Trump uses the National Guard while anti-immigration rallies in Los Angeles continue

The administration of President Donald Trump announced that it would send out 2,000 National Guard soldiers on Saturday as federal agents in Los Angeles engaged in combat with protesters for the second day in a row after conducting immigration raids.

In the Paramount neighborhood of southeast Los Angeles, where some protesters were holding Mexican flags and others had respiratory masks over their mouths, the security officers engaged about 100 people.

Tom Homan, Trump’s border czar, announced on Fox News that the National Guard would arrive in Los Angeles on Saturday night.

The governor of California, Gavin Newsom, described the ruling as “purposefully inflammatory.”

“If Governor Gavin Newscum, of California, and Mayor Karen Bass, of Los Angeles, can’t do their jobs, which everyone knows they can’t, then the Federal Government will step in and solve the problem, RIOTS & LOOTERS, the way it should be solved!!!” Trump made a post on his Truth Social page.

Trump’s Republican White House, which has made cracking down on immigration a major feature of his second term, is up against Democratic-run Los Angeles, whose census data indicates a sizable share of the population is Hispanic and foreign-born.

Reuters witnesses reported that officials started detaining some protestors in the late afternoon. At this time, there was no official word of any arrests.
As tiny canisters exploded into gas clouds, scores of green-uniformed security guards wearing gas masks were seen in line on a road littered with overturned shopping carts.

“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,” Ron Gochez, a protester aged 44, said.

At least 44 people were arrested on suspicion of immigration offenses by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers during enforcement operations in the city on Friday night, sparking the first round of protests.

On X, immigration hardliner and White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller described Friday’s protests as “an insurrection against the laws and sovereignty of the United States.” He called the demonstrations on Saturday a “violent insurrection.”

IMMIGRATION DEFENSE

About Friday’s demonstrations, the Department of Homeland Security released a statement saying that “1,000 rioters surrounded a federal law enforcement building and assaulted ICE law enforcement officers, slashed tires, defaced buildings, and taxpayer funded property.”

DHS’s accounts could not be verified by Reuters. Immigration rights group Chirla’s executive director, Angelica Salas, described Friday’s lack of access for attorneys to individuals in custody as “very worrying.”

Trump has promised to shut down the U.S.-Mexico border and deport a record number of people who are in the country illegally. The White House has set a target for ICE to arrest at least 3,000 migrants per day.

However, the widespread immigration enforcement has also resulted in legal battles and has caught up with those who are legally in the country, including some who have permanent residence.

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office claimed in a statement on Saturday that “it appeared that federal law enforcement officers were in the area, and that members of the public were gathering to protest” in reference to the demonstrations in Paramount.

After an ICE contingent seemed to be using parking lots close to a Paramount Home Depot store as a base, Salas of Chirla said protesters gathered.

Regarding the demonstrations and possible immigration sweeps on Saturday, ICE, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Los Angeles Police Department did not comment.

As part of the immigration enforcement operation, television news footage on Friday showed vans full of uniformed federal officers and unmarked vehicles that looked like military transports moving through the streets of Los Angeles.

Raids took place at a garment factory, a warehouse, and around Home Depot stores, where day laborers and street vendors were apprehended, according to Salas of Chirla.

Los Angeles Mayor Bass, a Democrat, denounced the immigration sweeps.

“I am deeply angered by what has taken place,” Bass stated in a statement. “These strategies undermine fundamental safety norms in our city and promote fear in our neighborhoods. We will not tolerate this.