Los Angeles police order immigration protesters in downtown to go home
Police face off with demonstrators during a protest against federal immigration sweeps in downtown Los Angeles, California, U.S. June 8, 2025. REUTERS/Mike Blake
LOS ANGELES - Police declared all of downtown Los Angeles to be an unlawful assembly area and ordered protesters to go home on Sunday night after a third day of violence hit demonstrations against President Donald Trump's immigration policy.
National Guard troops - deployed by Trump at the weekend to help quell the protests in a move that California Governor Gavin Newsom called unlawful - guarded federal government buildings on Sunday.
The unrest in Los Angeles has become a major flashpoint in Trump's signature effort to clamp down on illegal immigration.
The Republican president has pledged to deport record numbers of people who are in the country illegally and to lock down the U.S.-Mexico border, setting the border enforcement agency ICE a daily goal of arresting at least 3,000 migrants.
California state and local officials, mainly Democrats, accuse Trump of inflaming initially small-scale protests by mounting a federal response. He calls the protesters insurrectionists.
Several self-driving cars from Alphabet's Waymo were set ablaze on a downtown street on Sunday evening.
Los Angeles police said some protesters had thrown concrete projectiles, bottles and other items at police. Police declared several rallies to be unlawful assemblies and later extended that to include the whole downtown area.
Police on horseback tried to control the crowds.
Demonstrators shouted "Shame on you!" at police and some appeared to throw objects, video images showed. One group blocked the 101 Freeway, a major downtown thoroughfare.
City Police Chief Jim McDonnell told a media briefing on Sunday evening that people had a right to protest peacefully but the violence he had seen by some was "disgusting" and the protests were getting out of control.
Police said they had arrested 10 people on Sunday and 29 the previous night, adding arrests were continuing.
NEWSOM BLAMES TRUMP
California Governor Newsom, a Democrat, said he requested the Trump administration to withdraw its order to deploy 2,000 National Guard troops in Los Angeles County, calling it unlawful.
Newsom said in an interview with MSNBC he planned to sue the administration over the deployment, adding that Trump "has created the conditions" around the protests. He accused the president of trying to manufacture a crisis and of violating California's state sovereignty.
Asked if the National Guard was needed, the police chief, McDonnell, said police would not "go to that right away," but added, "Looking at the violence tonight, I think we've got to make a reassessment".
In a social media post, Trump called on McDonnell to do so.
"He should, right now!!!" Trump added. "Don't let these thugs get away with this. Make America great again!!!"
The White House disputed Newsom's characterization, saying in a statement, "Everyone saw the chaos, violence and lawlessness."
Earlier on Sunday, about a dozen National Guard members, along with Department of Homeland Security personnel, pushed back a group of demonstrators outside a federal building in downtown Los Angeles, video showed.
The U.S. Northern Command said 300 members of the California National Guard had been deployed to three spots in the Los Angeles area.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told CBS program "Face the Nation" that the National Guard would provide safety around buildings to people engaged in peaceful protest and to law enforcement.
'ALL ACTION NECESSARY'
In a social media post on Sunday, Trump called the demonstrators "violent, insurrectionist mobs" and said he was directing his cabinet officers "to take all such action necessary" to stop what he called riots.
Despite Trump's language, he has not invoked the Insurrection Act, an 1807 law that empowers a president to deploy the U.S. military to suppress events like civil disorder.
Asked on Sunday whether he was considering doing so, he said, "It depends on whether or not there's an insurrection."
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said on Saturday the Pentagon is prepared to mobilize active-duty troops "if violence continues" in Los Angeles, saying Marines at nearby Camp Pendleton were on high alert.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass blamed the Trump administration for inciting tension by sending in the National Guard. She also condemned protesters who became violent.
"I don't want people to fall into the chaos that I believe is being created by the administration completely unnecessarily," she told a press conference.
Vanessa Cardenas, head of the immigration advocacy group America's Voice, accused the Trump administration of "trumping up an excuse to abuse power, and deliberately stoke and force confrontations around immigration." REUTERS
Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles

Straits Times
40 minutes ago
- Straits Times
Disorder breaks out in Northern Ireland for third straight night
Riot police members hold their shields while they take position as riots continue in Ballymena, Northern Ireland, June 11, 2025. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne Riot police vehicles line up on a road as riots continue in Ballymena, Northern Ireland, June 11, 2025. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne Demonstrators gather in front of riot police vehicles as riots continue in Ballymena, Northern Ireland, June 11, 2025. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne Riot police members hold their shields while they take position as riots continue in Ballymena, Northern Ireland, June 11, 2025. REUTERS/Clodagh Kilcoyne Disorder breaks out in Northern Ireland for third straight night BALLYMENA, Northern Ireland - Public disorder broke out in Northern Ireland for the third successive night on Wednesday with videos and pictures on social media purportedly showing a fire in a leisure centre in the town of Larne after masked youths smashed the building's windows. Reuters could not immediately verify the authenticity of the clips. Hundreds of masked rioters attacked police and set homes and cars on fire 33 kilometres (20 miles) west in Ballymena during the previous two nights in what police condemned as "racist thuggery." Thirty-two officers were injured. Riot police and armoured vans blocked roads in Ballymena on Wednesday evening as a crowd of around 200 people watched on. Two rocks were thrown at a police van and one person kicked the bonnet of a police van, a Reuters witness said. The police vans slowly moved towards the crowd who were warned over a loud speaker to disperse immediately as force was "about to be used against violent individuals." The violence initially erupted after two 14-year-old boys were arrested and appeared in court, accused of a serious sexual assault on a teenage girl in Ballymena, located 45 kilometres (28 miles) from Belfast. The charges were read via a Romanian interpreter to the boys, whose lawyer told the court that they denied the charge, the BBC reported. Police are investigating the damaging of property in Ballymena as racially-motivated hate crimes. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.

