Los Angeles mayor blames immigration raids for violence
The situation in Los Angeles has calmed down after protesters clashed with police over the weekend. CNN witnessed police using flash-bangs and tear gas to disperse crowds, with some hitting protesters, as well as protesters setting self-driving cars on fire. The city's mayor, Karen Bass, says she blames federal immigration raids for the escalating tensions.
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Politico
18 minutes ago
- Politico
George Floyd unrest informs Trump's response to Los Angeles protests
President Donald Trump's response to the Los Angeles protests isn't just an opportunity to battle with a Democratic governor over his signature issue. The president sees it as a chance to redo his first-term response to a wave of civil unrest. As protests broke out after the killing of George Floyd in 2020, Trump's instincts were to deploy thousands of active-duty troops across U.S. cities. But some administration officials resisted the idea and reportedly urged the president against invoking the Insurrection Act to do so. Five years later, Trump sees something familiar as protests rage across Los Angeles in response to the administration's immigration raids. He moved quickly to deploy 4,000 National Guard members and 700 Marines to support law enforcement, a decision he credited on Tuesday with preventing a 'great City' from 'burning to the ground.' And he repeatedly signaled his willingness to invoke the Insurrection Act if protests continue to escalate. There's a chief motivating factor driving Trump's aggressive response: The president is eager to avoid a repeat of the summer of protest that followed a Minneapolis police officer's killing of Floyd. The civil unrest added another layer to the turmoil facing Trump, as the country reeled from the Covid pandemic and voters prepared to return to the ballot box. And this time, he has stacked his Cabinet with loyalists and is less restrained by officials such as those in his first administration who feared deploying active-duty military troops would further inflame tensions and be viewed as a step toward martial law. 'The president is trusting his gut here,' said a person close to the White House, granted anonymity to discuss the president's response, reflecting back to former Chair of the Joint Chiefs Mark Milley and former Defense Secretary Mark Esper breaking with Trump's desire to send troops. 'He thinks the Milleys and the Espers of the world, five years ago, they gave him bad advice on that stuff.' Administration officials and allies say the president's hardline approach also sends a warning to other city and state leaders as anti-ICE protests spread beyond Los Angeles. 'In 2020, I was a governor of a neighboring state to Tim Walz and watched him let his city burn,' Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said in the Oval Office on Tuesday. 'The president and I have talked about this in the past: He was not going to let that happen to another city and to another community, where a bad governor made a bad decision.' It's yet another example of the president acting on his belief that he has a governing mandate from his 2024 comeback, which aides and allies attribute in large part to immigration and, specifically, the president's vow to deport undocumented immigrants. 'Is the left going to be able to take this over and turn rules-based immigration into yet another fight about how America is racist?' said Matt Schlapp, a Trump confidant and chair of the American Conservative Union. 'The No. 1 reason Donald Trump got reelected was the border. He's implementing exactly what he said he would do, and out of nowhere, there's violence in the streets, there's fire bombs, there's attacks on cops.' A White House official, granted anonymity to discuss the administration's thinking, said immigration enforcement has continued across the country despite the protests: 'Individuals in other cities should realize that rioting will not prevent immigration enforcement operations in their cities as well.' Trump has repeatedly referred to the protesters as 'insurrectionists' and 'violent insurrectionist mobs,' and his rhetoric intensified on Tuesday as he said the protests amount to an 'invasion' that threatens U.S. 'sovereignty' and that he will now allow 'an American city to be invaded and conquered by a foreign enemy.' He condemned what he called 'lawlessness' and the burning of the American flag, suggesting it should be punished with a year in prison — echoing his rhetoric from June 2020. But he also said the Los Angeles protests are not yet an insurrection — and that he will only invoke the Insurrection Act, which would allow troops to directly participate in civilian law enforcement, if it escalates to that point. The president on Sunday directed Noem, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Attorney General Pam Bondi to take 'all such action necessary to liberate Los Angeles' and 'put an end to these Migrant riots.' 