The financial toll of responding to protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids in Los Angeles continues to weigh heavily on city coffers, with the latest from Los Angeles City Controller Kenneth Mejia showing a staggering $32 million hit to local taxpayers. Detailed in a recent post by Mejia, these costs are primarily from law enforcement’s response to the demonstrations that have swept across the city.
🧊 UPDATE: ICE RAIDS HAVE NOW COST LA TAXPAYERS $32 MILLION
— LA City Controller Kenneth Mejia (@lacontroller) June 20, 2025
🚔 $29.5 million or 92% relates to LAPD's response to protests against ICE including citywide tactical alert costs
🛠️ $1.4 million relates to clean-up / public property damage
🧑⚖️ Does not include potential lawsuits pic.twitter.com/6sWZALDKeZ
Breaking down the numbers, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) accounts for $29,533,243 or 92% of the total expenses incurred, mainly due to tactical deployments and overtime during the protests, as broadly explained in a KTLA article. Clean-up efforts and repairs for public property damage have set back Los Angeles an additional $1.4 million, while the costs for fire department resources have surpassed $1 million. With an already tight city budget, the City Controller's office highlighted that $22 million from the city’s reserve funds will be used to cover these expenses, according to a report by NBC Los Angeles.
The City Controller's post further pointed out that these figures do not include potential future lawsuit-related expenses. Recall that, following the 2020 George Floyd protests, Los Angeles faced more than $20 million in legal settlements over police conduct, with multiple cases still in the queue. This financial revelation coincides with a period of economic strife within the city, as Mayor Bass has been navigating deep cuts and downsizing efforts to manage a near $1 billion deficit, which has resulted in a $13 billion city budget that necessitated the reduction of several city services and hundreds of jobs, the NBC Los Angeles report added.
Moreover, the expenditure on graffiti removal has nearly reached $86,000, a relatively small but noteworthy part of the multifaceted approach to city restoration during these tense times. This expenditure, is dwarfed by the large amounts allocated to police response and riot control efforts. A pie chart accompanying Mejia's online update visually breaks down these costs, emphasizing the extent of law enforcement's financial involvement. The community’s unrest, sparked by federal venues over immigration policy, continues to drive a divide not only among the population but also deeply into the fiscal stability of the governing body tasked with managing Los Angeles' sprawling urban landscape.
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