LOS ANGELES—Agents with the Border Patrol Tactical Unit (BORTAC) have been deployed to Los Angeles amid anti-deportation riots sweeping the city, with more Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents on standby to deploy if needed, a source with CBP told The Epoch Times on condition of anonymity. 

The deployment of the SWAT-like unit comes amid chaos in America’s second-largest city, where riots against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations have entered their fourth consecutive day. The riots have led to personal and property damage across the city, looting, and other acts of violence that have so far resulted in 21 arrests, according to local authorities.

BORTAC agents are the highly trained arm of the Border Patrol, with a focus on counterterrorism, high-risk warrant service, anti-narcotics operations, and similarly dangerous or complex CBP enforcement activities.

Agents with the specialized unit were deployed domestically to Los Angeles in 1992 to quell the riots that followed the acquittal of the officers involved in the beating of Rodney King. They are also often deployed in the aftermath of natural disasters, to provide security at high-profile events like the Super Bowl, and for other domestic and international law enforcement.

Another source, Manny Bayon—president of the National Border Patrol Council union based in San Diego—confirmed to The Epoch Times that more Border Patrol reinforcements were dispatched to Los Angeles from Yuma, Arizona, El Centro, California, and San Diego.

“ICE was doing the job. They requested reinforcements, so obviously, Border Patrol is going to send people up there,” he said, noting that several other federal units have also gotten involved.

“There are ATF [the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives], FBI, and DEA units up there, too. They’re BORTAC units. They’re also called SOD units, Special Operations Deployment.”

One video shows CBP arriving in the city on June 7 in a convoy that was attacked by an unidentified masked man who threw rocks at the trucks and vehicles as they passed, resulting in visible cracks on the vehicles’ windshields.

The FBI has announced a $50,000 reward for information leading to the identification and arrest of the suspect, who was also seen burning trash on a road in the city.

“It’s just disgusting that you have these violent protesters doing their thing—violence and vandalism,” Bayon said.

He was critical of the Los Angeles Police Department’s (LAPD) response to the riots, saying that local law enforcement should arrest more people committing violence to send a message to other protesters.

Protesters should be arrested for violence just as unruly and drunken, disorderly sports fans are arrested and detained in Sheriff’s department buses at sports events, he said.

“When everybody’s there for the Rose Parade, and people get a little bit drunk, what happens is they have those buses and they start arresting people under the influence. They should have done the same thing, but no, they allow it to happen, and then it just emboldens them to even do more destruction,” he said.

On June 9, the administration announced that 500 U.S. Marines from Twentynine Palms, California, would be deployed to the city to protect federal property and personnel, including Border Patrol and other law enforcement agents in the city.

However, like the National Guardsmen currently deployed to the city, they are barred from making arrests or engaging in law enforcement actions without an invocation of the Insurrection Act, which President Donald Trump has so far declined to apply.

In the interim, officials with CBP, the FBI, and local police retain the power to make arrests and enforce the law.