Hundreds gather in Houston and San Antonio to protest immigration crackdowns in workplaces, courthouses
Crowds of hundreds gathered Sunday in Houston and San Antonio in protest of federal authorities' redoubled efforts to detain and deport undocumented immigrants.
The protests against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Texas occurred after days of unrest in California, where demonstrators protesting immigration crackdowns in that state clashed with authorities. President Donald Trump responded by dispatching National Guard Troops to quell demonstrations in Los Angeles and vowing to 'have troops everywhere' should protests turn violent.
Gov. Greg Abbott praised Trump's response, writing on social media that 'an organized assault has been waged against federal law enforcement officials.'
'It's time to put an end to it, and allow fed officials to fully enforce the laws of the United States,' Abbott wrote Sunday.
The protests in Texas appeared to be peaceful. Images posted on social media and local news coverage showed people gathering, sharing snacks and marching down two of the state's largest cities.
Across the country, demonstrators have repeatedly hit the streets since Trump returned to office with a promise to deport undocumented immigrants en masse.
However, the latest protests followed what appears to be a new strategy from the Trump administration to target workplaces as pressure mounts on federal law enforcement to further escalate their efforts and deliver on the president's campaign trail promises.
In recent weeks, federal immigration authorities have also arrested people at courthouses and while conducting wellness checks on children who arrived in the country alone.
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Yahoo
18 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Protests intensify in Los Angeles after Trump deploys National Guard troops
Tensions in Los Angeles escalated on Sunday as thousands of protesters took to the streets in response to US President Donald Trump's deployment of the National Guard. They blocked off a major road and set self-driving cars on fire as law enforcement used tear gas, rubber bullets and flash bangs to control the crowd. Many protesters dispersed as evening fell and police declared an unlawful assembly, a precursor to officers moving in and making arrests of people who do not leave. Some of those remaining threw objects at police from behind a makeshift barrier that spanned the width of a street and others hurled chunks of concrete, rocks, electric scooters and fireworks at California Highway Patrol officers and their vehicles parked on the closed southbound 101 freeway. Officers ran under an overpass to take cover. Sunday's protests in Los Angeles, a sprawling city of four million people, were centred in downtown several blocks. It was the third and most intense day of demonstrations against Mr Trump's immigration crackdown in the region, as the arrival of around 300 Guard troops spurred anger and fear among many residents. The Guard was deployed specifically to protect federal buildings, including the detention centre where protesters concentrated. Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell said officers were 'overwhelmed' by the remaining protesters. He said they included regular agitators who appear at demonstrations to cause trouble. Several dozen people were arrested throughout the weekend of protest. One was detained on Sunday for throwing a Molotov cocktail at police, and another for ramming a motorcycle into a line of officers. Let's get this straight: 1) Local law enforcement didn't need help. 2) Trump sent troops anyway — to manufacture chaos and violence. 3) Trump succeeded. 4) Now things are destabilized and we need to send in more law enforcement just to clean up Trump's mess. — Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) June 9, 2025 Mr Trump responded to Mr McDonnell on Truth Social, telling him to arrest protesters in face masks. 'Looking really bad in L.A. BRING IN THE TROOPS!!!' he wrote. Starting in the morning, the troops stood shoulder to shoulder, carrying long guns and riot shields as protesters shouted 'shame' and 'go home'. After some closely approached the guard members, another set of uniformed officers advanced on the group, shooting smoke-filled canisters into the street. Minutes later, the Los Angeles Police Department fired rounds of crowd-control munitions to disperse the protesters, who they said were assembled unlawfully. Much of the group then moved to block traffic on the 101 freeway until state patrol officers cleared them from the roadway by late afternoon. Nearby, at least four self-driving Waymo cars were set on fire, sending large plumes of black smoke into the sky and exploding intermittently as the electric vehicles burned. By evening, police had issued an unlawful assembly order shutting down several blocks of downtown Los Angeles. Flash bangs echoed out every few seconds into the evening. Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom requested that Mr Trump remove the guard members in a letter on Sunday afternoon, calling their deployment a 'serious breach of state sovereignty'. He was in Los Angeles meeting local law enforcement and officials. The deployment appeared to be the first time in decades that a state's national guard was activated without a request from its governor, a significant escalation against those who have sought to hinder the administration's mass deportation efforts. Mr Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass blamed the increasingly aggressive protests on Mr Trump's decision to deploy the Guard, calling it a move designed to inflame tensions. They have both urged protesters to remain peaceful. 'What we're seeing in Los Angeles is chaos that is provoked by the administration,' she said in an afternoon press conference. 'This is about another agenda, this isn't about public safety.' But Mr McDonnell, the LAPD chief, said the protests were following a similar pattern for episodes of civil unrest, with things ramping up in the second and third days. He pushed back against claims by the Trump administration that the LAPD had failed to help federal authorities when protests broke out on Friday after a series of immigration raids. His department responded as quickly as it could, and had not been notified in advance of the raids and therefore was not pre-positioned for protests, he said. Mr Newsom, meanwhile, has repeatedly said that California authorities had the situation under control. He mocked Mr Trump for posting a congratulatory message to the Guard on social media before troops had even arrived in Los Angeles, and said on MSNBC that Mr Trump never floated deploying the Guard during a Friday phone call. He called Mr Trump a 'stone cold liar'. The admonishments did not deter the administration. 'It's a bald-faced lie for Newsom to claim there was no problem in Los Angeles before President Trump got involved,' White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in a statement. The arrival of the National Guard followed two days of protests that began Friday in Los Angeles before spreading on Saturday to Paramount, a heavily Latino city south of the city, and neighbouring Compton. Federal agents arrested immigrants in LA's fashion district, in a Home Depot parking lot and at several other locations on Friday. The next day, they were staging at a Department of Homeland Security office near another Home Depot in Paramount, which drew out protesters who suspected another raid. Federal authorities later said there was no enforcement activity at that Home Depot. The weeklong tally of immigrant arrests in the LA area climbed above 100, federal authorities said. Many more were arrested while protesting, including a prominent union leader who was accused of impeding law enforcement. The protests did not reach the size of past demonstrations that brought the National Guard to Los Angeles, including the Watts and Rodney King riots, and the 2020 protests against police violence, in which Mr Newsom requested the assistance of federal troops. The last time the National Guard was activated without a governor's permission was in 1965, when President Lyndon B Johnson sent troops to protect a civil rights march in Alabama, according to the Brennan Centre for Justice. In a directive on Saturday, Mr Trump invoked a legal provision allowing him to deploy federal service members when there is 'a rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States'. He said he had authorised the deployment of 2,000 members of the National Guard. Mr Trump told reporters as he prepared to board Air Force One in Morristown, New Jersey, Sunday that there were 'violent people' in Los Angeles 'and they're not going to get away with it'. Asked if he planned to send US troops to Los Angeles, Mr Trump replied: 'We're going to have troops everywhere. We're not going to let this happen to our country.' He did not elaborate. About 500 marines stationed at Twentynine Palms, about 125 miles (200 kilometres) east of Los Angeles were in a 'prepared to deploy status' on Sunday afternoon, according to the US Northern Command.
