[WASHINGTON] The Trump administration escalated its response to anti-deportation protests in Los Angeles with the mobilisation of 700 marines, deploying active-duty military on the ground and increasing tensions with California officials.
The turmoil comes as Los Angeles saw a fourth night of clashes between police and demonstrators rallying against a rising number of raids by immigration and customs enforcement agents who local officials say have stoked fear in the immigrant-rich community.
President Donald Trump and California Governor Gavin Newsom clashed again over the response to the unrest in LA, with the state suing the administration for mobilising national guard troops in the city. Trump, meanwhile, suggested that Newsom, a Democrat widely seen as a potential presidential contender in 2028, could be arrested if he interferes with the federal immigration raids or response to the unrest.
On Monday (jun 9), largely peaceful daytime protests morphed into scattered clashes with police shooting less-lethal ammunition and some protesters throwing bottles.
The LA protests have largely been limited to a few small parts of a city that spreads over several hundred square miles and is connected by a web of freeways. There was no sign of unrest in areas such as Century City, Hollywood Hills and Santa Monica that are miles away from downtown, with businesses and residents largely unaffected.
However, incidents have started to spread beyond the city limits. Demonstrators rallied in San Francisco, Chicago, Washington, and other major American cities as anti-ICE protests intensified.
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In Santa Ana, south-east of Los Angeles in Orange County, protesters faced off with law enforcement after immigration raids took place there.
Police clashed with protesters in Dallas and Austin late on Monday, according to local media reports, with tear gas deployed to disperse a crowd near the Texas state Capitol building.
The Trump administration has argued the conditions in LA are spiraling and that federal forces are needed to support immigration agents and restore order. A Defence Department official said Monday that the marines, based at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms, California, were on the move after getting notice over the weekend.
US law generally bars the use of the active-duty US military – the army, navy, air force and marines – from carrying out domestic law enforcement. The deployment of the marines adds to Trump’s order over the weekend that directed the US Northern Command to assume control of the National Guard and dispatch them to LA.
California and Newsom sued the Trump administration on Monday, calling the mobilisation of the state’s national guard and the marines unnecessary and unlawful and accusing the president of “another unprecedented power grab.” In a 22-page complaint filed late Monday in San Francisco federal court, the governor urged a judge to void the president’s orders and transfer the National Guard from Defence Department control “back to the rightful command” of the state.
“Deploying over 4,000 federalised military forces to quell a protest or prevent future protests despite the lack of evidence that local law enforcement was incapable of asserting control and ensuring public safety during such protests” is unconstitutional, according to the suit.
Newsom and LA Mayor Karen Bass have accused Trump of making the situation worse. In an X post Monday, the governor called the decision to bring in marines “un-American,” and said the administration’s deployment of National Guard troops was both “reckless” and “pointless.”
Trump, in a series of posts on Truth Social, said sending in the national guard was a “great decision”, derided the idea that the protests were largely peaceful, and said that “If we had not done so, Los Angeles would have been completely obliterated.”
“Just one look at the pictures and videos of the Violence and Destruction tells you all you have to know,” Trump said. “We will always do what is needed to keep our Citizens SAFE, so we can, together, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
The president also backed comments from his border adviser Tom Homan, who threatened to arrest state and local officials who obstruct federal immigration enforcement, including Newsom and Bass.
“I would do it if I were Tom. I think it’s great,” Trump said at the White House. “I like Gavin Newsom, he’s a nice guy but he’s grossly incompetent, everybody knows that.”
Homan later said in a CNN interview on Monday that the governor hasn’t done anything at this time to warrant arrest.
Waymo, the self-driving car service, owned by Google parent Alphabet, suspended its taxi service in the downtown Los Angeles on Monday after demonstrators torched its driverless cars. It also limited service to areas of San Francisco where further protests were expected, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.
Meanwhile, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said his government had made representations to the Trump administration after an Australian television journalist was shot by police with a rubber bullet while covering the LA protests.
“We don’t find it acceptable that it occurred and we think the role of the media is particularly important,” Albanese told reporters in Canberra.
The United Nations on Monday warned against a further “militarisation” of the situation in LA. “We certainly hope that all parties on the ground will de-escalate the situation,” deputy spokesman for the Secretary-General Farhan Haq said at a press briefing. BLOOMBERG
