Newsom goes on offensive as LA curfew comes into effect

RTÉ News​

a day ago

California Governor Gavin Newsom went on the political offensive with a dire warning that US President Donald Trump's crackdown on California "will not end here," attacking the president's policies across the country.
Mr Newsom, who observers say is weighing a presidential run in 2028, has been full-throated in his insistence that Mr Trump overstepped his authority by deploying troops to Los Angeles to quell days of unruly protests against immigration raids.
However, he went well beyond accusing the president of stoking tensions in the country's second-biggest city to attack Mr Trump's ongoing, polarising effort to "Make America Great Again."
"California may be first, but it clearly will not end here," Mr Newsom warned in the live-streamed address.
Mr Trump, he said, is a "president who wants to be bound by no law or constitution, perpetuating a unified assault on American tradition."
"If some of us can be snatched off the streets without a warrant, based only on suspicion or skin colour, then none of us are safe," he said.
"Authoritarian regimes begin by targeting people who are least able to defend themselves. But they do not stop there," he added.
Mr Newsom ran through a stark list of the Republican leader's actions since he returned to the White House in January, from firing government watchdogs to threatening universities' funding and targeting law firms.
"He's declared a war, a war on culture, on history, on science, on knowledge itself," the 57-year-old Democrat said.
This weekend, Mr Trump will spend his 79th birthday watching tanks rumble through Washington at a parade to mark the 250th anniversary of the US army.
Mr Newsom accused him of "forcing" the military "to put on a vulgar display to celebrate his birthday, just as other failed dictators have done in the past."
He charged Mr Trump with "taking a wrecking ball" to American democracy, and said there were "no longer any checks and balances" on the president.
"Congress is nowhere to be found," Mr Newsom said.
He called on Americans to "stand up and be held to account," but urged any protesters to do so peacefully.
"I know many of you are feeling deep anxiety, stress and fear," he said.
"What Donald Trump wants most is your fealty, your silence, to be complicit in this moment. Do not give in to him," he added.
A presumed frontrunner for Democratic leadership, Mr Newsom has made no secret of his political ambitions and has not shied away from a public showdown with Mr Trump.
In the five days since the Los Angeles protests began, he has brawled with officials on social media and dared the Trump administration to make good on its threats to arrest him.
It comes as hundreds of US Marines arrived in the Los Angeles area under orders from Mr Trump, as the city's mayor declared a curfew for parts of the downtown area and police arrested 197 people in a fifth day of street protests.
State and local officials have called Mr Trump's response an extreme overreaction to mostly peaceful demonstrations.
About 700 Marines were in a staging area in the Seal Beach area about 50km south of Los Angeles, awaiting deployment to specific locations, a US official said.
California's two senators, Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla, said in a joint statement that active-duty military personnel should only be mobilised domestically "during the most extreme circumstances, and these are not them."
Mr Trump, who has made the immigration crackdown his signature issue, used a speech honouring soldiers to defend his decision, telling soldiers at the Army base in Fort Bragg, North Carolina: "Generations of Army heroes did not shed their blood on distant shores only to watch our country be destroyed by invasion and third-world lawlessness."
"What you're witnessing in California is a full-blown assault on peace, on public order and on national sovereignty, carried out by rioters bearing foreign flags," Mr Trump said, adding his administration would "liberate Los Angeles."
Demonstrators have waved the flags of Mexico and other countries in solidarity for the migrants rounded in a series of intensifying raids.
Mayor says stop the raids
Los Angeles mayor Ms Bass emphasised at a press conference that unrest has been limited to a few downtown blocks and she drew a distinction between the majority of demonstrators protesting peacefully and a smaller number of agitators she blamed for violence and looting.
She later told another briefing a curfew had been considered for several days but decided to impose one starting today after 23 businesses were looted on Monday night.
In what has become a ritual each afternoon, police started forcing demonstrators away from the streets outside the Metropolitan Detention Centre, where many detained immigrants are held.
Multiple groups of protesters meandered through downtown Los Angeles, monitored or followed by police armed with less lethal munitions.
Police said they arrested 197 people, more than doubling the total number of arrests in the region since Saturday.
Nearby business owners who were scrubbing off graffiti and sweeping up said they did not support the immigration raids and felt Mr Trump's response was only fanning the flames.
"I agree with what the protesters are defending - they're standing up for the Latino community," said Frank Chavez, 53, manager of an office building.
"But there are a few carrying out vandalism and violence, and that must be stopped," he added.
Protests took place in other cities including Chicago, where police led at least two demonstrators away in handcuffs from a combative march through downtown. Other protesters shouted "Shame! Shame!" as officers took away detained demonstrators.
Hundreds of people turned out for the evening protest, carrying signs with messages such as: "The people say ICE out" and "Immigrants made America."
"Even if they send the police, or dogs or whatever, we're always going to be out here," said protester Marquise Howard, 24.
More immigration raids
The Marines do not have arrest authority and will protect federal property and personnel, according to military officials. There were approximately 2,100 Guard troops in greater Los Angeles yesterday, with more on the way, the official said.
Mr Newsom and the state sued Mr Trump and the Defence Department on Monday, seeking to block the deployment of federal troops.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta told Reuters the state was concerned about allowing federal troops to protect personnel, saying there was a risk that could violate an 1878 law that generally forbids the US military, including the National Guard, from taking part in civilian law enforcement.
"The federal property part I understand - defending and protecting federal buildings," Mr Bonta said. "But protecting personnel likely means accompanying ICE agents into communities and neighbourhoods, and protecting functions could mean protecting the ICE function of enforcing the immigration law."
US Immigration and Customs Enforcement yesterday posted photos on X of National Guard troops accompanying ICE officers on an immigration raid.
Trump administration officials have vowed to redouble the immigration raids in response to the street protests.
Marines are trained for conflicts around the world and used for rapid deployments in case of emergencies, such as threats to US embassies.
Some units also learn riot and crowd control techniques.