Judge promises quick ruling over Trump's use of National Guard in Los Angeles
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Newsom filed a lawsuit Monday in response to Trump ordering the deployment of roughly 4,000 National Guard members to Los Angeles following protests over his stepped-up enforcement of immigration laws. They were originally called in to protect federal buildings, and the president later ordered the deployment of 700 Marines.
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On Tuesday, California sought a temporary restraining order immediately blocking the troops from assisting federal agents with immigration enforcement. That came as the military announced some members of the National Guard were now standing in protection around federal agents.
The Trump administration called the lawsuit a 'crass political stunt endangering American lives' in its official response on Wednesday.
A lone demonstrator draped in a US flag walked outside of the Metropolitan Detention Center on Thursday in Los Angeles, next to members of the California National Guard.
Damian Dovarganes/Associated Press
Breyer appeared poised to rule on the broader issue of whether Trump used the proper authority to deploy the Guard in the first place, rather than the narrower question of whether troops could assist with immigration enforcement. He said the use of the Marines was beyond his scope.
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Typically the authority to call up the National Guard lies with governors, but there are limited circumstances under which the president can deploy those troops. Trump federalized members of the California National Guard under an authority known as Title 10.
The lawsuit argues that Title 10 requires, among other things, that the president go through governors when issuing orders to the National Guard.
Brett Shumate, an attorney for the federal government, said Trump complied with the statute by informing the general in charge of the troops of his decision and would have the authority to call in the Guard even if he had not.
In a brief filed ahead of the hearing, the Justice Department said Trump's orders are not subject to judicial review.
'Courts did not interfere when President Eisenhower deployed the military to protect school desegregation. Courts did not interfere when President Nixon deployed the military to deliver the mail in the midst of a postal strike. And courts should not interfere here either,' the department said.
'Our position is this is not subject to judicial review,' Shumate told the judge.
Breyer, who at one point waved a copy of the constitution, said he disagreed.
'We're talking about the president exercising his authority, and the president is of course limited in that authority. That's the difference between a constitutional government and King George,' he said.
Nicholas Green, an attorney for California, asked for a quick ruling.
'The version of executive power to police civil community that the government is advancing is breathtaking in its scope,' he said.
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A law enforcement officer escorted a woman out of a protest in Los Angeles after she was detained on Wednesday.
Ethan Swope/Associated Press
The protests over immigration raids in Los Angeles intensified after Trump called up the National Guard and have since spread to other cities, including Boston, Chicago and Seattle.
Federal immigration agents have been arresting people at Home Depot parking lots and other businesses,
Trump has described Los Angeles
The Marines have not yet been spotted in Los Angeles and Guard troops have had limited engagement with protesters.
Dozens of mayors from across the Los Angeles region banded together Wednesday to demand the raids stop and the troops leave.
