AG Bonta says the state’s sovereignty was “trampled” by Trump when he ordered the National Guard to the immigration protests in LA
California Gov. Gavin Newsom said the state is suing the Trump administration, claiming President Donald Trump illegally federalized the National Guard to confront protesters in Los Angeles.
The clashes between protesters and law enforcement “is exactly what Donald Trump wanted,” Newsom wrote on social media Monday morning.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom suing Trump administration over National Guard deployment
The clashes between protesters and law enforcement “is exactly what Donald Trump wanted,” Gov. Newsom wrote on social media Monday morning.
San Francisco police arrested 154 people Sunday night after a downtown protest against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement reportedly escalated with the arrival of law enforcement in riot gear.
The San Francisco protest erupted after President Donald Trump deployed the National Guard to Los Angeles — bypassing the state’s governor for the first time since 1965 — in a move that escalated tensions after an explosion of high-profile ICE activity in California last week. Thousands of protesters took to the streets of Los Angeles, shutting down a major highway and igniting multiple self-driving cars as officers unleashed tear gas and rubber bullets against the crowd Sunday.
On Sunday in San Francisco, hundreds began gathering in solidarity around 6 p.m. outside ICE headquarters at 630 Sansome St. before entering into a 40-minute standoff with police, Mission Local reported. Officials declared an unlawful assembly at 7:33 p.m., and about 10 minutes later, violence began with some crowd members who brought metal barricades, according to the outlet.
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San Francisco police arrest more anti-ICE protesters than Los Angeles
Dr. Phil was embedded with ICE during controversial Los Angeles immigration raids
As federal agents prepared to fan out in Los Angeles for a controversial immigration crackdown, the officers were greeted by a familiar face: Dr. Phil McGraw.
The television personality and his camera crew were on hand before and after the raids that took place on Friday and triggered several days of street protests.
McGraw was there “to get a first-hand look at the targeted operations,” according to his conservative TV channel, MeritTV.
McGraw also had “exclusive” access to Trump’s border czar Tom Homan, a spokesperson for the channel said. The two men sat down for taped conversations about the Immigration and Customs Enforcement efforts both “the day before and day after the LA operation.”
The TV personality and Homan were also together at the Homeland Security Investigations field office in L.A. on the morning the raids began.
McGraw’s presence on the ground in L.A. reinforces the made-for-TV nature of Trump’s immigration crackdown.
The former daytime talk show host was embedded with ICE officials in Chicago back in January, when some federal agents were told to be camera-ready for a show of force at the very start of President Trump’s second term.
Dr. Phil was embedded with ICE during controversial Los Angeles immigration raids | CNN Business
The footage is being incorporated into a special report on “Dr. Phil Primetime,” a program on McGraw’s conservative TV channel Merit TV, a spokesperson confirmed to CNN.
President Donald Trump has authorized the deployment of an additional 2,000 National Guard members to respond to immigration protests in Los Angeles, according to the Pentagon’s chief spokesman. The latest order brings the total number of Guard put on federal orders for the protests to more than 4,100.
Marines deployed: The troops will be used to protect federal property and personnel, including immigration agents, and are prohibited from performing law enforcement duties under the Posse Comitatus Act. The Pentagon is drafting guidelines that will explain to the Marines what they can and cannot do, a U.S. official said.
California sues Trump: The state sued the president over his deployment of the Guard troops as growing numbers of demonstrators took to the city’s streets for a fourth day. California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced the lawsuit by telling reporters that Trump had “trampled” the state’s sovereignty.
Trump threatens to arrest Newsom: “I would do it if I were Tom. I think it’s great,” Trump said, referencing Tom Homan, the administration’s border czar, who warned that anyone, including public officials, would be arrested if they obstructed federal immigration enforcement. “Come after me, arrest me. Let’s just get it over with, tough guy,” Newsom said in response.
Live updates on the LA protests: Trump authorizes the deployment of additional 2,000 National Guard members
President Donald Trump has authorized the deployment of 2,000 more National Guard members in addition to 700 Marines responding to immigration protests in Los Angeles.
Australian journalist Lauren Tomasi was in the middle of a live cross, covering the protests against the Trump administration’s mass deportation policy in Los Angeles, California. As Tomasi spoke to the camera, microphone in hand, an LAPD officer in the background appeared to target her directly, hitting her in the leg with a rubber bullet.
Earlier, reports emerged that British photojournalist Nick Stern was undergoing emergency surgery after also being hit by the same “non-lethal” ammunition.
The situation in Los Angeles is extremely volatile. After nonviolent protests against raids and arrests by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents began in the suburb of Paramount, US President Donald Trump issued a memo describing them as “a form of rebellion against the authority of the government of the United States”. He then deployed the National Guard.
‘Can’t you just shoot them?’
