In his own words: Trump said during 2024 campaign he would use military for immigration enforcement
President Donald Trump in recent days has sent thousands of National Guard troops and 700 active duty Marines to quell Los Angeles-area protests over immigration enforcement actions, despite the objections of Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom and local leaders.
Those troops soon could also be supporting immigration enforcement operations, including by holding secure perimeters around areas where raids are taking place and securing streets for immigration agents. That's according to Paul Eck, deputy general counsel in the California Military Department, who said in a court filing that the agency was informed the Pentagon plans to direct the California National Guard to start providing such support.
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Winnipeg Free Press
an hour ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
A president toys with overturning democracy
Opinion 'Democracy is next. Democracy is under assault,' California Gov. Gavin Newsom warned on Tuesday night in response to U.S. President Donald Trump's actions in the Los Angeles protests. Demonstrations began last week in that city after Immigration and Customs Enforcement raided several city locations to arrest people allegedly involved in illegal immigration to the United States and other violations. Trump has ordered in the National Guard and the military in response. For those of us who are a certain vintage, news of the unrest in Los Angeles brought up a lot of memories. Who can forget the hours of live television coverage over almost a week in 1992 as the world watched Los Angeles erupt in riots following the acquittal of four police officers for the beating of Rodney King. People died, more were injured and there was billions of dollars in property damage. The carnage was brought into everyone's living room, as television stations disrupted their regular programming to provide up-to-the-minute coverage. Damian Dovarganes / The Associated Press files A man walks past a burned-out car after a night of protests in downtown Los Angeles on Monday. Today's protests are not the same, yet because of what they represent, we should be paying close attention. Here's why. What is happening in Los Angeles is not only egregiously hypocritical, it's also the death of the fundamentals of democracy. First, some perspective. In 1992, then-president George Bush called in the National Guard to help quell protesters at the request of the Los Angeles mayor and the California governor. He invoked the Insurrection Act. Last Friday, protests began in Los Angeles, in protest to immigration raids targeting undocumented workers. These demonstrations were called peaceful for the most part by LAPD. Even the city's mayor downplayed the vandalism, vowing that those who did cause damage would be prosecuted. Saturday, Trump deployed 4,000 members of the National Guard to the city. Rather than using the Insurrection Act, Trump used a provision that allows the National Guard to be called in by the president in situations where authorities can't execute the country's laws. However, this provision also specifies that the order must be issued through the governor of the state. This is an overstep. Not one person has been killed. The protests have been limited to a small area in the city of Los Angeles. There has been no widespread damage to buildings or homes, although on Tuesday some looting was reported. More importantly, the governor of California did not ask for the National Guard to be called upon. California's attorney general announced Monday that the state is suing both Trump and his defence secretary for the deployment of the National Guard. Attorney General Rob Bonta wrote in a news release: 'Let me be clear: There is no invasion. There is no rebellion. The president is trying to manufacture chaos and crisis on the ground for his own political ends. Federalizing the California National Guard is an abuse of the president's authority under the law — and not one we take lightly. We're asking a court to put a stop to the unlawful, unprecedented order.' On Tuesday, Trump ordered 700 marines to be deployed, ostensibly to protect federal buildings. This, at a cost of about US$134 million, during a time of cutbacks at all levels of national spending. Meanwhile, also on Tuesday, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass issued a curfew for a portion of the city's downtown to keep a lid on the situation citing vandalism and looting. Bass has suggested the city is at a tipping point. One wonders if Trump's actions have only added gasoline to the fire. Not one to dial down the rhetoric, Trump suggested he may consider invoking the Insurrection Act, similar to Bush in 1992. It's one of the most extreme emergency powers available to a U.S. president. He also called the protesters 'animals' and 'a foreign enemy' later in a speech. Tuesdays A weekly look at politics close to home and around the world. This is the same president who in his second day in office, pardoned the individuals involved in the Jan. 6, 2021, attacks on the Capitol Hill building in Washington D.C. and commuted the sentences for 14 individuals convicted or otherwise charged with engaging in the separate seditious conspiracies. The hypocrisy is staggering. The current protests in Los Angeles share some similarities with the 1992 riots and as they continue, they may become more disruptive and more violent. However, their importance suggests that we should be paying attention to them. What we're seeing play out is the demise of democracy where the rule of law, the right to protest and the sovereignty of state power is overturned by the agenda of an all too-powerful leader. Shannon Sampert is a political scientist. shannon@mediadiva.
