Deadline: Trump Deploys 2,000 Troops To L.A. As Backlash & Protests To ICE Raids Surge; POTUS Action “Purposefully Inflammatory,” Newsom Warns

Reeling from widespread harsh ICE raids and responding protests and resistance over the past 24 hours, Los Angeles has become a powder keg with Donald Trump deploying 2,000 California National Guard troops over the objection of Governor Gavin Newsom and other SoCal leaders.

As rock-throwing and bellowing Angelenos sought to stop undocumented individuals being targeted by masked and heavily armored federal agents from being dragged away from a Home Depot in Paramount, Calif. and LA’s Westlake neighborhood on Saturday, Trump took to social media to announce a de facto takeover of the City of Angels. “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!!!” he said (caps’ Trump).

Declaring “to the extent that protests or acts of violence directly inhibit the execution of the laws, they constitute a form of rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States” in a memorandum today, Trump says the federalized troops’ “duration of duty shall be for 60 days or at the discretion of the Secretary of Defense.”

Raising the stakes even more, and seeming to disregard federal law, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth proclaimed that “if violence continues, active duty Marines at Camp Pendleton will also be mobilized — they are on high alert.”

https://deadline.com/2025/06/trump-national-guard-los-angeles-ice-raids-newsom-1236426811

The Hill: Why are ICE agents running amok? Because they can. 

As the Trump administration pushes for more mass deportations, law enforcement officers from the Department of Homeland Security are suddenly everywhere. 

In San Diego, Homeland Security officers conducted a SWAT-style raid on a restaurant, handcuffing 19 employees over an hour and slamming the manager against a wall in the process. Eventually, they arrested four people. The raid was so heavy-handed that the officers had to deploy flashbang grenades to escape from the angry crowd that gathered in response.

Even members of Congress aren’t safe. Last week, Homeland Security officers forced their way into Rep. Jerry Nadler’s (D) New York office without a warrant. When one of the staffers protested, she was handcuffed and detained

The cases you hear about are only the tip of the iceberg. Federal officers are fanning out across the country, conducting raids, traffic stops, even scooping people up at courthouses when they appear for immigration hearings and carting them away in leg irons and shackles — harsh treatment that you seldom see even when felons are arrested. 

This heavy-handedness and cruelty isn’t a glitch — it’s intentional, as Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Kristi Noem and Tom Homan, President Trump’s border czar, attempt to frighten immigrants into leaving the country. Even legal residents and American citizens are getting caught up in the crackdown.

And the worst part is, while things like barging into a congressman’s office and detaining his staffers aren’t legal, there is nothing anyone can do about it. If Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents force their way into your house without a warrant, slap you around and detain your family at gunpoint while conducting an illegal search, you have no way of getting your constitutional claims into federal court. As a practical matter, these agents are above the law and cannot be held accountable for violating your constitutional rights. 

https://thehill.com/opinion/immigration/5335758-homeland-security-raid-immigration

Associated Press: Immigration official defends tactics against criticism of a heavy hand as arrests rise nationwide

Todd Lyons, ICE’s acting director, turned emotional when asked to explain why officials wear masks. He said some have received death threats and been harassed online.

“I’m sorry if people are offended by them wearing masks, but I’m not going to let my officers and agents go out there and put their lives on the line, their family on the line because people don’t like what immigration enforcement is,” he said at a news conference in Boston to announce nearly 1,500 arrests in the region as part of a month-long “surge operation.”

Lyons was leaving the room when a reporter asked him about the masks. He returned to the podium.

“Is that the issue here that we’re just upset about the masks?” he asked. “Or is anyone upset about the fact that ICE officers’ families were labeled terrorists?”

Lyons may have been referring to comments by San Diego Councilman Sean Elo-Rivera, who called ICE officers “terrorists” after Friday’s restaurant raid. “This isn’t safety. It’s state-sponsored terrorism,” Elo-Rivera wrote on Instagram.

Gestapo? Terrorists? Thugs? ICE is receiving the reputation it has earned. And I could care less if the poor bully boys are harassed, either online or in public — they’ve earned it.

https://apnews.com/article/ice-agents-masked-boston-deportations-todd-lyons-4fa874908a64b12f1b1ee0be3825fb39