What to know about the Los Angeles immigration protests over ICE operations

CBS News

7 hours ago

Tensions in Los Angeles escalated Sunday as thousands of protesters took to the streets in response to President Trump's extraordinary deployment of the National Guard, blocking off a major freeway and setting self-driving cars on fire as law enforcement used tear gas, rubber bullets and flash bangs to control the crowd.
Many protesters dispersed as evening fell and police declared an unlawful assembly, a precursor to officers moving in arresting people who don't leave.
But some of those remaining threw objects at police from behind a makeshift barrier that spanned the width of a street and others hurled chunks of concrete, rocks, electric scooters and fireworks at California Highway Patrol officers and their vehicles parked on the closed southbound 101 Freeway. Officers ran under an overpass to take cover.
CBS News Los Angeles reported that several fires were set in dumpsters and trash bins and at least one store had windows shattered by alleged looters. Dozens of buildings were tagged with graffiti, including the LAPD Headquarters, the U.S. Courthouse and the old Los Angeles Times building.
Footage from the CBS News Los Angeles helicopter showed that multiple windows of the the police headquarters had been shattered as well.
Police officers stand guard as smoke covers the area during a protest against federal immigration sweeps in downtown Los Angeles on June 8, 2025.
Aude Guerrucci / REUTERS
Separately, San Francisco police reported 60 arrests Sunday night. Police said people were taking part in "First Amendment activities" but then began committing crimes "ranging from assault to felony vandalism and causing property damage." An unlawful assembly was declared but several people kept "engaging in illegal activity," police said. Two officers were hurt, though the injuries weren't life threatening. Police said the demonstrators then vandalized buildings, a police cruiser and other property, and officers began arresting people who didn't comply with the dispersal order.
L.A. demonstrations intensified
Sunday's protests in Los Angeles, a sprawling city of 4 million people, were centered in several blocks of downtown. It was the third and most intense day of demonstrations against Mr. Trump's immigration crackdown in the region, as the arrival of around 300 Guard troops spurred anger and fear among many residents.
The Guard was deployed specifically to protect federal buildings, including the downtown detention center where protesters concentrated.
Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell said officers were "overwhelmed" by the remaining protesters. He said they included regular agitators who show up at demonstrations to cause trouble.
Dozens of people were arrested throughout the weekend of protest.
A California Highway Patrol officer pulls an electric scooter off a vehicle on a highway as protesters throw objects at police vehicles near the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles on June 8, 2025.
Ethan Swope / AP
Mr. Trump responded to McDonnell on Truth Social, telling him to arrest protesters in face masks.
"Looking really bad in L.A. BRING IN THE TROOPS!!!" he wrote.
Starting in the morning, the troops stood shoulder to shoulder, carrying long guns and riot shields as protesters shouted "shame" and "go home." After some closely approached the guard members, another set of uniformed officers advanced on the group, shooting smoke-filled canisters into the street.
Minutes later, the L.A. police fired rounds of crowd-control munitions to disperse the protesters, who they said were assembled unlawfully. Much of the group then moved to block traffic on the 101 Freeway until state patrol officers cleared them from the roadway by late afternoon.
Nearby, at least four self-driving Waymo cars were set on fire, sending large plumes of black smoke into the sky and exploding intermittently as the electric vehicles burned. By evening, police had issued an unlawful assembly order shutting down several blocks of downtown Los Angeles.
Flash bangs echoed out every few seconds into the evening.
How the demonstrations started
The arrival of the National Guard followed two days of protests that began Friday in downtown Los Angeles before spreading on Saturday to Paramount, a heavily Latino city south of the city, and neighboring Compton.
Federal agents arrested immigrants in LA's fashion district, in a Home Depot parking lot and at several other locations on Friday. The next day, they were staging at a Department of Homeland Security office near another Home Depot in Paramount, which drew out protesters who suspected another raid. Federal authorities later said there was no enforcement activity at that Home Depot.
The weeklong tally of immigrant arrests in the LA area climbed above 100, federal authorities said. Many more were arrested while protesting, including a prominent union leader who was accused of impeding law enforcement.
A woman waves the Mexican flag as flames erupt from a dumpster during a protest in downtown Los Angeles on June 8, 2025.
Ethan Swope / AP
What are officials saying?
Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom requested that Mr. Trump remove the guard members in a letter Sunday afternoon, calling their deployment a "serious breach of state sovereignty." He was in Los Angeles meeting with local law enforcement and officials.
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 hinder the administration's mass deportation efforts.
Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass blamed the increasingly aggressive protests on the president's decision to deploy the Guard, calling it a move designed to enflame tensions. They've both urged protesters to remain peaceful.
"What we're seeing in Los Angeles is chaos that is provoked by the administration," Bass said in an afternoon press conference. "This is about another agenda, this isn't about public safety."
But McDonnell, the LAPD chief, said the protests were following a similar pattern for episodes of civil unrest, with things ramping up in the second and third days.
He pushed back against claims by the Trump administration that the LAPD had failed to help federal authorities when protests broke out Friday after a series of immigration raids. His department responded as quickly as it could, and had not been notified in advance of the raids and therefore was not pre-positioned for protests, he said.
Newsom, meanwhile, has repeatedly said that California authorities had the situation under control. He mocked Mr. Trump for posting a congratulatory message to the Guard on social media before troops had even arrived in Los Angeles, and said on MSNBC that Mr. Trump never floated deploying the Guard during a Friday phone call. He called the president a "stone cold liar."
The admonishments didn't deter the administration.
"It's a bald-faced lie for Newsom to claim there was no problem in Los Angeles before President Trump got involved," White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in a statement.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a social media post that if the violence continues, he would mobilize "active duty Marines" from Camp Pendleton in San Diego County. He said the Marines were already on "high alert."
When asked what is the threshold for sending in the Marines, Mr. Trump said Sunday: "The bar is what I think it is."
Democratic California Rep. Maxine Waters on Sunday strongly rebuked the president's decision to deploy the National Guard, calling the situation "outrageous" and "horrible" and adding that she believes Mr. Trump is using L.A., a sanctuary city, as an example.
"He's using deportation as a way to enhance his position with all those right-wingers out there who do not want this country to be a country of people coming from other places," the Democrat told a reporter outside the Metropolitan Detention Center. "I think he's up to creating martial law."
Former Vice President Kamala Harris also condemned the Trump administration's actions in L.A. on Sunday, calling the deployment of the National Guard "a dangerous escalation meant to provoke chaos."
"In addition to the recent ICE raids in Southern California and across our nation, it is part of the Trump Administration's cruel, calculated agenda to spread panic and division," said Harris, who also previously served as a senator and attorney general of California. "This Administration's actions are not about public safety — they're about stoking fear. Fear of a community demanding dignity and due process."
Some perspective on the protests
The protests didn't reach the size of past demonstrations that brought the National Guard to Los Angeles, including the Watts and Rodney King riots, and the 2020 protests against police violence, in which Newsom requested the assistance of federal troops.
The last time the National Guard was activated without a governor's permission was in 1965, when President Lyndon B. Johnson sent troops to protect a civil rights march in Alabama, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.
and contributed to this report.