Winnipeg Free Press
an hour ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Trump's ostentatious vanity parade
Opinion One might be inclined to call it megalomania on the march. Or perhaps an atrocious acknowledgement of America's authoritarian advance. Or maybe just perversity on parade. However one chooses to describe it, in pithy alliterative terms or otherwise, the military spectacle U.S. President Donald Trump is throwing for himself this weekend in Washington, D.C. is nothing more or less than an ego-driven obscenity. The event, which is expected to include 6,600 armed forces personnel, 150 tanks, artillery and other fighting machines, and more than 50 aircraft, will wend its way along the north side of the National Mall early Saturday evening. It is being touted by the Trump administration as a commemoration of the 250th anniversary of the formal establishment of the U.S. Army. Alex Brandon / The Associated Press U.S. President Donald Trump Those same officials insist the fact the parade is taking place on Trump's 79th birthday is mere coincidence, and that this ostentatious display of military might — reportedly at a cost approaching US$45 million — is most definitely not the prideful president's taxpayer-funded birthday present to himself. A quick examination of this so-called anniversary celebration, however, suggests the pricey pageantry is likely more about the man than the armed forces institution. Plans to mark the army's 250th birthday have been in the works for a couple of years, but the massive parade was only added earlier this year, after Trump's return to the White House. His fascination with public displays of military might is well documented — he called the parade he witnessed during a 2017 state visit to China 'magnificent,' and described the Bastille Day event he observed the same year in Paris, which included a fighter-jet flyover complete with red/white/blue smoke trails, as 'one of the greatest parades' he'd ever seen. Trump was determined to have a parade of his own during his first term, but experienced military minds dissuaded him from such a gratuitous display. This time around, surrounded only by loyalists and lackeys, there is no such discouragement when Trump's vanity is aroused. Saturday's shameful stroking of the presidential ego will serve as the latest reminder of the president's obvious intention to style himself less as an elected democratic leader and more as an autocrat akin to the dictators — Putin, Xi and the like — he has openly admired. 'There's definitely a correlation between putting on a military parade and authoritarian regimes,' said Markus Schiller, CEO of the German-based aerospace and security consultancy ST Analytics. 'These parades are about sending a message to other countries and also to domestic political rivals.' Weekday Mornings A quick glance at the news for the upcoming day. Coming, as it does, at the end a week in which Trump dispatched National Guard and U.S. Marine troops to Los Angeles — against the wishes of California's governor and L.A.'s mayor — to quell protests against his administration's deportation-focused raids and roundups, the parade is a very public, exceedingly explicit declaration that this president views America's military as a force whose duty is to him alone, and whose considerable might can be directed toward anything that resists Trump's increasingly authoritarian will. When asked about his decision to send troops to California, Trump responded, 'We are going to have troops everywhere' that protests against his government arise. And should someone have the temerity to protest the president's repugnantly self-aggrandizing misuse of military machinery, the message is clear: 'They will be met with very big force. … I haven't heard about a protest, but you know, this is people that hate our country, but they will be met with very great force.' Don't think of it as a parade, or even a pointless presidential birthday vulgarity. Think of it as the latest warning of American democracy's imminent demise.
