Los Angeles curfew continues amid protests over immigration raids

Euronews

2 days ago

A curfew is in place for a second night in downtown Los Angeles after a full week of clashes between protesters and authorities sparked by immigration raids in the city.
Police detained more than 20 people on the first night of the curfew, mostly for violating the lockdown.
A demonstration in Los Angeles' civic centre just before the start of the second night of the city's curfew briefly turned chaotic when police in riot gear — many on horseback — charged at a group as police used projectiles to break up hundreds of demonstrators.
The city's nightly lockdown will remain in effect as long as necessary, according to Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass.
'If there are raids that continue, if there are soldiers marching up and down our streets, I would imagine that the curfew will continue,' Bass said.
More than 400 people have been arrested by Los Angeles police since Saturday, the vast majority for violating the restriction on movement in the area. Prosecutors have charged three others for possession of a gun, a Molotov cocktail and assault against a police officer.
As the overnight curfew began, Bass wrote on X that it was designed to "stop bad actors who are taking advantage of the president's chaotic escalation".
She earlier blamed the demonstrations on Trump's immigration raids, claiming that the move had "provoked residents". "A week ago, everything was peaceful," she told a news conference on Wednesday.
Los Angeles was "part of a national experiment to determine how far the federal government can go in taking over power from a local government, from a local jurisdiction," she suggested.
Dozens of mayors from across the Los Angeles area banded together to demand that the Trump administration stop the immigration raids.
Trump however, showed no sign of heeding their pleas. A total of 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 Marines have been deployed by the US president to squash the unrest, despite objection from California's Democratic governor Gavin Newsom.
Around 500 of the National Guard troops deployed in LA were trained to accompany agents on immigration raids, Major General Scott Sherman said Wednesday.
'We are expecting a ramp-up,' Sherman said.
Newsom has asked a federal court to put an emergency stop on the military helping immigration agents in LA.
The Trump administration called the lawsuit a 'crass political stunt endangering American lives" in its official response on Wednesday. The city 'would be burning to the ground' if he had not sent in the military, Trump said.
The military is now closer to engaging in law enforcement actions such as deportations. The Guard has the authority to detain people who attack officers temporarily, but any arrests must be made by law enforcement.
On Wednesday, demonstrations spread to other cities including Dallas and Austin in Texas and Chicago, where thousands rallied and more arrests were made — including 86 in New York.
In Texas, police in Austin used chemical irritants to disperse several hundred demonstrators on Monday. Republican Governor Greg Abbott's office said Texas National Guard troops were 'on standby" in areas where demonstrations are planned.
A 66-year-old woman in Chicago was injured when she was struck by a car during downtown protests Tuesday evening, police said.
Sherman noted that protests across the nation were being discussed. 'I'm focused right here in LA, what's going on right here. But you know, I think we're, we're very concerned.'
The US has ordered the departure of non-essential embassy staff and their families from the Middle East over heightened security concerns in the region.
The decision comes amid an apparent impasse in US-Iran nuclear talks, with US President Donald Trump saying he was "less confident" the pair would reach a deal.
The US State Department on Wednesday announced it would be partially evacuating personnel from the US embassy in Baghdad to "keep Americans safe, both home and abroad."
The US embassy in Baghdad already operates at limited staffing due to security risks, and the order will not affect a large number of personnel.
The department has also authorised the departure of non-essential personnel and family members from its embassies in Bahrain and Kuwait.
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth authorised the 'voluntary departure of military dependents from locations' across the region, US Central Command said in a statement. The command 'is monitoring the developing tension in the Middle East.'
Earlier Wednesday, the UK's maritime agency issued a warning to ships in the region that an escalation of tensions could impact shipping. It advised vessels to be cautious in the Persian Gulf, the Gulf of Oman, and the Strait of Hormuz — waterways that all border Iran.
Iraq's state-run Iraqi News Agency said the evacuation of some nonessential employees from the US Embassy in Baghdad was part of 'procedures related to the US diplomatic presence in a number of Middle Eastern countries, not just Iraq,' adding that Iraqi officials 'have not recorded any security indicators that warrant an evacuation.'
Tensions have escalated recently amid a deadlock in negotiations between the US and Iran over Tehran's advancing nuclear program. The ongoing Israel-Hamas war — now over 18 months — has heightened concerns of a broader conflict that could draw in the US, Israel, Iran and its regional allies.
Speaking at the Kennedy Centre in Washington on Wednesday, Trump said staff were being "moved out, because it could be a dangerous place. We'll see what happens."
When asked if there was anything that could be done to reduce tensions in the region, Trump responded that Tehran "can't have a nuclear weapon, firstly."
Talks between Washington and Tehran seek to limit Iran's nuclear programme in exchange for relief from the crushing economic sanctions the US has placed on the country. Iran says its nuclear programme is peaceful.
The next and sixth round of talks, which had been tentatively scheduled for this weekend in Oman, now looks increasingly likely to be cancelled, according to two officials who spoke to AP on condition of anonymity.
In a separate interview with the New York Post's 'Pod Force One' podcast, Trump said he was "getting more and more less confident about' a deal.
'They seem to be delaying, and I think that's a shame. I'm less confident now than I would have been a couple of months ago. Something happened to them," he said in the interview released on Wednesday.
Iran's mission to the UN posted on social media that 'threats of overwhelming force won't change the facts."
US militarism "only fuels instability," the mission claimed.
Iranian Defence Minister General Aziz Nasirzadeh separately told journalists Wednesday that Tehran would be ready to respond to airstrikes.
'If conflict is imposed on us, the opponent's casualties will certainly be more than ours, and in that case, America must leave the region, because all its bases are within our reach,' he said.
'We have access to them, and we will target all of them in the host countries without hesitation.'
Amid growing tensions with Tehran, the top US military officer for the Middle East, General Erik Kurilla, was scheduled to testify before the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday, but that testimony has now been postponed, according to the committee's website. The Pentagon has not commented on the postponement.