LOS ANGELES: Los Angeles was on edge Monday after violent clashes between demonstrators and security forces over immigration raids, with the Californian governor vowing to sue President Donald Trump for deploying National Guard soldiers.
Police stood watch after ordering people not to gather in the city’s downtown where cars were torched over the weekend and security forces fired tear gas at protesters.
“This is exactly what Donald Trump wanted,” Governor Gavin Newsom said on social media. “He flamed the fires and illegally acted to federalize the National Guard.”
“We’re suing him.”
The White House also ratcheted up the standoff between the hard-charging Republican president and California’s Democrat-led authorities.
“Gavin Newsom did nothing as violent riots erupted in Los Angeles for days,” Trump’s Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt posted Monday. “President Trump has stepped in to maintain law and order.”
She added that “America must reverse the invasion unleashed by (former president) Joe Biden of millions of unvetted illegal aliens into our country.”
The protests in Los Angeles, home to a large Latino population, were triggered by raids and dozens of arrests of what authorities say are illegal migrants and gang members.
Critics say Trump — who has made clamping down on illegal migration a key pillar of his second term — deliberately stoked tensions by sending in California’s National Guard, a stand-by military usually controlled by the state governor.
“You have the National Guard with loaded magazines and large guns standing around trying to intimidate Americans,” protester Thomas Henning told AFP on the scene Sunday.
On Monday morning, a heavy police presence patrolled mostly deserted streets.
A few protesters remained overnight, with some lobbing projectiles and fireworks, according to TV coverage.
Trump called the protesters “insurrectionists,” and demanded authorities arrest people in face masks.
“BRING IN THE TROOPS!!!!” he wrote on his Truth Social platform.
At least three self-driving Waymo cars were torched Sunday, and local law enforcement deployed tear gas and smoke grenades to disperse protesters.
An Australian reporter was hit in the leg with a rubber bullet fired by a police officer on live television. Her employer later said she was unharmed.
Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers set up containment lines to keep demonstrators separated from armed National Guardsmen from the 79th Infantry Brigade Combat Team in helmets and camouflage gear. At least 56 people were arrested over two days and three officers suffered minor injuries, the LAPD said. Police in San Francisco said on Sunday about 60 people had been arrested in similar protests in the northern Californian city.
Trump was unrepentant when asked about the use of troops, hinting at deployment nationwide.
“You’re going to see some very strong law and order,” he told reporters Sunday.
Asked about invoking the Insurrection Act — which would allow the military to be used as a domestic police force — Trump said: “We’re looking at troops everywhere. We’re not going to let this happen to our country.”
About 500 Marines were officially put in “a prepared-to-deploy status.”
The National Guard is frequently used in natural disasters, and occasionally in civil unrest, but almost always with the consent of local authorities. Trump’s deployment of the force — the first over the head of a state governor since 1965 at the height of the civil rights movement — was criticized by Democrats, including Kamala Harris.
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