'Mark Esper fought like the dickens to avoid the Insurrection Act. He wasn't the only one. So did Attorney General [Bill] Barr, and so forth,' said Ken Cuccinelli, who served as Trump's deputy of Homeland Security during the first term. 'Whereas, Pam Bondi and Pete Hegseth are more along the lines of just giving advice, and 'if it's the route you want to go, Mr. President, we'll salute and we'll move right down that path.' And that speaks to a unity in government that didn't exist in the first term.' The Trump administration's response has alarmed California Democrats, who warn that what's happening in their state paves the way for the president to deploy the military nationwide to enact his immigration agenda. The president has already militarized the border to an unprecedented degree, with military, immigration and legal experts questioning the legality of the approach and warning of potential violations to the Posse Comitatus Act, a federal law that generally prohibits active-duty troops from being used in domestic law enforcement. Trump's decision to deploy troops has also set off a legal firestorm: California sued the administration for deploying the National Guard without consultation, arguing that using the military to quell the immigration protests is illegal and unconstitutional. Gov. Gavin Newsom filed another suit on Tuesday, asking a federal judge for a restraining order to block Hegseth from ordering troops to support immigration raids in the city 'immediately.' 'There is no invasion or rebellion in Los Angeles; there is civil unrest that is no different from episodes that regularly occur in communities throughout the country, and that is capable of being contained by state and local authorities working together,' California Attorney General Rob Bonta and other lawyers wrote in the new motion. Rallies protesting the administration's ICE raids and immigration agenda spread across U.S. cities this week. And so-called 'No Kings' rallies, coinciding with the president's military parade in Washington on Saturday, are planned in more than 1,800 cities across the country, including the nation's capital. Trump warned on Tuesday that any protests during this weekend's parade will be met with 'very heavy force.' 'If there's any protester who wants to come out, they will be met with very big force,' the president said in the Oval Office. 'I haven't even heard about a protest, but [there are] people that hate our country.' Dasha Burns contributed to this report.
Yahoo
23 minutes ago
- Yahoo
TikTok star detained by ICE, leaves US amid Trump immigration crackdown
As President Donald Trump ramps up his immigration crackdown, not even TikTok's most-followed star is immune from removal from the U.S. Khaby Lame, a 25-year-old who skyrocketed to TikTok fame during the global fixation on the app during the Covid-19 pandemic, was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement at Harry Reid International Airport in Las Vegas on June 6 for 'immigration violations,' according to a statement provided by ICE. Lame, who holds the title of the most-followed account on TikTok with over 162 million followers, entered the country on April 30 and overstayed the terms of his visa, the ICE statement said. According to the agency, Lame, an Italian citizen, was 'granted voluntary departure June 6 and has since departed the U.S.' Lame did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent to his team. Another TikTok personality, self-described pro-Trump influencer Bo Loudon, was quick to take credit for Lame's departure. 'I discovered he was an illegal who overstayed an invalid VISA, evaded taxes, and I personally took action to have him deported,' the 18-year-old Loudon posted on X on June 6. Loudon, who is close friends with Barron Trump and vocally boosted the president during the 2024 election cycle, also accused Lame of being a 'far-left illegal alien,' despite the TikToker not posting overtly political content on his page. Loudon did not immediately respond to a request for comment on how he discovered that Lame had overstayed his visa, or how he conveyed the message to the authorities. Lame's detainment and departure comes amid the Trump administration's escalation of its mass deportation efforts. A wave of ICE detentions in Los Angeles last week sparked massive protests across the city, prompting a harsh crackdown from the Trump administration that has included the deployment of as many as 4,000 National Guard troops and several hundred Marines to quell the unrest, which local Democratic officials have decried as unnecessary and incendiary.
CNN
29 minutes ago
- CNN
Austrian mayor of city hit by school shooting speaks to CNN
Austria is reeling from one of the worst rampages in the country's history after a gunman opened fire at a high school in the city of Graz, killing 10 people, including teenagers. Graz's Mayor Elke Kahr spoke to CNN's Frederik Pleitgen during a candlelight vigil as the city reflects on the rare tragedy.
