L.A. Traffic Jams Persist, Despite Claims They Were Eased by Mass Deportations
By Nicole Dirks
What happened: Los Angeles is notorious for its traffic congestion. However, increased immigrant deportations did not cause a sudden decrease in snarled traffic, despite claims by pro-Trump social media accounts citing a Google Maps screenshot.
Context: Since early June, ICE has conducted a string of immigration raids in L.A. as part of President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown. The city was in the national spotlight as protests over deportations erupted into violence in early June and Trump called in the National Guard and the military.
During the first three months of the Trump administration, the Department of Homeland Security every day arrested an average of 660 people who were allegedly in the country illegally, according to a government press release. On June 4 alone, the department arrested more than 2,300 people, a senior DHS official told the Washington Post (Trust Score: 100/100).
A closer look: A few weeks after the spike in deportations, Trump supporters on social media claimed that the deportations had improved life in the city by resulting in faster traffic. Many cited as proof a screenshot of a Google Maps view of L.A. that was described as depicting light traffic during the evening rush hour on Monday, July 7.
The claim, first posted without the Google Maps screenshot as evidence, appears to have originated in a July 5 X post by conservative user @JoshuaSteinman stating, “Turns out the solution to LA traffic was mass deportations.” Two days later, he replied to his own post with the screenshot from Google Maps showing green traffic lines, stating, “Dear Lord, Monday evening rush hour… it’s just gone.” (Green lines represent light traffic.) The post garnered 6.1 million views and 8,500 likes in three days.
Conservative commentator Benny Johnson, interviewing Republican U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds on Johnson’s YouTube show and podcast “The Benny Show” on July 8, stated, “There’s no traffic in L.A. anymore, Byron, because of the deportations, the mass deportations.” Donalds replied: “That is not the end. There’s a significant amount of work that still needs to be done. … We have to send a lot of illegals home.” The YouTube video received 263,930 views and 18,000 likes in one day.
Actually: July 2025 traffic reports show that the city continued to experience major congestion during rush hour, except for a minor drop around July 4, which is typical of holiday traffic patterns.
NewsGuard reviewed Los Angeles traffic data on Google Maps in a historical view for July 7 during the evening rush hour and found that several highways were labeled in yellow and red, which indicates extreme congestion.
NewsGuard also reviewed live Los Angeles traffic data for the morning rush hour on both Google Maps and the live traffic monitor Total Traffic on July 9 at 8:02 a.m. Pacific Time — two days after the supposed decrease in traffic. Both sites showed highways labeled almost entirely in red.
The Google Maps screenshot shared by users advancing the claim did not include a date or time, so it is not clear if the screenshot shows a rush hour on July 7 as claimed.
More context: According to a June 15, 2025, article in the Los Angeles Times (Trust Score: 100/100), residents and merchants in several Los Angeles neighborhoods did report that foot traffic — not vehicular traffic — had noticeably dropped in areas where ICE raids had recently occurred.
Other news outlets reported that some L.A. schools, restaurants, shops, and parishes have seen fewer visitors since June 6, 2025.
This article was originally published in Reality Check’s newsletter. Subscribe to receive weekly updates straight to your inbox.