As much of the coverage has noted, this is not the first time the National Guard has been deployed to quell protests in the US.
In 1970, members of the National Guard shot and killed four students protesting the war in Vietnam at Kent State University. In 1992, the National Guard was deployed during protests in Los Angeles following the acquittal of four police officers (three of whom were white) in the killing of a Black man, Rodney King.
Trump has long speculated about violently deploying the National Guard and even the military against his own people.
During his first administration, at the height of the Black Lives Matter protests, former Secretary of Defence Mark Esper alleged that Trump asked him, “Can’t you just shoot them, just shoot them in the legs or something?”
Trump has also long sought to other those opposed to his radical agenda to reshape the United States and its role in the world. He’s classified them as “un-American” and, therefore, deserving of contempt and, when he deems it necessary, violent oppression.
During last year’s election campaign, he promised to “root out the communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country”. Even the Washington Post characterised this description of Trump’s “political enemies” as “echoing Hitler, Mussolini”.
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The Trump administration’s mass deportation program is deliberately cruel and provocative. It was always only a matter of time before protests broke out.
In a democracy, nonviolent protest by hundreds or perhaps a few thousand people in a city of ten million is not a crisis. But it has always suited Trump and the movement that supports him to manufacture crises.
‘Can’t you just shoot them?’ Inside Trump’s threat to deal with ‘radical left thugs’ in America
Donald Trump’s eldest sonposted a meme on X of a Korean-American business owner inspecting a rifle on a rooftop in reference to the Los Angeles riots of 1992, which erupted in response to the acquittal of four Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers caught on video beating Black motorist Rodney King.
The angry scenes that ensued saw some members of the local Asian diaspora take up arms to defend their businesses from looters and vandals.
Jr. is a “chip off the old block” — no class, no brains, no compassion.
Trump Jr adds fuel to LA crisis suggesting ‘Rooftop Koreans’ should shoot protesters
President’s son mocks demonstrators as tensions in California city continue
Australian journalist Lauren Tomasi was shot at close range with a rubber bullet by police while reporting live on the immigration protests outside the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles in a brutal scene that played out on live TV.
In the viral clip, Tomasi, the U.S. correspondent for Australia’s Nine News, was struck as she explained the police response to protests sweeping the city in opposition to immigration raids conducted by federal agents.
“After hours of standing off, this situation has now rapidly deteriorated,” Tomasi said. “The LAPD moving in on horseback, firing rubber bullets at protesters, moving them on through the heart of LA.”
But just then, a police officer behind her can be seen taking aim and firing at her.
Footage shows the reporter crying out and clutching her leg, as a bystander shouted, “You just fucking shot the reporter!”
Nine News later confirmed she was hit but had not sustained serious injury.
“Lauren and her camera operator are safe and will continue their essential work covering these events,” the network said in a statement, describing the attack as “a stark reminder of the inherent dangers journalists can face while reporting from the frontlines of protests.”
Reporter Hit by Rubber Bullet While Reporting on LA Riots: ‘You Just F*cking Shot the Reporter!’
Tomasi was shot at close range with a non-lethal round by police while reporting live on the immigration protests in LA.
Angel knew from the moment he raised his hand with a whistle and shouted “Labor!” at a white van pulling into the Home Depot parking lot full of workers last Friday that something felt wrong.
The Honduran immigrant caught a glimpse of the driver and a passenger wearing what looked like bulletproof vests. He followed the vehicle with his eyes as it parked toward the eastern entrance near downtown Los Angeles and the heart of the city’s Central American immigrant community.
His creeping suspicion exploded into full-blown fear just as the doors of the van opened and masked agents began pouring out.
“La migra!” Angel and another day laborer yelled. More than 100 men and women standing in the parking lot began to run. Six migrants who said they were present recounted how federal immigration authorities began handcuffing anyone they could grab in one of several raids in the city that would spark a wave of unrest and leave immigrant workers of all stripes jolted.
The Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation was one of several Friday in Los Angeles that drew widespread criticism from elected leaders and community activists in a city that is home to one of the largest undocumented immigrant communities in the country. As word spread, protesters hit the streets to confront the officers and denounce their actions as a broad attack against immigrant families. The indignation continued into Sunday as officers fired tear gas at demonstrators outside a downtown building where some National Guard troops mobilized by President Donald Trump had been stationed.
The hardware store parking lot was empty for the first 24 hours after the raid. The immigration sweep spooked many day laborers who said they could not recall another enforcement action in which people had been detained so seemingly arbitrarily. But by Sunday, they began to return. Their numbers were far fewer but, they said, they showed up because they had to. There were too many bills to pay and mouths to feed not to work.
‘La migra!’: Day laborers recount ICE raid outside Los Angeles Home Depot
Workers who witnessed the ICE raid outside a Los Angeles Home Depot say officers arbitrarily detained migrants. The sweep was one of several that sparked protests.
