US deploys 700 Marines to Los Angeles on day four of immigration protests
The US military will temporarily deploy about 700 Marines to Los Angeles until more National Guard troops can arrive, marking another escalation in President Donald Trump's response to street protests over his aggressive immigration policies.
Tensions have been rising since Trump activated the National Guard on Saturday after street protests erupted in response to immigration raids in Southern California. It is the biggest flashpoint yet in the Trump administration's aggressive efforts to deport migrants living in the country illegally.
The announcement that marines would be deployed was made on the fourth straight day of protests. Late on Monday police began to disperse hundreds of demonstrators who gathered outside a federal detention centre in downtown Los Angeles where immigrants have been held.
National Guard forces had formed a human barricade to keep people out of the building. Then a phalanx of Los Angeles police moved up the street, starting to push people from the scene and firing "less lethal" munitions such as gas canisters. Police had used similar tactics since Friday.
Stay up to date with the latest news. Follow KT on WhatsApp Channels.
The LAPD said late on Monday afternoon that some protestors had started throwing objects at officers and the use of less lethal munitions had been authorised, adding in an X post: "Less lethal munitions may cause pain and discomfort."
California sued the Trump administration to block deployment of the National Guard and the Marines on Monday, arguing that it violates federal law and state sovereignty.
US Marines have been deployed domestically for major disasters such as Hurricane Katrina and the September 11, 2001, attacks, but it is extremely rare for US military troops to be used for domestic policing.
For now, the Trump administration was not invoking the Insurrection Act, which would allow troops to directly participate in civilian law enforcement, according to a US official speaking on condition of anonymity.
The Pentagon confirmed on Monday that a contingent of 2,000 National Guard troops would be doubled to 4,000. Trump said on Monday he felt he had no choice but to increase the level of force to prevent violence from spiraling out of control.
Trump also said he supported a suggestion by his border czar Tom Homan that California Governor Gavin Newsom should be arrested over possible obstruction of his administration's immigration enforcement measures. "I would do it if I were Tom. I think it's great," Trump told reporters.
Democrats said Trump's decision to deploy military force to handle the protests amounts to an abuse of presidential power, and California's lawsuit claimed it was illegal.
"The level of escalation is completely unwarranted, uncalled for, and unprecedented," Newsom's press office said on X.
Four days of protests
The protests so far have resulted in a few dozen arrests and some property damage, including some self-driving Waymo vehicles that were set ablaze on Sunday evening. The Los Angeles Police Department said five officers sustained minor injuries on Saturday and Sunday, as did five police horses used in crowd control.
Before the police intervention on Monday, several hundred protesters chanted "free them all" outside the Los Angeles federal detention facility where immigrants have been held.
"What is happening effects every American, everyone who wants to live free, regardless of how long their family has lived here," said Marzita Cerrato, 42, a first-generation immigrant whose parents are from Mexico and Honduras.
Some in the crowd punched and tossed eggs at a Trump supporter at the event, while others fired paintballs from a car at the federal building.
Protests also sprang up in at least nine other US cities on Monday, including New York, Philadelphia and San Francisco, according to local news outlets.
The Trump administration has argued that Democratic President Joe Biden's administration allowed far too many immigrants to enter the country and that Democratic-run cities such as Los Angeles are improperly interfering with efforts to deport them. Trump has pledged to deport record numbers of people who are in the country illegally and to lock down the US-Mexico border, setting a goal of at least 3,000 daily arrests.
Trump can deploy Marines under certain conditions of law or under his authority as commander in chief.
The last time the military was used for direct police action under the Insurrection Act was in 1992, when the California governor at the time asked President George H.W. Bush to help respond to Los Angeles riots over the acquittal of police officers who beat Black motorist Rodney King.
