LOS ANGELES (AP) — At the biggest jewelry center in the United States, Alberto Hernandez fired up his machine on a recent day and waited until it glowed bright orange inside before shoveling in an assortment of rings, earrings and necklaces weighing about as much as a bar of soap: just under 100 grams, or 3.2 troy ounces.
Minutes later, the bubbling liquid metal was cooling in a rectangular cast the size of a woman's shoe. An X-ray machine determined it was 56.5% gold, making it worth $177,000 based on the price of gold that day.
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Molten gold is poured into a mold at A&M Precious Metals in the St. Vincent Jewelry Center in the Jewelry District of Los Angeles, Friday, May 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Puzant Berberian, whose family founded V&P Jewelry, sits for a photo at his shop in the St. Vincent Jewelry Center in Los Angeles, Wednesday, April 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Sarahi Cervantes places a gold bar on an X-ray machine for assaying at A&M Precious Metals in the St. Vincent Jewelry Center in the Jewelry District of Los Angeles, Friday, May 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Sam Nguyen shows a gold bar at her shop in the St. Vincent Jewelry Center in the Jewelry District of Los Angeles, Wednesday, April 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
A pedestrian walks past the St. Vincent Jewelry Center in the Jewelry District of Los Angeles, Friday, May 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
As gold prices soar to record highs during global economic jitters, hundreds of thousands of dollars’ worth of gold are circulating through the doors of St. Vincent Jewelry Center in downtown Los Angeles on any given day.
Many of the center’s 500 independent tenants, which include jewelers, gold refiners and assayers, say they have never seen such a surge in customers.
“Right now, we’re seeing a lot of rappers and stuff melting their big pieces,” said Alberto’s nephew, Sabashden Hernandez, who works at A&M Precious Metals. “We’re getting a lot of new customers who are just getting all of their grandfather’s stuff, melting it down pretty much.”
Gold’s current rally comes as President Donald Trump issues ever-changing announcements on tariffs, roiling financial markets and threatening to reignite inflation.
In response, people across the country are flocking to sell or melt down their old jewelry for quick cash, including middlemen like pawn shop owners. Others, thinking their money might be safer in gold than in the volatile stock market, are snapping it up just as fast.
Los Angeles jeweler Olivia Kazanjian said people are even bringing in family heirlooms.
“They’re melting things with their family’s wedding dates and things from the 1800s,” Kazanjian said.
She recently paid a client for a 14-karat gold woven bracelet with intricate blue enamel work that could be turned into a brooch. The customer walked away with $3,200 for the amount of gold contained in the piece measured in troy ounces, the standard for precious metals equivalent to 31 grams.
But Kazanjian doesn't plan to melt the piece. The real artistic and historical value was a lot more, she said.
“It’s just stunning … and you won’t see that kind of craftsmanship again,” Kazanjian said, adding she has persuaded some customers to change their minds about melting items. “It’s a piece of history, and if you’re lucky enough to inherit it, it’s a piece of your family."
Businesses on the sales side of the action, offering gold bars and other material, also are working hard to keep up with the frenzy.
“Stuff comes in and it goes right out,” said Edwin Feijoo, who owns Stefko Cash for Gold in Pennsylvania and receives shipments from customers across the U.S. looking to sell their gold. “Everybody’s busy right now.”
Business hasn't been good for everyone, though.
For some jewelers who source their products from places abroad like Italy, Turkey and China, the combination of high gold prices and added tariffs have cut into profit margins and hurt demand.
“Our profit margins are so razor thin here,” said Puzant Berberian, whose family founded V&P Jewelry inside St. Vincent in 1983. Berberian said he recently paid an extra $16,000 on a package from overseas.
Customers also are feeling “sticker shock” when they can't afford the things they used to. A chunky, 14-karat gold bracelet weighing about 10 grams (0.32 troy ounces) might have sold for around $600 last year, but now it’s closer to $900, Berberian said.
Some believe those trends could continue, both for consumers and businesses.
Customers hoping to buy bullion “think gold will go up” even more, according to Sam Nguyen, whose business, Newport Gold Post Inc., has bought and sold gold and other precious metals at St. Vincent for five years. While gold has cooled from its record high of $3,500 per troy ounce, Nguyen thinks it could reach $4,000 to $5,000 by year’s end.
Jeff Clark agrees. The founder of The Gold Advisor, which provides investment advice, said he wouldn’t be surprised if gold prices continue rising since the metal is considered a haven for people to park their money when there is anxiety about a possible recession.
“History shows it has gone much higher in the past,” Clark said, referring to a frenzy in the 1970s when the average price of gold increased 17-fold amid double-digit inflation rates. “If the fear and uncertainty continues in the general populace, the prices are going to keep going up.”
Molten gold is poured into a mold at A&M Precious Metals in the St. Vincent Jewelry Center in the Jewelry District of Los Angeles, Friday, May 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Puzant Berberian, whose family founded V&P Jewelry, sits for a photo at his shop in the St. Vincent Jewelry Center in Los Angeles, Wednesday, April 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Sarahi Cervantes places a gold bar on an X-ray machine for assaying at A&M Precious Metals in the St. Vincent Jewelry Center in the Jewelry District of Los Angeles, Friday, May 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
Sam Nguyen shows a gold bar at her shop in the St. Vincent Jewelry Center in the Jewelry District of Los Angeles, Wednesday, April 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
A pedestrian walks past the St. Vincent Jewelry Center in the Jewelry District of Los Angeles, Friday, May 2, 2025. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Federal agents carrying out immigration arrests in Minnesota's Twin Cities region already shaken by the fatal shooting of a woman rammed the door of one home Sunday and pushed their way inside, part of what the Department of Homeland Security has called its largest enforcement operation ever.