‘La migra!’: Day laborers recount ICE raid outside Los Angeles Home Depot
Workers who witnessed the ICE raid outside a Los Angeles Home Depot say officers arbitrarily detained migrants. The sweep was one of several that sparked protests.
The very fact of deploying the National Guard is striking in itself, but it is the circumstances surrounding Trump’s Saturday night decision to do so that are particularly extraordinary. Foremost among those is that no-one has asked for the help of the National Guard, and there is no obvious crisis in LA for them to solve.
The United States is both a nation and a coalition of 50 states. This is something that’s easy to forget when looking at the USA from overseas, but it is fundamental: city and state governments matter, and so do the choices they make. States’ rights – the freedom of each State to make its own choices, except where the Constitution says something is a federal matter – are usually a fundamental rallying call for Republicans. And those states’ rights usually mean that the federal government doesn’t send troops into a state unless they have been requested.
And yet Trump has ordered at least 2,000 National Guardsmen into the Californian city after three days of protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials. ICE had deployed tear gas and non-lethal munitions against the protests, but in a statement late on Saturday evening, Los Angeles Police Department issued a statement confirming the protests “remained peaceful” and “concluded without incident”. While some turbulence on the streets escalated in the evening, LA’s police also stressed they were in a “heightened readiness posture” and “ready to ensure the continued safety of communities”.
LA’s police, in short, are saying the protests are largely peaceful and they are able to handle them. The protests have occurred because of the actions of ICE, who are engaging in aggressive immigration raids across LA despite it being a “sanctuary city”, a term for a city in which laws have been passed barring all state officials and law enforcement from aiding immigration authorities. ICE was acting in an inflammatory way against the will of local voters, and was facing protest as a result.
In his executive memorandum ordering in the troops, Donald Trump said that those peaceful protests “constitute a form of rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States” – using this as a justification for the first non-consensual deployment of federal troops in this way since the civil rights clashes in the South. As if all of this wasn’t enough, Trump’s defence secretary (and former Fox News presenter) Pete Hegseth threatened to send in Marines to LA – a move California’s governor Gavin Newsom has rightly called “deranged”.
The dangers of Trump’s unprecedented escalation here should be obvious to anyone: the federal government has no business sending armed troops where they are neither needed nor wanted. Should things escalate into violence, it would be the federal government who poured petrol onto the fire. When armed troops are on the streets and top government officials are fanning the flames, people can easily be killed – and events can spiral.
But the blazing hypocrisy of Trump and his top officials should stand out, too. One of Trump’s first actions on regaining the presidency in January was pardoning thousands of insurrectionists who participated in a violent invasion of Congress – including those who assaulted police. Now, mere months later, Trump claims to be so outraged by peaceful protest, which is protected by the First Amendment of the US constitution, that he is deploying troops against them.
This risks a full-scale collapse of the USA’s already crumbling political norms. Trump has pardoned his own supporters for violent insurrection even as he deploys armed soldiers against his political opponents. This is the behaviour of dictators, not democratic leaders. It is a sign of a society reaching its breaking point.
It has to be hoped that cooler heads prevail and manage to pull this particular crisis back from the brink. The people who actually make up the National Guard are not fanatics: they signed up to help their nation during crises, not to be a private army for a dictatorial president. California’s government and senior law enforcement officials will be trying to find ways to deploy troops that don’t risk escalating the situation. As always happens when Donald Trump is president, people will be working quietly to try to save America from the man leading it.
Hopefully America’s luck will hold and they will be successful – but as Trump embraces his tyrannical impulses ever more openly, there are fewer and fewer people around him with either the ability or the inclination to hold him back.
The citizens of Los Angeles were protesting against Trump’s unlawful use of the federal agency ICE to deport their friends and neighbours. For that, they are being called rebels against the state, and facing its military force. However the mess Trump has made in LA ends, America surely cannot withstand three and a half more years of this.
Trump’s crackdown on LA protests is pure hypocrisy – and incredibly dangerous
“We are going to have troops everywhere,” Trump said after touching down on Air Force One in New Jersey on Sunday. “We are not going to let this happen to our country.”
In a directive Saturday, Trump invoked a legal provision allowing him to deploy federal service members when there is ”a rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States.”
Earlier on Saturday, Trump wrote on Truth Social: “Great job by the National Guard in Los Angeles after two days of violence, clashes and unrest.”
Note that when the daffy King Donald made that post on Truth Social, the National Guard soldiers had not yet deployed.
Trump warns ‘we are going to have troops everywhere’ after ICE protests
“We are going to have troops everywhere,” Trump said after touching down on Air Force One in New Jersey on Sunday. “We are not going to let this happen to our country.”
