Trump deploys 2,000 more National Guard troops in Los Angeles: All you need to know about protests against immigration raids

Indian Express

19 hours ago

As protests against the immigration raids entered its fourth day in Los Angeles, US President Donald Trump approved the deployment of an additional 2,000 National Guard troops in order to help respond to any untoward incidents due to the agitation, news agency AP reported.
The Pentagon also announced that it was deploying 700 Marines to LA downtown to assist National Guards as the protests against the immigration drive caused multiple disturbances and traffic disruptions across LA. However, LA Police Chief Jim McDonnell, in a statement Monday afternoon, said he was confident in the police department's ability to handle large-scale demonstrations and that the Marines' arrival without coordinating with the police department presented a 'significant logistical and operational challenge' for them.
The US administration sent troops to LA as part of its aggressive measure against illegal immigrants, which led to clashes between protesters and law enforcement officials. As per the intelligence officials, the protesters are getting fuelled up by several factors, including immigration raids, National Guards deployment among others.
Why did the protests begin?
The car park of a hardware store in Los Angeles became the centre of protests led by dozens of day labourers and undocumented immigrants last Friday, after the Trump administration launched an extensive crackdown on illegal immigrants, conducting raids across Southern California.
The federal immigration authorities arrested more than 40 people that day across the city. The Los Angeles police arrested 29 people Saturday night 'for failure to disperse' and made 21 more arrests on Sunday on charges ranging from attempted murder with a Molotov cocktail and assault on a police officer to looting, AP report noted.
The police department also confirmed in a news release that it used tear gas and more than 600 rubber bullets and other less-than-lethal munitions over the weekend. The department says five officers sustained minor injuries, according to the report.
Since then, according to the federal authorities, the weeklong tally of immigrant arrests in the LA area has surpassed 100.
Demonstrations stretched till late Monday as LA Police officers, who used flash bangs and shot projectiles into the gathering as they pushed the protesters through a crowded, popular commercial area where bystanders and restaurant workers rushed to get out of their way, AP report described.
On Monday, thousands took to the streets around City Hall for a union rally ahead of a hearing for jailed labor leader David Huerta, who was freed a few hours later on a $50,000 bond, as per the AP report. Huerta, who is the president of the Service Employees International Union California, which represents thousands of the state's janitors, security officers and other workers, was arrested on Friday for protesting against the immigration raids.
The relatives of detained workers also demanded early Monday that their loved ones be released.
Troops deployed
Two days after the protesters took to streets last week, the US administration announced the deployment of about 2,000 National Guards troops in LA, which according to the White House, aimed at addressing the 'lawlessness' that was 'allowed to fester' in California. Objecting to this initial move, California Governor Gavin Newsom, said that the decision was 'purposefully inflammatory and will only escalate tensions.'
Further, Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth Monday announced on X (formerly Twitter) the deployment of at least 700 Marines at the site, to 'restore order.' The US military's actions towards the protesters, however, do not stop here. Just this morning, Trump authorized the deployment of an additional 2,000 National Guard members to help respond to protests.
The latest order brings the total number of Guard troops put on federal orders for the protests to more than 4,100, AP noted.
According to the Brennan Center for Justice, 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.
In a social media post Sunday, Trump called the demonstrators 'violent, insurrectionist mobs' and said he had directed Cabinet officers 'to take all such action necessary' to stop what he called 'riots'. Speaking to reporters in New Jersey further, Trump threatened violence against protesters: 'They spit, we hit.'
For/against protesters
In a strict move against the protesters, US Attorney General Pam Bondi, during an interview on Fox News Monday, stated that the Justice Department will use a civil disorder charge to go after people who assault law enforcement and will also pursue federal charges against people who burglarize the neighbourhood businesses.
Meanwhile, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass sent a plea to the federal government to 'Stop the raids.' 'I hope that we will be heard because our city is trying to move forward, and I believe the federal government should be supportive.'
LA mayor also informed AP of local immigrant rights groups confirming at least 5 raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials. Bass said they were still working to compile more information on the raids that took place throughout LA. She also criticised the deployment of National Guard troops and Marines, calling it a 'deliberate attempt' by the Trump administration to 'create disorder and chaos in our city.'
'I feel like we are part of an experiment that we did not ask to be a part of,' Bass said.