More than 50 people were killed in the 1992 riots, which also caused some $1 billion in damage over six days.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Arabian Business
30 minutes ago
- Arabian Business
Trump ‘very happy' with China trade deal, says framework ‘done'
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he was 'very happy' with a trade deal that restored a fragile truce in the U.S.-China trade war, a day after negotiators from Washington and Beijing agreed on a framework covering tariff rates. 'We made a great deal with China. We're very happy with it,' Trump told reporters before a performance at Washington's Kennedy Center on Wednesday evening. 'We have everything we need, and we're going to do very well with it. And hopefully they are too.' Earlier, Trump used his Truth Social platform to announce the agreement was 'done, subject to final approval from President Xi and me.' The deal involves China supplying rare earths and magnets to U.S. companies while the United States would abandon threats to revoke visas for Chinese students. 'Full magnets and any necessary rare earths will be supplied, up front, by China. Likewise, we will provide to China what was agreed to, including Chinese students using our colleges and universities,' Trump wrote. The U.S. president stated that America would have tariffs of 55 per cent on Chinese goods. A White House official later clarified this figure represents the sum of a baseline 10 per cent 'reciprocal' tariff on goods from nearly all trading partners, 20 per cent on Chinese imports related to fentanyl concerns, and pre-existing 25 per cent levies from Trump's first term. China's tariffs on U.S. imports would remain at 10 per cent. U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick confirmed the 55 per cent rate is fixed and unalterable. 'You can definitely say that,' he told CNBC on Wednesday when asked if tariff levels on China would not change. The negotiations were aimed at cooling tensions between the world's two largest economies after a rapid escalation of tariffs earlier this year nearly paralysed trade between them. The Geneva deal reached last month had faltered over China's continued curbs on critical minerals exports, prompting the Trump administration to respond with export controls preventing shipments of semiconductor design software, jet engines for Chinese-made planes and other goods to China. Top officials from both countries convened for urgent discussions in London beginning Monday. These talks were arranged following a telephone conversation between Trump and Xi last week, which helped resolve tensions that had emerged shortly after their initial agreement in Geneva. 'We have reached a framework to implement the Geneva consensus and the call between the two presidents,' Lutnick told reporters after the London talks. Both sides will now present the framework to their respective presidents for approvals, he added. Chinese Vice Commerce Minister Li Chenggang also confirmed a trade framework had been reached in principle. U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told lawmakers that the deal would not reduce U.S. export restrictions on high-end artificial intelligence chips in exchange for access to Chinese rare earths. 'There is no quid pro quo in terms of chips for rare earths,' Bessent said during a U.S. Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing. The London talks were triggered partly by U.S. concerns about China's export restrictions on rare earth minerals, which are essential for manufacturing everything from smartphones to electric vehicles. U.S. stocks drifted lower on Wednesday but have recouped most of the losses suffered earlier in the spring during Trump's wave of tariff announcements. In May, a temporary truce reached in Geneva brought Trump's new U.S. tariffs on Chinese products down from 145 per cent to 30 per cent, while Beijing slashed levies on U.S. imports to 10 per cent and promised to lift barriers on critical mineral exports. It was not immediately clear from Trump's comments where things stood regarding the timeline for a more comprehensive deal that was reached last month in Geneva, which had set a deadline of August 10.
Zawya
an hour ago
- Zawya
IAEA board declares Iran in breach of non-proliferation obligations
VIENNA: The U.N. nuclear watchdog's 35-nation Board of Governors declared Iran in breach of its non-proliferation obligations on Thursday for the first time in almost 20 years, raising the prospect of reporting it to the U.N. Security Council. The major step is the culmination of several festering stand-offs between the International Atomic Energy Agency and Iran that have arisen since President Donald Trump pulled the U.S. out of a nuclear deal between Tehran and major powers in 2018 during his first term, after which that deal unravelled. Since Iran bristles at resolutions against it and this is the most significant one in years, it is likely to respond with a nuclear escalation, as it has said it will. That could complicate the current talks between Iran and the U.S. aimed at imposing new curbs on Iran's accelerating atomic activities. The resolution also comes at a time of particularly heightened tension, with the U.S. pulling staff out of the Middle East, and Trump warning the region could become dangerous and saying Washington would not let Iran have nuclear weapons. Diplomats at the closed-door meeting said the board passed the resolution submitted by the United States, Britain, France and Germany with 19 countries in favour, 11 abstentions and three states - Russia, China and Burkina Faso - against. DAMNING REPORT The text, seen by Reuters, declares Iran in breach of its obligations