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‘No Kings Day' Exposed: Activist Powerhouses Mobilize Across America
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Graffiti at night. Cleanup in the morning. The night-and-day difference of L.A. protests
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Los Angeles police officers on horseback charged toward hundreds of people who had marched from Pershing Square to the graffiti-marred City Hall, knocking some protesters to the ground as officers on foot fired rubber bullets into the crowd. "It's very disruptive to day-to-day life — the raids, the protest. Everything is destroyed!" said Saul Barnes, a 22-year-old whose family owns a nearby hotel, as he jogged away from a police officer on horseback wielding a baton. "Who the hell wants to work in a state like this?" Calm in the morning. Rowdy at night. That was the routine in downtown Los Angeles this week after Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth deployed the National Guard and active-duty Marines to the city amid scattered protests against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids. Both police and protesters have said the difference between night and day has been palpable in the city's already quiet downtown, which has struggled with historically high rates of office vacancy since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The intense but isolated chaos has mostly been in and around the Civic Center, which includes City Hall, the LAPD headquarters and multiple courthouses and federal buildings. The area is a few blocks within a city that's just over 500 square miles. There, protesters have burned driverless Waymo vehicles, hurled rocks and bottles at police and National Guard members, and shut down the 101 Freeway. Businesses have been burglarized; windows, smashed. The phrases "F— ICE," "F— LAPD" and "F— Trump" have been spray-painted onto scores of buildings, including City Hall, a 1928 Art Deco landmark. A city-ordered 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. downtown curfew that began Tuesday — along with many protesters' calls for nonviolence — appeared to quell some of the late-night violence and property damage. Trump this week called the nation's second-largest city "a trash heap" that needed rescuing from so-called foreign invaders and rioters. He wrote on Truth Social that "if our troops didn't go into Los Angeles, it would be burning to the ground right now, just like so much of their housing burned to the ground" in the January fires that devastated Pacific Palisades and Altadena. But if the president were to visit the city center during the day, he might be a little bored. On Wednesday morning, a veteran LAPD officer sitting outside City Hall said the days have been mostly calm — and the protest schedule predictable. The officer, who said he was not authorized to speak on behalf of the department, said crowds trickled in around 1 p.m. each day. If they were taking part in an organized protest — the Service Employees International Union rally that drew thousands to Gloria Molina Grand Park on Monday or a march led by faith leaders Tuesday — they were peaceful, if boisterous. In the late afternoon and at night, he said, "the ones that are here to agitate" show up. Many are teenagers. Sitting next to him, smoking a cigar, a 53-year-old LAPD officer described the late-night protesters as "the Mad Max crowd: people with mini bikes, people with masks, rocks, bottles, fireworks." The officer, a Latino who was born at L.A. County-USC hospital and raised in East L.A., said with a sigh that he loved his home city, and "we have nothing to do with ICE; we have nothing to do with the raids, but we're here because of the disorder." On Wednesday afternoon, Reginald Wheeler, a 62-year-old homeless services worker, said he had been attending protests all week after his work day ended around 3 p.m. and staying until things got rowdy. 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"Under normal circumstances in most democratic countries, when police perceive protests to be potentially more violent, more of a threat, they will escalate as well, and there's a dance between policing and protest," Morrill said. "But that's not what's happening in Los Angeles. ... This is a spectacle that is constructed by the federal administration to dramatize the threat, the fear, for people who aren't local Angelenos, who are very far from the actual place. It's dramatized for media consumption." Although Trump has portrayed the entire city as a lawless place — where federal agents have been "attacked by an out of control mob of agitators, troublemakers, and/or insurrectionists," he wrote on Truth Social — the literal night-and-day differences have played out all week. Early Monday evening, after a few hundred people ignored dispersal orders near the Federal Building, police — firing less-lethal munitions and tossing flash-bang grenades — pushed protesters into Little Tokyo, where businesses and the Japanese American National Museum were heavily vandalized. Daylight Tuesday brought a starkly different scene: volunteers scrubbing graffiti from the exterior of the museum, which highlights the painful lessons of Japanese Americans' mass incarceration during World War II. After seeing images of the vandalism on her social media feeds, Kimiko Carpenter, a West L.A. mom and hospice volunteer, stopped at Anawalt Lumber to buy $50 worth of rags, gloves, scraping brushes and canisters of graffiti remover. She drove downtown and rolled up her sleeves. Wiping sweat off her brow with the elbow of her white button-down shirt, Carpenter said she had no official affiliation with the museum but was half Japanese and had volunteered there years ago as a teenager. Working to remove the spray paint scrawled across the windows felt like a tangible thing she could do for a few hours before she had to pick up her young children from school. Shortly before the curfew went into effect Tuesday night, hundreds of people led by a coalition of faith leaders marched from Grand Park to the Edward R. Roybal Federal Building on Los Angeles Street, stepping in front of another, more contentious protest group. As the faith leaders arrived and asked their group to take a knee and pray on the building's steps, Department of Homeland Security officers trained pepper-ball guns on clergy members, and National Guard members tensed their riot shields. 