Troops sent by Trump reach protest-hit Los Angeles
SK
AFP | Los Angeles
Hundreds of National Guard troops took up positions in Los Angeles yesterday on US President Donald Trump's orders, a rare deployment against the state governor's wishes after sometimes violent protests against immigration enforcement raids.
The US military said 300 soldiers from the 79th Infantry Brigade Combat Team had been sent to three separate locations in the greater Los Angeles area, and were "conducting safety and protection of federal property & personnel."
Helmeted troops in camouflage gear and carrying automatic weapons could be seen in front of a federal complex -- including a detention center -- with the phrase "Our City" spray-painted on it in downtown Los Angeles.
The deployment overrode the protests of local officials, an extraordinary move not seen in decades and deemed "purposefully inflammatory" by California Governor Gavin Newsom.
It came ahead of more planned protests in the city, which has a large Latino population, including a call by organizers for a "mass mobilization" at City Hall at 2:00 pm local time (2100 GMT).
"Trump is sending 2,000 National Guard troops into LA County -- not to meet an unmet need, but to manufacture a crisis," Newsom posted on X Sunday.
"He's hoping for chaos so he can justify more crackdowns, more fear, more control. Stay calm. Never use violence. Stay peaceful."
Newsom's warning came after Los Angeles was rocked by two days of confrontations, during which federal agents fired flash-bang grenades and tear gas toward crowds angry at the arrests of dozens of migrants.
Pepper spray could still be smelled from the clashes overnight, AFP reporters in downtown Los Angeles said, while some scuffles between protesters and federal law enforcement could be seen early Sunday in the neighborhood of Compton.
Republicans lined up behind Trump to dismiss warnings by Newsom and other local officials that the protests had been largely peaceful, and that the National Guard deployment would exacerbate tensions.
"I have no concern about that at all," Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson told ABC's "This Week".
As for threats by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Saturday to send in active-duty Marines on top of the Guard troops, Johnson said he did not see that as "heavy-handed."
"We have to be prepared to do what is necessary," he argued.
Overnight an AFP photographer saw fires and fireworks light up the streets during clashes, while a protester holding a Mexican flag stood in front of a burnt-out car that had been sprayed with a slogan against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency.
"It's up to us to stand up for our people," said a Los Angeles resident whose parents are immigrants, declining to give her name as emergency services lights flashed in the distance.
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