An AFP photographer saw fires and fireworks light up the streets during clashes | Credits: @RINGO CHIU/AFP
US Federal agents clashed with protesters near a detention centre in downtown Los Angeles, as confrontations stretched into a third day, prompting President Donald Trump to order the deployment of about 300 National Guard troops and Pentagon Chief Peter Hegseth to threaten to send active duty soldiers already on high alert.
“Federal law-enforcement officials fired canisters of tear gas at a group protesting immigration raids in Los Angeles on Sunday, a day after Trump ordered the National Guard to help quell demonstrations over the objections of California officials,” the New York Times reported.
The Associated Press (AP), which posted a video of the protests, said a confrontation broke out as hundreds of people protested government raids against allegedly illegal immigrants in front of LA’s Metropolitan Detention Centre. The AP video shows uniformed officers shooting smoke-filled canisters as they advanced into the street, forcing protesters to retreat. The National Guard troops stood shoulder to shoulder behind plastic riot shields.
Without the governor’s request
The deployment appeared to be the first time in decades that a state’s National Guard was activated without a request from its governor, a significant escalation against those who have sought to halt Trump’s mass deportation efforts.
California Governor Gavin Newsom called the decision “purposefully inflammatory.” He posted on X that Trump was deploying the National Guard “not because there is a shortage of law enforcement, but because they want a spectacle,” adding: “Don’t give them one. Never use violence. Speak out peacefully.” The governor also wrote that Trump’s attempts to militarise California “are an alarming abuse of power.” Newsom also said Hegseth’s threats to send active duty personnel were “deranged behaviour.”
In response to Trump’s proposal to defund California, Newsom said his state will stop paying federal taxes. Californians pay the bills for the federal government.
“We pay over $80 billion more in taxes than we get back. Maybe it’s time to cut that off, @realDonaldTrump. Californians pay the bills for the federal government,” he stated on X.
2,000 more National Guard troops
The continuation of intense protests prompted the Trump Administration to threaten sending 2,000 more National Guard troops and Hetseth saying he was prepared to mobilise active duty troops “if violence continues”, Reuters said.
The three-day protests in Los Angeles are far smaller than past events that have brought the National Guard to Los Angeles, including the Watts and Rodney King riots, and the protests against police violence in 2020, when Newsom requested the assistance of federal troops, AP said.
Trump told reporters as he prepared to board Air Force One in Morristown, New Jersey, Sunday that there were “violent people” in Los Angeles, and they’re not gonna get away with it.”
Asked if he would deploy troops to Los Angeles, the president replied, “We’re gonna have troops everywhere. We won’t let this happen to our country. We’re not going to let our country be torn apart like it was under Biden.” He warned that California officials who obstruct deportations will face charges, while apparently forgetting he refused to send troops when a violent mob of protesters raided Congress on January 6th, 2020.
In a statement Sunday, Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin accused California’s politicians and protesters of “defending heinous illegal alien criminals at the expense of Americans’ safety.”
“Why do Governor Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass care more about violent murderers and sex offenders than they do about protecting their own citizens?” she said. “These rioters in Los Angeles are fighting to keep rapists, murderers, and other violent criminals loose on Los Angeles streets. Instead of rioting, they should be thanking ICE officers every single day who wake up and make our communities safer,” McLaughlin.
‘I’m deeply angered,’ says LA Mayor
Television news footage on Friday showed unmarked vehicles resembling military transport and vans loaded with uniformed federal agents streaming through Los Angeles streets as part of the immigration enforcement operation.
Raids occurred around Home Depot stores, where street vendors and day labourers were picked up, as well as at a garment factory and a warehouse, Salas of Chirla said.
Bass, the mayor of Los Angeles, condemned the immigration raids.
“I am deeply angered by what has taken place,” Bass said in a statement. “These tactics sow terror in our communities and disrupt basic principles of safety in our city. We will not stand for this.”
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass condemned the immigration raids. “I am deeply angered by what has taken place. These tactics sow terror in our communities and disrupt basic principles of safety in our city. We will not stand for this.”
There is no doubt that this story has not ended yet, and further consequences will surely unfold in the days to come.