Trump vs Newsom
California Governor Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, told MSNBC, as quoted in the Associated Press, that he plans to file a suit Monday against the Trump administration. This seems to be the first time in decades that a state's National Guard was activated without a request from its governor.
Trump had cited a legal provision that allows him to mobilize federal service members when there is 'a rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States.'
Referring to it as a 'reckless' act, Gov. Newsom wrote on X: 'This isn't about public safety. It's about stroking a dangerous President's ego.'
California Attorney General Rob Bonta, meanwhile, announced the lawsuit over the use of National Guard troops by telling reporters that Trump had 'trampled' the state's sovereignty. He sought a court order declaring Trump's use of the Guard unlawful and asking for a restraining order to halt the deployment.
Bonta said that Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth violated the law and exceeded their constitutional authorities when they federalized the National Guard without going through the governor of California, AP report stated.
The lawsuit described the unrest in LA as 'primarily peaceful protests with some acts of violence or civil disobedience' that 'do not rise to the level of a rebellion.' The lawsuit also alleged that Trump violated the 10th Amendment, which is designed to protect state power from federal intrusion.
'This is a manufactured crisis to allow him to take over a state militia, damaging the very foundation of our republic,' Gov. Newsom said in press release on the lawsuit. 'Every governor, red or blue, should reject this outrageous overreach,' as quoted by AP.
The US president, on the other hand, has supported a suggestion by his border czar Tom Homan, who said California Gov. Newsom be arrested.
Rules for Marines
The Pentagon is working on a memo that will lay out the steps the 700 Marines can take to protect federal personnel and property during protests over immigration raids, the Associated Press report mentioned.
Those guidelines also will include specifics on the possibility that they could temporarily detain civilians until they could be turned over to law enforcement if troops are under assault or to prevent harm, a US official told AP.
Each Marine, arriving from their base at Twentynine Palms in the Southern California desert, should receive a card explaining what they can and cannot do, another official stated.
Marines are directed to de-escalate a situation whenever possible but also are authorized to act in self-defense, the documents with the Associated Press explained.
Divide as usual between Republicans and Democrats
The divide between Republicans and Democrats remained as usual even on Trump's crackdown on protesters amid immigration raids. California Democratic congresswoman Maxine Waters was denied entry to an LA detention center over the weekend, as Marjorie Taylor Greene, her Republican colleague from Georgia, mocked her on social media, The Guardian reported.
'Maxine Waters is big mad she got turned away by ICE when she went to go check on her CRIMINAL ILLEGALS!!' Greene posted on X, comparing Waters' situation to her own denial of access to the DC jail to visit 'AMERICAN CITIZENS being held in solitary confinement.' She later added, '2,000 National Guard is not enough for the LA insurrection and Democrat led war on America!!!'
Meanwhile, the California Democratic senator Adam Schiff urged restraint from protesters, warning on social media that 'violence is never the answer'. However, Senator Marsha Blackburn, a Tennessee Republican, posted 'deportations have never sounded better.'
California Republican Darrell Issa further accused Democrats of believing 'enforcing our immigration laws should incite people to attack ICE agents and riot in the streets'.
Democrats, on the other hand, stuck to accusations of federal tyranny, with former vice-president Kamala Harris calling the national guard deployment 'a dangerous escalation meant to provoke chaos' and part of a 'cruel, calculated agenda to spread panic,' The Guardian quoted.
Trump's latest crackdown on immigrants
US ICE carried out the largest single-day immigrant arrest operation in its history this week, detaining more than 2,200 people, according to NBC News. Trump has pledged to deport record numbers of undocumented immigrants and set a goal for ICE to arrest at least 3,000 migrants a day.
However, this is not new. Since assuming power on January 20 this year, Trump has announced various immigration-related executive orders, a part of a widespread effort to crack down on undocumented migrants in the US.
Sticking to his promise of 'mass deportations,' about 1,000 people were removed or repatriated via military aircrafts within a week of Trump assuming the office, BBC News reported.
According to the report, Trump also expanded the scope of expedited deportations of undocumented migrants, which allows removals to be carried out anywhere in the US, and applies to undocumented migrants who cannot prove that they have been in the country for more than two years.
In an executive order, Trump suspended the entry of all undocumented migrants to the US, and border patrol agents have been instructed to turn people away without granting them asylum hearings, BBC reported.
His orders also expanded the ability of the ICE to 'arrest and detain unlawful migrants on US soil,' while also delegating its immigration enforcement duties to state and local police.