Winnipeg Free Press
3 hours ago
- Winnipeg Free Press
Dozens of LA-area mayors demand the Trump administration stop intensified immigration raids
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Dozens of mayors from across the Los Angeles region banded together Wednesday to demand that the Trump administration stop the stepped-up immigration raids that have spread fear across their cities and sparked protests across the U.S. But there were no signs President Donald Trump would heed their pleas. About 500 of the National Guard troops deployed to the Los Angeles protests have been trained to accompany agents on immigration operations, the commander in charge said Wednesday. And while some troops have already gone on such missions, he said it's too early to say if that will continue even after the protests die down. 'We are expecting a ramp-up,' said Maj. Gen. Scott Sherman, noting 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.' Hours later, a demonstration in Los Angeles' civic center just before start of the second night of the city's downtown curfew briefly turned chaotic when police in riot gear — many on horseback — charged at a group, striking them with wooden rods and later fired crowd control projectiles, including one that struck a woman who writhed in pain on the ground. After the curfew went into effect, a handful of arrests were made before the area cleared out and the evening quieted down. The LA-area mayors and city council members urged Trump to stop using armed military troops alongside immigration agents. 'I'm asking you, please listen to me, stop terrorizing our residents,' said Brenda Olmos, vice mayor of Paramount, who said she was hit by rubber bullets over the weekend. 'You need to stop these raids.' Speaking alongside the other mayors at a news conference, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said the raids spread fear at the behest of the White House. The city's nightly curfew will remain in effect as long as necessary. It covers a 1-square-mile (2.5-square-kilometer) section of downtown where the protests have been concentrated in the city that encompasses roughly 500 square miles (1,295 square kilometers). '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. Those who have been caught up in the nationwide raids include asylum seekers, people who overstayed their visas and migrants awaiting their day in immigration court. The administration has cited the protests in its decision to deploy the military. Governor asks court to step in California's Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, has asked a federal court to put an emergency stop to the military helping immigration agents in the nation's second-largest city. This week, guardsmen began standing protectively around agents as they carry out arrests. A judge set a hearing for Thursday. The Trump administration called the lawsuit a 'crass political stunt endangering American lives' in its official response on Wednesday. The military is now closer to engaging in law enforcement actions such as deportations, as Trump has promised in his crackdown. The Guard has the authority to temporarily detain people who attack officers, but any arrests must be made by law enforcement. The president posted on the Truth Social platform that the city 'would be burning to the ground' if he had not sent in the military. Some 2,000 National Guard soldiers are in Los Angeles and are soon to be joined by 2,000 more along with about 700 Marines, Sherman said. Speaking in an interview with The Associated Press and ABC, Sherman initially said National Guard troops had already temporarily detained civilians in the Los Angeles protests over immigration raids. He later said he based his comments on photos and footage he had seen that turned out not to be a representation of Guard members in Los Angeles. Curfew continues in downtown LA Police detained more than 20 people, mostly on curfew violations, on the first night of the curfew and used crowd-control projectiles to break up hundreds of protesters. But officers were more aggressive in controlling demonstrators Wednesday evening and as the curfew took effect, police were beginning to make arrests. Los Angeles police have made nearly 400 arrests and detentions since Saturday, the vast majority of which were for failing to leave the area at the request of law enforcement, according to the police department. There have been a handful of more serious charges, including for assault against police officers and for possession of a Molotov cocktail and a gun. Nine police officers have been hurt, mostly with minor injures. Some were transported to a hospital and released. Protests have spread nationwide Demonstrations have also spread to other cities nationwide, including Dallas and Austin in Texas, and Chicago and New York, where thousands rallied and more arrests were made. In New York City, police said they took 86 people into custody during protests in lower Manhattan that lasted into Wednesday morning. Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said the majority of demonstrators were peaceful. A 66-year-old woman in Chicago was injured when she was struck by a car during downtown protests Tuesday evening, police said. Video showed a car speeding down a street where people were protesting. In Texas, where police in Austin used chemical irritants to disperse several hundred demonstrators Monday, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott's office said Texas National Guard troops were 'on standby' in areas where demonstrations are planned. Guard members were sent to San Antonio, but Police Chief William McManus said he had not been told how many troops were deployed or their role ahead of planned protests Wednesday night and Saturday. Officers with the Texas Department of Public Safety said the Texas National Guard was present at a protest downtown. The protests began Friday after federal immigration raids arrested dozens of workers in Los Angeles. ___ Golden reported from Seattle. Associated Press writers Julie Watson in San Diego, Jesse Bedayn in Denver, and Jim Vertuno in Austin, Texas, contributed to this report.