In a dramatic scene similar to those playing out across Minneapolis, agents captured a man in the home just minutes after pepper spraying protesters outside who had confronted the heavily armed federal agents. Along the residential street, protesters honked car horns, banged on drums and blew whistles in attempts to disrupt the operation.
Video of the clash taken by The Associated Press showed some agents pushing back protesters while a distraught woman later emerged from the house with a document that federal agents presented to arrest the man. Signed by an immigration officer, the document — unlike a warrant signed by a judge — does not authorize forced entry into a private residence. A warrant signed by an immigration officer only authorizes arrest in a public area.
Immigrant advocacy groups have conducted extensive “know-your-rights” campaigns urging people not to open their doors unless agents have a court order signed by a judge.
But within minutes of ramming the door in a neighborhood filled with single-family homes, the handcuffed man was led away.
More than 2,000 immigration arrests have been made in Minnesota since the enforcement operation began at the beginning of December, said Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told Fox News on Sunday that the administration would send additional federal agents to Minnesota to protect immigration officers and continue enforcement.
The Twin Cities — the latest target in President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement campaign — is bracing for what is next after 37-year-old Renee Good was shot and killed by an immigration officer on Wednesday.
“We’re seeing a lot of immigration enforcement across Minneapolis and across the state, federal agents just swarming around our neighborhoods,” said Jason Chavez, a Minneapolis city councilmember. “They’ve definitely been out here.”
Chavez, the son of Mexican immigrants who represents an area with a growing immigrant population, said he is closely monitoring information from chat groups about where residents are seeing agents operating.
People holding whistles positioned themselves in freezing temperatures on street corners Sunday in the neighborhood where Good was killed, watching for any signs of federal agents.
More than 20,000 people have taken part in a variety of trainings to become “observers” of enforcement activities in Minnesota since the 2024 election, said Luis Argueta, a spokesperson for Unidos MN, a local human rights organization .
“It’s a role that people choose to take on voluntarily, because they choose to look out for their neighbors,” Argueta said.
The protests have been largely peaceful, but residents remained anxious. On Monday, Minneapolis public schools will start offering remote learning for the next month in response to concerns that children might feel unsafe venturing out while tensions remain high.
Many schools closed last week after Good’s shooting and the upheaval that followed.
While the enforcement activity continues, two of the state’s leading Democrats said that the investigation into Good's shooting death should not be overseen solely by the federal government.
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey and U.S. Sen. Tina Smith said in separate interviews Sunday that state authorities should be included in the investigation because the federal government has already made clear what it believes happened.
“How can we trust the federal government to do an objective, unbiased investigation, without prejudice, when at the beginning of that investigation they have already announced exactly what they saw — what they think happened," Smith said on ABC’s "This Week."
The Trump administration has defended the officer who shot Good in her car, saying he was protecting himself and fellow agents and that Good had “weaponized” her vehicle.
Todd Lyons, acting director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, defended the officer on Fox News Channel’s “The Sunday Briefing.”
"That law enforcement officer had milliseconds, if not short time to make a decision to save his life and his other fellow agents,” he said.
Lyons also said the administration’s enforcement operations in Minnesota wouldn't be needed “if local jurisdictions worked with us to turn over these criminally illegal aliens once they are already considered a public safety threat by the locals.”
The killing of Good by an ICE officer and the shooting of two people by federal agents in Portland, Oregon, led to dozens of protests in cities across the country over the weekend, including New York, Los Angeles, Washington D.C. and Oakland, California.
Contributing were Associated Press journalists Giovanna Dell’Orto in Minneapolis; Thomas Strong in Washington; Bill Barrow in Atlanta; Christopher Weber in Los Angeles; and John Seewer in Toledo, Ohio.
A woman gets into an altercation with a federal immigration officer as officers make an arrest Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)
A federal immigration officer deploys pepper spray as officers make an arrest Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)
A family member, center, reacts after federal immigration officers make an arrest Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)
Bystanders are treated after being pepper sprayed as federal immigration officers make an arrest Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)
A family member reacts after federal immigration officers make an arrest Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)
Federal agents look on after detaining a person during a patrol in Minneapolis, Minn., Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (Christopher Katsarov/The Canadian Press via AP)
Bystanders react after a man was detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents during a traffic stop, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Robbinsdale, Minn. (AP Photo/John Locher)
People stand near a memorial at the site where Renee Good was fatally shot by an ICE agent, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jen Golbeck)
A man looks out of a car window after being detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents during a traffic stop, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Robbinsdale, Minn. (AP Photo/John Locher)
Border Patrol agents detain a man, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)
People shout toward Border Patrol agents making an arrest, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Adam Gray)
Demonstrators protest outside the White House in Washington, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent who fatally shot Renee Good in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey holds a news conference on Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Jen Golbeck)
Protesters react as they visit a makeshift memorial during a rally for Renee Good, who was fatally shot by an ICE officer earlier in the week, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/John Locher)