given a damning report the IAEA sent to member states on May 31. "The Board of Governors... finds that Iran's many failures to uphold its obligations since 2019 to provide the Agency with full and timely cooperation regarding undeclared nuclear material and activities at multiple undeclared locations in Iran ... constitutes non-compliance with its obligations under its Safeguards Agreement with the Agency," the text said. A central issue is Iran's failure to provide the IAEA with credible explanations of how uranium traces detected at undeclared sites in Iran came to be there despite the agency having investigated the issue for years. The May 31 IAEA report, a board-mandated "comprehensive" account of developments, found three of the four locations "were part of an undeclared structured nuclear programme carried out by Iran until the early 2000s and that some activities used undeclared nuclear material". U.S. intelligence services and the IAEA have long believed Iran had a secret, coordinated nuclear weapons programme it halted in 2003, though isolated experiments continued for several years. IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi said this week the findings were broadly consistent with that. Iran denies ever having pursued nuclear weapons. While the resolution alluded to reporting Iran to the U.N. Security Council, diplomats said it would take a second resolution to send it there, as happened the last time it was declared in non-compliance in September 2005, followed by referral in February 2006. (Reporting by Francois Murphy; Editing by Ed Osmond)
Dubai Eye
an hour ago
- Dubai Eye
Troops in LA can detain individuals, military official says, as protests spread
US troops in Los Angeles are authorised to detain people until police can arrest them, their commanding officer said on Wednesday, as hundreds of Marines prepared to move into a city rocked by protests over President Donald Trump's immigration raids. On Wednesday, Los Angeles endured a sixth day of protests that have been largely peaceful but occasionally punctuated by violence. The protests have spread to other US cities and hundreds of nationwide demonstrations are planned for Saturday. Trump's decision to dispatch troops to Los Angeles over the objections of California Governor Gavin Newsom has sparked a national debate about the use of the military on US soil. Newsom's administration has sued the US government to stop the deployment. The Marines and National Guard could be deployed to protect federal personnel and property during immigration raids or related protests, officials have said. Trump is carrying out a campaign promise to deport immigrants, employing forceful tactics consistent with the norm-breaking political style that got him elected twice. Democrats condemn these tactics as authoritarian, arguing they undermine democratic traditions. "If I didn't act quickly on that, Los Angeles would be burning to the ground right now," said Trump at an event at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. US Army Major General Scott Sherman, who commands the deployed troops, told reporters that the 700 Marines and 4,000 National Guard troops cannot make arrests but could briefly detain people. "They do not do any arrests. They're strictly there to detain to wait for law enforcement to come and handle those demonstrators," Sherman said. Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said he was asking military leaders for clarification on the matter. "My understanding at this point is that they do not have the powers to arrest or detain," Luna told a press conference. The use of military forces is at the heart of California's lawsuit. The state maintains that none of the conditions were met to justify military deployment - such as a rebellion or danger thereof. It is also seeking a temporary restraining order to immediately stop the National Guard and Marines from participating in civilian law enforcement. A hearing on that restraining order is scheduled for Thursday in San Francisco federal court. The Trump administration argued in a court filing ahead of the hearing that the president has the discretion to determine whether a "rebellion or danger of a rebellion" requires a military response. The Marines, who have been training at Seal Beach just south of Los Angeles County, will move to the city soon, but not on Wednesday, Sherman said. They will not carry live ammunition in their rifles, he added. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, joined at a press conference by about 30 other California mayors, said the White House has overstepped its authority and has provoked the unrest. Bass also imposed a curfew over 2.5 square kmof the city's downtown starting on Tuesday night following numerous incidents of looting and property damage. The Los Angeles Police Department said it arrested 225 people on Tuesday, including 203 for failing to disperse and 17 for violating the curfew. In all, police have arrested more than 400 people since Friday. "President Trump promised to carry out the largest mass deportation campaign in American history and left-wing riots will not deter him in that effort," White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said. Elsewhere, protesters marched in New York, Atlanta and Chicago on Tuesday night, chanting anti-ICE slogans and at times clashing with law enforcement. The protests are set to expand on Saturday, when several activist groups have planned more than 1,800 anti-Trump demonstrations across the country. That day, tanks and other armored vehicles will rumble down the streets of Washington DC, in a military parade marking the US Army's 250th anniversary and coinciding with Trump's 79th birthday.
