Los Angeles Protests Escalate Amid Trump’s National Guard Deployment

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Trump on Warpath with Democrat Stronghold Los Angeles amid Protests

By TRH News Desk

NEW DELHI, June 9, 2025 – The streets of Los Angeles have become a flashpoint for tensions over President Donald Trump’s aggressive immigration policies. Violent protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids entered their third day on Monday.

What began as demonstrations against federal immigration sweeps spiralled into clashes, freeway blockades, and a controversial deployment of National Guard troops. Trump’s tough actions have been slammed for compromising the balance between public safety and civil liberties.

The protests erupted on June 6 following ICE raids targeting undocumented immigrants across Los Angeles County, including Paramount and Compton. Reuters reported that hundreds of demonstrators, some waving Mexican flags, clashed with authorities. Protests turned chaotic as tear gas, rubber bullets, and flash bangs were deployed by the law-enforcement agencies.

The situation escalated when Trump signed a memorandum federalizing 2,000 California National Guard troops, bypassing Governor Gavin Newsom’s authority. The White House justified this as a response to “lawlessness that has been allowed to fester” in Los Angeles, said NBC News in a report.

Trump’s Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said: “These operations are essential to halting and reversing the invasion of illegal criminals into the United States.”

However, California officials, including Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, have fiercely criticized the deployment as unnecessary and inflammatory. Newsom, in an MSNBC interview, called it an “unconstitutional act” and announced plans to sue the Trump administration. He argued that local law enforcement had the situation under control, The Washington Post quoted him stating.

Bass told the Los Angeles Times that the protests were “relatively minor” and “peaceful,” with only about 100 demonstrators on Saturday. He alleged that “federal troops risked escalating tensions.”

Trump’s rhetoric further inflamed the situation. Trump yesterday posted on Truth Social to praise the National Guard for a “great job” despite Bass’s clarification that no troops were yet deployed in the city. Trump in another post on Truth Social called for arrests of the people with masks on their faces.

Trump also threatened to deploy active-duty Marines from Camp Pendleton. Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has said that Marines are on “high alert.”

Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, doubled down, warning that immigration enforcement would continue “every day” in Los Angeles and hinting that officials like Newsom and Bass could face federal charges for interfering, said NBC News in a report.

Critics, including Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, have condemned Trump’s actions as a slide toward authoritarianism. Sanders told CNN’s “State of the Union” that Trump’s move to deploy the National Guard without local approval shows a president who “thinks he has a right to do anything he wants.”

The protests, while rooted in opposition to immigration raids, reflect broader discontent with Trump’s policies. Former Vice President Kamala Harris, a Los Angeles resident, called the raids and Guard deployment part of a “cruel, calculated agenda to spread panic and division”, PBS News said in a news report.

This escalation in Los Angeles underscores a deepening divide between the Trump administration and Democratic strongholds like California. The deployment of federal troops without state consent is a rare and provocative move, last seen during the 1965 Selma marches.

While Trump frames it as restoring “law and order,” critics argue it’s a calculated spectacle to distract from policy challenges and rally his base.

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