New York Times
18 minutes ago
- New York Times
Some L.A. Protesters Are Marching for Neighbors and Family Members
Some of the people demonstrating in downtown Los Angeles on Sunday said they were first- or second-generation immigrants showing solidarity with their neighbors or family members, and a few expressed anger that their neighbors had received deportation orders. 'This is a real threat, this is not just talk,' said Zander Calderon, 36, a protester from northeast Los Angeles. He said he knew several people who had received such orders, as well as one neighbor who had self deported. 'He didn't want to live in fear,' Mr. Calderon, who wore a poncho with an image of the Virgin Mary and the colors of the Mexican flag, said of the neighbor. Others said that although they were not regular protesters, the federal government's recent immigration raids had motivated them to take action. 'This morning I couldn't stay home anymore,' said Elizabeth Torres, 36, who was carrying a Mexican flag outside the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles on Sunday morning, as a crowd of protesters began to swell. 'If the people that are detained can see me through the windows, just know that you're not alone.' Martín Hoecker-Martinez, a physics professor who was waving an American and a Colombian flag, said that he had traveled about an hour and a half to join the protests because he could not stay home in good conscience. 'I'm an American citizen, and I think that one of the greatest points of pride of the United States is that we are a country of immigrants,' said Professor Hoecker-Martinez, whose mother came from Colombia. 'I bristle when people deride the U.S. government as the embodiment of our collective will.' Nicole Garcia, 35, attended the protest with her teenage son. She said that while she worried about the safety risks of bringing him along, she wanted him to understand 'what it looks like when community comes together.' Ms. Garcia, who described herself as Mexican American, was veiled and wore a floral wreath and face paint symbolizing the Mexican Day of the Dead. Brianna Vargas, 24, who was standing on an overpass above the U.S. 101 highway with a megaphone in her hand, said she was protesting for her parents, who had emigrated from Mexico and El Salvador, and for others who were too afraid to leave their homes. Reposting messages of solidarity with victims of immigration enforcement raids on social media is one thing, she said. 'It's different when you're actually here.'
Yahoo
19 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Newsom says California will sue Trump over National Guard, dares Homan to arrest him
California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) said California will sue the Trump administration on Monday over its deployment of the National Guard to quell Los Angeles protests against federal immigration raids. In an interview Sunday evening on MSNBC, Newsom said the lawsuit would challenge Trump's federalizing of the California National Guard without the state's consent, a move with little precedent in U.S. history. 'Donald Trump has created the conditions you see on your TV tonight. He's exacerbated the conditions. He's, you know, lit the proverbial match. He's putting fuel on this fire, ever since he announced he was taking over the National Guard — an illegal act, an immoral act, an unconstitutional act,' Newsom said on MSNBC. 'And we're going to test that theory with a lawsuit tomorrow,' he added.. Asked to elaborate on the lawsuit, Newsom said that under Trump's executive order, 'it specifically notes — and under what the [Department of Defense] did — is they had to coordinate with the governor of the state. They never coordinated with the governor of the state,' he said. Newsom noted that he has deployed the National Guard before to respond to various emergencies. 'We have no problem, working collaboratively in a mutual aid system with local law enforcement. But there's a protocol, there's a process. He didn't care about that. And the worst part, he completely lied,' he said. The governor pointed to Trump's Truth Social post earlier on Sunday, in which he said the National Guard had done a 'great job.' Newsom said the state forces had not even been deployed at the time. 'It's Orwellian, simply lying to people, unconstitutional, illegal act, his mess. We're trying to clean it up,' he added. Later in the interview, Newsom was asked about border czar Tom Homan's comments indicating he would not rule out arresting Newsom or Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass if they interfered in his efforts. 'Come after me, arrest me. Let's just get it over with, tough guy, you know? I don't give a damn. But I care about my community. I care about this community,' he continued. 'The hell are they doing? These guys need to grow up. They need to stop and we need to push back. And I'm sorry to be so clear, but that kind of bloviating is exhausting.' Newsom added. 'So, Tom, arrest me. Let's go.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
