The Trump administration deployed thousands of National Guard members in Los Angeles in response to demonstrations against the American president’s immigration policies.
California leaders have called Trump’s action „authoritarian.” Tensions between the federal government and the nation’s second-largest city escalated dramatically over the weekend as residents took to the streets to protest a series of brutal crackdowns on immigrant communities, writes The Guardian.
The raids in the region have affected garment workers, day laborers, and restaurants, and the president of a major California union was arrested by federal agents.
Despite facing tear gas and other ammunition over the weekend, protesters continued to gather on Monday, while families of detained immigrants pleaded for their loved ones to be released.
The Trump administration initially stated that 2,000 National Guard members would be sent to Los Angeles, but California Governor Gavin Newsom said on Monday evening that he was informed that federal officials would send an additional 2,000 soldiers.
Federal authorities also said that the military would send around 700 Marines, marking a rare domestic deployment.
Protests, largely peaceful, against ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement – US immigration and control agency) have spread nationwide on Monday, including in New York, Chicago, Dallas, and San Francisco, where hundreds gathered in the evening for a march through the historic Latino Mission district of the city.
In Austin, demonstrators marched in front of an ICE center, chanting slogans like "No More ICE" and "No human being is illegal."
In downtown Los Angeles, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) organized a demonstration calling for an end to ICE raids. Protests continued into the evening as police used rubber bullets to disperse a crowd of several hundred people gathered near the federal building.
Legal action against the Trump administration
Tensions escalated as California filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, challenging the federal deployment of the National Guard despite objections from California Governor Gavin Newsom.
The lawsuit brought by California against Trump and Pete Hegseth alleges that the president "used a protest that local authorities had under control to demonstrate unprecedented power."
California Attorney General Rob Bonta, who filed the lawsuit, stated that the president "is trying to sow chaos and crisis for his own political purposes."
Meanwhile, Trump's border chief, Tom Homan, threatened to arrest Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, a move the governor called "an unmistakable step towards authoritarianism."
Newsom challenged the administration to follow through on the threats, prompting Trump to respond, "I would do it if I were Tom. I think it would be great."
Trump, who praised the National Guard troops for "doing a great job," stated that Los Angeles would have been "completely destroyed" without them.
Homan claimed on Fox News that ICE "has taken a lot of bad people off the street." He said, without providing details, that gang members and individuals with serious criminal convictions had been arrested, but he also acknowledged that ICE had detained immigrants without criminal records.
Homan also told NBC News that more raids are forthcoming, and ICE arrests continued on Monday in Southern California.
Los Angeles is home to 3.5 million immigrants, representing a third of the population. The demonstrations come as the White House aggressively enforces immigration laws, with mass detentions, a new travel ban, a major crackdown on international students, and expedited deportations without due process.