What sparked the Los Angeles protests and is Trump allowed to deploy the National Guard?

CNA

3 days ago

Protests have rocked Los Angeles since last Friday (Jun 6) as federal agents faced off against hundreds of demonstrators following immigration raids.
Over the weekend, US President Donald Trump ordered 2,000 National Guard troops to the city, a rare deployment that goes against the wishes of California Governor Gavin Newsom, who has called it "purposely inflammatory" and unlawful.
This is what we know so far about the clashes in the United States' second-largest city.
HOW THE PROTESTS STARTED AND GREW
Trump has made clamping down on illegal migration a key goal for his second term in office.
Officers from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency executed search warrants at multiple locations in Los Angeles on Jun 9, and arrested immigrants in LA's fashion district, in a Home Depot parking lot and at several other locations.
The weeklong tally of immigrant arrests in the LA area has climbed above 100.
By Friday night, protests had kicked off in the city. More than 100 demonstrators gathered at the immigration services building and detention centre in downtown Los Angeles.
On Friday night, the Los Angeles Police Department declared it an unlawful assembly and ordered the crowds to leave.
Multiple police vehicles and officers in riot gear arrived, and flashbangs were used to disperse the crowd.
The Department of Homeland Security said that there were about "1,000 rioters" at the protests on Friday.
On Saturday, federal security agents faced off against a few hundred protesters in southeast Los Angeles, while a second demonstration broke out in downtown Los Angeles, drawing about 60 people.
Los Angeles police said in a post on X that multiple people were detained for failing to disperse despite multiple warnings.
Trump on Saturday signed a presidential memorandum to deploy the National Guard to "address the lawlessness that has been allowed to fester", said the White House in a statement.
These troops were deployed on Sunday, guarding federal government buildings as further clashes broke out between police and protesters.
The police declared several rallies in the city to be "unlawful assemblies", accusing some protesters of throwing concrete projectiles, bottles and other items at officers.
While ICE raids in other US cities have triggered small-scale protests in recent months, the Los Angeles unrest is the biggest and most sustained against the president's immigration policies so far.
CAN TRUMP CALL IN THE NATIONAL GUARD?
The National Guard serves both the state and federal interests. It is a state-based force that is part of the US Armed Forces Reserve, and is usually activated by the governor.
But Trump has circumvented this and said the protests interfered with federal law enforcement and framed them as a possible "form of rebellion" against the authority of the government.
He cited Title 10 of the US Code – a federal law that outlines the role of the US Armed Forces – in his order to call members of the California National Guard into federal service.
A provision of Title 10 allows the president to deploy National Guard units into federal service if the US is invaded, if there is a 'rebellion or danger of rebellion', or if the president is 'unable with the regular forces to execute the laws of the United States'.
An 1878 law generally forbids the US military, including the National Guard, from taking part in civilian law enforcement.
But the troops are allowed to protect federal agents who are carrying out law enforcement duties and to protect federal property.
For example, National Guard troops cannot arrest protesters, but they can protect ICE officers.
Legal experts have cast doubt on Trump's use of Title 10, calling it "inflammatory and reckless", especially without Newsom's support.
The protests in California do not rise to the level of 'rebellion' and do not prevent the federal government from executing the laws of the US, they added.
Trump on Sunday said that there were 'violent people' in Los Angeles, "and they're not gonna get away with it'.
He could take a more far-reaching step and invoke the Insurrection Act, which allows troops to directly participate in civilian law enforcement, but there is little recent precedent.
That law was last invoked by President George H W Bush in 1992, when the governor of California requested military aid to suppress unrest in Los Angeles following the Rodney King trial.
TRUMP VS NEWSOM
Newsom has denounced Trump's move to call in the National Guard, formally requesting that the administration rescind "its unlawful deployment of troops" and return them to his command.
He also called the deployment a 'serious breach of state sovereignty' and has said that California authorities had the situation under control.
The last time a president deployed the National Guard in a state without a request from that state's governor was 1965, when President Lyndon Johnson sent troops to protect civil rights demonstrators in Montgomery, Alabama.
Newsom mocked Trump for posting a congratulatory message to the National Guard on social media before troops had arrived in Los Angeles, and said that Trump never floated deploying the National Guard during a Friday phone call.
He also called the president a "stone cold liar".
Trump's administration hit back, with a spokesperson saying: "It's a bald-faced lie for Newsom to claim there was no problem in Los Angeles before President Trump got involved.
"Everyone saw the chaos, violence and lawlessness."