Straits Times
an hour ago
- Straits Times
Argentina ban on former president Kirchner reshapes political landscape
Former President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner stands at the balcony of her home after Argentina's Supreme Court upheld her guilty verdict for defrauding the state, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, June 10, 2025. REUTERS/Tomas Cuesta/File Photo BUENOS AIRES - Argentina's supreme court has effectively banned former president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner from government, a move that poses both a challenge and an opportunity for the opposition Peronist party ahead of crunch midterm elections this year. The court upheld a six-year jail term against Kirchner for graft on Tuesday, barring one of the country's most high-profile politicians from holding public office. In the short-term, the decision may enable libertarian President Javier Milei to cement his power base in the October midterm vote, but over the long run it could help revamp the Peronist movement, which was Argentina's most powerful political bloc for decades before being ousted by outsider Milei in 2023. Kirchner, a two-term president from 2007-2015 and a senator and vice president from 2019-2023, faces the possibility of jail time. She will likely be able to push for house arrest because of her age, 72, and the court will decide within five working days whether to grant that request. But she will not be able to run as a legislative candidate in the midterm elections in the province of Buenos Aires, a Peronist stronghold, as she had planned. Nonetheless, the leftist Kirchner, the president and one of the leaders of the Peronist party, may still be able to pull political strings given her strong popular support, especially if she remains out of jail. "Cristina will continue her political career; that's why she's choosing to stay in Buenos Aires, in her department of San José," a source close to the former president told Reuters. Kirchner did not respond to a Reuters interview request. 'MARTYRED LEADER' Peronists are divided over whether her political ban will help the movement reinvent itself or if she will cast an even longer shadow than before, hurting up-and-comers like Buenos Aires governor Axel Kicillof who have clashed with her. "This is detrimental to the renewal, because she's now the martyred leader. She's the center of attention," said a source from Kicillof's Buenos Aires provincial government. Kirchner still enjoys significant popular support from close to 30% of the population, polls show, although she is highly divisive - in part due to the corruption cases against her - and would likely struggle to win election. Analysts said that the court ruling could ultimately allow for the party's modernization, at a time some of its leaders, like Kicillof, claim Peronism as a movement is being banished. "For Peronism, it represents the possibility of renewal. Kicillof is playing the victim and, at the same time, becoming independent," said political scientist Andrés Malamud. The ban against Kirchner will take some of the sting out of her bitter rivalry with Milei, but a new more moderate challenger from the Peronist left could hurt the Argentine president if he slips up. "If Milei can keep the economy steady, nothing will happen, but if this doesn't work, it will probably strengthen Kicillof," said analyst Mariel Fornoni from consultancy Management & Fit. The latest polls showed a tie in the important province of Buenos Aires between Milei's La Libertad Avanza and the Peronist opposition for the midterm elections, according to data from the Electoral Observatory. Victory would not give the ruling party a majority in either chamber of Argentina's Congress, but a larger number of legislators would make it easier for the government to approve privatizations of public companies and tax and labor reforms. "Cristina's conviction gives the government a campaign argument it didn't have. Now it won't need to discuss the economic model," said the Buenos Aires government source. REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.

Straits Times
an hour ago
- Straits Times
British and Spanish PMs agree Gibraltar deal unlocks 'huge opportunity'
Spain's Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez attends a bilateral meeting with Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer during the European Political Community meeting at Blenheim Palace in Woodstock, Britain, Thursday, July 18, 2024. Kin Cheung/Pool via REUTERS/File Photo LONDON - British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, in a phone call with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, agreed that a deal on the status of Gibraltar unlocked the opportunity for both countries to advance bilateral relationship, Starmer's office said on Wednesday. "Prime Minister Sánchez congratulated the Prime Minister on his leadership," a Downing Street spokesperson said. "Both leaders also agreed that this development unlocks huge opportunity to advance the bilateral relationship between the UK and Spain, on behalf of the British and Spanish people." Starmer also spoke to Chief Minister of Gibraltar Fabian Picardo, the spokesperson said, adding that they both agreed the agreement would allow them to "plan for the long-term while protecting British sovereignty." REUTERS Join ST's Telegram channel and get the latest breaking news delivered to you.