LOS ANGELES: President Donald Trump’s administration deployed 2,000 National Guard troops as federal agents faced off against a few hundred demonstrators during a second day of protests following immigration raids.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth warned that the Pentagon would mobilize active-duty troops “if violence continues” in Los Angeles, saying Marines at nearby Camp Pendleton remain “on high alert.”
On Saturday, federal security agents confronted protesters in the Paramount area of southeast Los Angeles, where some demonstrators waved Mexican flags. Later that night, about 60 people gathered for a second protest in downtown Los Angeles, chanting slogans including “ICE out of L.A.!”
The White House said Trump signed a presidential memorandum to deploy National Guard troops to “address the lawlessness that has been allowed to fester.” Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, told Fox News that they would deploy the National Guard in Los Angeles on Saturday.
California Governor Gavin Newsom called the decision “purposefully inflammatory.” He posted on X that Trump deployed the National Guard “not because there is a shortage of law enforcement, but because they want a spectacle,” and urged people to “Don’t give them one. Never use violence. Speak out peacefully.”
Trump posted on his Truth Social platform that if Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass can’t do their jobs, the Federal Government will step in and solve the problem—riots and looters—the way it should be solved!
The protests pit Democratic-run Los Angeles, where census data shows a significant portion of the population is Hispanic and foreign-born, against Trump’s Republican White House, which has made cracking down on immigration a hallmark of his second term.
‘VIOLENT INSURRECTION’:
Vice President JD Vance posted on X late Saturday that insurrectionists carrying foreign flags are attacking immigration enforcement officers, while half of America’s political leadership has decided that border enforcement is evil.
Senior White House aide Stephen Miller, an immigration hardliner, called the protests a “violent insurrection.”
Two U.S. officials, speaking to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said the administration has not invoked the Insurrection Act. One official said the military can deploy National Guard troops quickly—within 24 hours in some cases—and is working to source the 2,000 troops.
The 1807 law empowers the president to deploy the U.S. military to enforce the law and suppress civil disorder. California’s governor requested its last invocation during the 1992 Los Angeles riots.
Video footage of the Paramount protest showed dozens of green-uniformed security personnel wearing gas masks lining up on a road strewn with overturned shopping carts as small canisters exploded into gas clouds. Authorities began detaining some protesters, according to news reports, but officials did not confirm any arrests.
“Now they know that they cannot go to anywhere in this country where our people are, and try to kidnap our workers, our people – they cannot do that without an organized and fierce resistance,” said protester Ron Gochez, 44.
Protesters kicked off the first round on Friday night after Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents conducted enforcement operations in the city and arrested at least 44 people for alleged immigration violations.
The Department of Homeland Security stated that about “1,000 rioters” took part in the protests on Friday.
Source could not verify the DHS’s claim. Angelica Salas, executive director of the immigrants’ rights organization Chirla, said lawyers had not accessed those detained on Friday, which she called “very worrying.”
TRUMP’S IMMIGRATION CRACKDOWN:
Trump has pledged to deport record numbers of people living in the country illegally and to lock down the U.S.-Mexico border. The White House has set a goal for ICE to arrest at least 3,000 migrants per day.
However, the sweeping immigration crackdown has also targeted people legally residing in the country, including some permanent residents, and has sparked legal challenges.
ICE, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Los Angeles Police Department did not respond to requests for comment on the protests or to questions about any immigration raids on Saturday.
Television news footage on Friday showed unmarked vehicles resembling military transports and vans carrying uniformed federal agents streaming through Los Angeles streets as part of the immigration enforcement operation.
Raids took place around Home Depot stores, where authorities picked up street vendors and day laborers, as well as at a garment factory and a warehouse, Salas of Chirla said. Los Angeles Mayor Bass condemned the immigration raids.
“I am deeply angered by what has taken place,” Bass said in a statement. “These tactics sow terror in our communities and disrupt basic principles of safety in our city. We will not stand for this.”
