On Tuesday, President Donald Trump warned that any further protests against federal immigration enforcement could be met with “equal or greater force” than the roughly 4,000 National Guard personnel and 700 Marines currently stationed in Los Angeles.
In response to Trump’s deployment of the National Guard, California Gov. Gavin Newsom says, “Democracy is under assault.” He accused Trump of conducting a “military dragnet” across Los Angeles, charging that his administration had gone well beyond what officials had initially described as an effort to go after violent and serious criminals.
In L.A., many blocks downtown were chaotic, but most of the city was unaffected. A small area near a federal building got hit with the worst of the violence, and Trump deployed National Guard troops to guard it over the weekend. Trump also ordered the U.S. Marines to the area, but there was no visible sign of them Tuesday on L.A.’s streets, the Washington Post reported.
The night of the protests, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass issued orders for a curfew for part of the city’s downtown, starting at 8 p.m. local time and ending at 6 a.m. Wednesday. Bass confirms that this step was taken to stop Trump’s escalation.
Newsom filed an emergency motion in federal court seeking to block the National Guard and active-duty Marines from enforcing immigration and local law “on the streets of a civilian city.”
As tensions between Trump and Newson continue, more and more evidence is coming out that National Guard soldiers are accompanying ICE agents as they detain people suspected of being in the United States illegally, U.S. the Washington Post reported.
Trump still backs up his decision to deploy soldiers to L.A. despite Newsom’s statements.
