California National Guard members arrived in the Los Angeles area on Sunday, after President Trump activated the troops to contain protests against federal immigration operations that took place in the city and surroundings in recent days.
On Sunday afternoon (8), protesters gathered in front of the Metropolitan Detention Center, where some of the immigrants detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were initially held.
Tear gas and pepper spray were used, according to NPR reporters on the scene, and authorities were using shields to push people back and maintain a security perimeter. The day was mostly peaceful, but tensions escalated after two protests merged.
Some of the demonstrations, which took place in response to a series of immigration operations in Los Angeles at the end of last week, turned into clashes between protesters and police.
In response, the White House said Trump would send 2,000 National Guard members to California. In a social media post, Trump attacked what he called “radical left protests” by “instigators and, often, paid rioters”.
Diana Crofts-Pelayo, deputy communications director for Governor Gavin Newsom, told NPR by email on Sunday morning that about 300 California National Guard soldiers had arrived in Los Angeles.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in an X post that active-duty Marines at Camp Pendleton are on high alert and would also be mobilized “if the violence continues”.
But Newsom said there was no widespread violence.
Newsom said he formally requested that the Trump administration rescind “the illegal deployment of troops to Los Angeles County and return them to my command”.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass told NPR’s All Things Considered on Sunday that “these [immigration] raids and now the entry of troops into Los Angeles are an intentional effort to sow chaos”.
Last week, ICE agent actions sparked protests in several cities across the country, including Minneapolis and Chicago. Trump has intensified immigration enforcement in his second term, after campaigning on a promise of mass deportations.
ICE operations targeted several locations in the Los Angeles area, and in some cases, protesters tried to block the transport of detained immigrants. Authorities used flash-bang grenades, pepper spray, and tear gas to disperse the crowd.
ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons said in a statement that “protesters attacked ICE and federal police agents on the streets of Los Angeles” and that the crowd also “surrounded and attacked a federal building”.
An unknown number of people were arrested in the clashes. One of them was SEIU California President David Huerta. The union said he was treated at a hospital for injuries sustained during his arrest and remains in custody. Huerta was arrested for interfering with federal agents and will be indicted on Monday in federal court, according to U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California Bill Essayli.
ICE said in an X post on Saturday that it arrested 118 immigrants during operations in Los Angeles last week.
Trump said in a Truth Social post on Sunday morning that the National Guard was doing a “great job”. The National Guard can be called up by governors for local or state emergencies, and the U.S. president can also federalize the National Guard for federal missions, placing the force under the military chain of command.
In remarks to reporters in Morristown, New Jersey, later on Sunday, Trump described what happened in Los Angeles as a “riot” and said it justified activating the California National Guard.
He alluded to sending troops to more U.S. cities, saying: “We’ll have troops everywhere. We won’t let this happen to our country.”
Trump also said that, for now, he sees no basis for invoking the Insurrection Act to send military troops to suppress unrest in the country, though he left open the possibility of doing so in the future.
In separate statements, the chiefs of the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said their agencies do not participate in federal immigration enforcement actions, but that they are working to maintain public safety.
Source: www.npr.org, by Joe Hernandez, Steve Futterman