'We see that you are putting on your masks; you don't need them,' Rev. Eddie Anderson, pastor of McCarty Memorial Christian Church and a leader with LA Voice, said to the officers and guardsmen. 'The people have gathered together to remind you there is a higher power. 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Around 11:20 a.m. Wednesday, five camouflaged National Guard members lined up on the building's front steps, standing behind clear riot shields. At the sight of them, Woodson tied her bandanna around her face and started marching back and forth, screaming: "Immigrants are not the problem! Immigrants are never the problem!" Marching quietly behind her, a Mexican flag draped over her shoulders, was 19-year-old Michelle Hernandez, a daughter of Mexican immigrants who lives in East L.A. and had been worried about family members and friends during the ICE raids. She spoke softly but said she wanted "to be a voice for those who cannot speak." She said it hurt to see Latino police officers and federal agents involved in the immigration crackdown and that it was "very heartbreaking seeing your own people betray you." As the young women marched, several Latino maintenance workers snaked a power hose across the Federal Building steps, paying no mind to the heavily-armed National Guard soldiers as they sprayed away graffiti. One worker, a 67-year-old from East L.A., said he was glad to see the soldiers outside the building where he had been employed for the last 20 years because he figured the vandalism would have been worse without them. George Dutton, a UCLA professor who teaches Southeast Asian history, stood by himself in front of the Federal Building steps, holding up a sign that read: "It's Called the Constitution You F—" as the young women walked back and forth behind him. Dutton, who was taking a break from grading final exams, was not surprised at the quiet. 'It speaks to the various paradoxes around this — it's a movement that ebbs and flows,' he said. 'I see soldiers carrying guns and wearing fatigues, so maybe they're trying to create the idea that this is a war zone," he added. "And if you did a tight shot on one of these National Guardsmen, you might actually cast that impression. But if you pull back, you get the big picture and you realize that, no, it's literally manufactured.' Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week. This story originally appeared in Los Angeles Times.
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San Diego Police Department urges peace, warns against violence in anti-ICE protests
(Above: Report by FOX 5/KUSI's Jennifer Franco on May 30 about the ICE operations at Buona Forchetta) SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — The San Diego Police Department issued a statement Friday regarding the federal immigration enforcement actions happening nationwide. Following on the heels of an announcement made earlier this week by the San Diego County Chiefs and Sheriff's Association, SDPD said it 'fully supports the right to peacefully assemble and exercise free speech' and that it recognizes how the actions taken by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have 'deeply affected' the community. What is the difference between democracy and authoritarian rule? However, the department warned that damaging property or conducting other violent acts will have legal consequences. 'The San Diego Police Department does not enforce federal immigration laws, nor do we inquire about immigration status,' the department stated. 'Our mission is focused on public safety.' At the end of last month, ICE agents conducted two immigration enforcement operations at an Italian restaurant, Buona Forchetta, and its sister restaurant in South Park. San Diego police officers were also called in to assist after the heightened response led to a crowd of people gathering around the scene, attempting to prevent the ICE agents and their vehicles from leaving. The warnings come ahead of another wave of protests planned for Saturday called 'No Kings Day,' a nationwide movement which is aimed against several policies and actions made by the Trump administration, including strict immigration enforcement. Here's where 'No Kings' events are happening in San Diego County. SDPD's reaction to the federal crackdown on illegal immigration echoes a similar sentiment made by the county's law enforcement association on Tuesday. Chula Vista Police Chief Roxana Kennedy, who is also the president of the San Diego County Chiefs and Sheriff's Association, said assaults on law enforcement or acts like looting, vandalism and arson 'will not be tolerated.' 'Should federal authorities request our assistance due to safety concerns, local law enforcement will respond as necessary to ensure the protection of all involved—officers, agents, and members of the public alike,' her statement on behalf of the association read. 'This support is strictly for safety and security purposes and does not reflect participation in immigration enforcement.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
