security official when asked for comment on whether any arrests had been made.

“It is outrageous and un-American that we have federal armed vehicles in our park,” Mayor Karen Bass said at an impromptu press conference at City Hall after federal authorities cleared out. “What happened to the criminals, the drug dealers, the violent individuals? Who were in the park today were children. It was their summer camp, their summer day camp.”

The park sits in the heart of a dense immigrant community marked by poverty and a thriving street culture. Vendors line the streets, and the palm-tree-dotted park is filled with playgrounds and fields, where many of the families living in nearby apartments find refuge. But it has also become known for prevalent drug use, where people are frequently seen smoking out of pipes on the sidewalk and in nearby alleys, though the city has made a concerted effort to turn it around.

“MacArthur Park is the Ellis Island of the West Coast. It was chosen as this administration’s latest target precisely because of who lives there and what it represents: resilience, diversity and the American dream,” said City Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez, who represents the area. She said the National Guard descended on the park alongside agents bringing military weapons. “Please understand that what’s happening here in the city of Los Angeles, we are the canary in the coal mine. What you see happening in MacArthur Park is coming to you … So wake up.”

Monday’s sweep comes days after President Trump signed a budget bill that will provide a mass infusion of funds to drastically ramp up immigration enforcement and detention levels across the country. Los Angeles has become the poster child of Trump’s mass deportation plan, as more than 1,600 people have been arrested between June 6 and 22.

“There’s no plan other than fear, chaos and politics. Home Depot one day, a car wash the next, armed vehicles and what looked like mounted military units in a park the next day,” Bass said.

The agents appeared around 10:30 a.m. after amassing at nearby locations. Once they were at the park, they were met with crowds of people screaming “get the f— out!” and “get out!” Bass showed up at the park after being alerted about some kind of military or immigration operation there.

While at the park Monday, Assistant Chief Border Patrol Agent David Kim handed his cellphone to Bass to speak with U.S. Border Patrol Sector Chief Greg Bovino, who has been leading enforcement efforts on the ground in Los Angeles. Bass could be heard saying on a live news feed, “You’re getting ready to leave? Can you leave ASAP?”

Demonstrators began to chant, drowning out her conversation. Bass handed the phone back to Kim.

When asked to comment at the park, Bass said the federal immigration agents needed “to leave and they need to leave right now, they need to leave because this is unacceptable.” When asked who she was talking to on the other end of the line she said it was “the head of customs.”

She left the area shortly afterward in a black SUV.

Activists, who have been on high alert for weeks, appeared to be prepared to deploy lawyers to the scene. Fliers in English and Spanish were posted around the park warning that ICE would be raiding the park July 7.

Ron Gochez, a member of Unión del Barrio, an independent political organization advocating for immigrant rights and social justice, said there were people at the Home Depot in Westlake who spotted the agents heading toward MacArthur Park.

Soon afterward, they posted about the deployment on social media to alert community members. Gochez said word had started to spread about the operation Sunday.

“This was just one big, perverse publicity stunt,” said Gochez, in a call from the park Monday morning. “It was just to show force, it was just to take pictures.”

The chaos on Wilshire Boulevard around MacArthur Park had mostly calmed by 11:30 a.m., though a few protesters and members of the news media lingered afterward.

Mikema Nahmir, 28, said he was out for his morning walk at 11 a.m. when he saw two women running down the street yelling that “la migra” was at MacArthur Park.

Nahmir joined the group of protesters who chased and yelled after the military-style trucks. At one point, he said, someone from the truck shot out an irritant toward him and another protester.

“L.A. is ours, this is our city,” Nahmir said. “This is what my morning walk turned into. They’re terrorizing our neighborhood.”

About an hour after the raid, some people returned to the park to play, but the street vendors were mostly absent.

Dozens of protesters stuck around, some carrying Mexican or Salvadoran flags.

“Whose streets? Our streets!” they chanted. An organizer said they planned to march from the park to Koreatown.

Fernando Rodriguez runs a small shop selling everyday household goods and snacks across the street from MacArthur Park said he quickly dragged in his cooler full of drinks and ice and shut the metal gate of his store when agents showed up.

“It’s really sad,” he said. “The nightmare is just beginning.”

People quickly scattered. Business was already down, but he only expects it to get worse.

“We’re all affected,” he said. “People don’t walk around like they used to.”

Bovino, who is based near the U.S.-Mexico border along with others in the Trump administration, was sued last week by immigrant rights groups seeking to block what it calls an “ongoing pattern and practice of flouting the Constitution and federal law” during immigration raids.

They argue raids have targeted individuals based on race, lack due process, and some practices are akin to kidnapping rather than legal enforcement. The suit also contends immigrants are kept in inhumane conditions at a downtown detention facility. A hearing is set for later this week in federal court.

A coalition of 18 states including California threw their support Monday behind the lawsuit, arguing the illegal stops have “shattered [the] rhythms of everyday life” in some neighborhoods.

“The cumulative effect of defendants’ unlawful actions — including unconstitutional stops — has had devastating impacts on California’s peace and prosperity, and has turned once bustling neighborhoods into ghost towns,” the states said in a brief.

Bovino warned on X that this wasn’t the last time immigration agents would be at the park.

“We may well go back to MacArthur Park or other places in and around Los Angeles. Illegal aliens had the opportunity to self deport, now we’ll help things along a bit.”

Times reporters Richard Winton, Ruben Vives, Kevin Rector, Noah Goldberg and Libor Jany contributed to this report.