US President Donald Trump has deployed a further 2,000 National Guard troops as well as 700 US Marines to LA, escalating a military presence local officials describe as unhelpful and “sowing terror.”
An initial 2,000 troops began arriving on Sunday, which saw the most violence out of three days, with Governor Gavin Newsom claiming only 300 troops were actually used.
“The first 2,000? Given no food or water. Only approx. 300 are deployed – the rest are sitting, unused, in federal buildings without orders,” Newsom posted on X.
Despite Monday’s protests being less violent, Trump has continued to describe Los Angeles in dire terms that Mayor Karen Bass and Newsom say are nowhere close to the truth.
They say he is putting public safety at risk by adding military personnel, even though police say they don’t need the help.
Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell said in a statement he was confident in the police department’s ability to handle large-scale demonstrations and that the Marines’ arrival without coordinating with the police department presented a “significant logistical and operational challenge” for them.
Newsom called the deployments reckless and “disrespectful to our troops” in a post on X.
Bass also criticised the deployment of National Guard troops and marines, calling it a “deliberate attempt” by the Trump administration to “create disorder and chaos in our city.”
“I feel like we are part of an experiment that we did not ask to be a part of,” Bass said.
The protests began Friday in downtown Los Angeles after federal immigration authorities arrested more than 40 people across the city.
The smell of smoke hung in the air downtown Monday, one day after crowds blocked a major road and set self-driving cars on fire as police responded with tear gas, rubber bullets and flash-bang grenades.
Additional protests against immigration raids continued into the evening on Monday in several other cities, including San Francisco and Santa Ana in California and Dallas and Austin in Texas.
Local officials have pushed back against the president’s orders, with California Attorney General Rob Bonta filing a lawsuit over the use of National Guard troops. He told reporters in his announcement Monday that Trump had “trampled” the state’s sovereignty.
“We don’t take lightly to the president abusing his authority and unlawfully mobilising California National Guard troops,” Bonta said. He sought a court order declaring Trump’s use of the Guard unlawful and asking for a restraining order to halt the deployment.
Trump said Monday that the city would have been “completely obliterated” if he had not deployed the Guard.
Despite their presence, there has been limited engagement so far between the Guard and protesters while local law enforcement implements crowd control.
The deployment appeared to be the first time in decades that a state’s National Guard was activated without a request from its governor, a significant escalation against those who have sought to hinder the administration’s mass deportation efforts.
The last time the National Guard was activated without a governor’s permission was in 1965, when President Lyndon B Johnson sent troops to protect a civil rights march in Alabama, according to the Brennan Centre for Justice.
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.”
Follow STV News on WhatsApp
Scan the QR code on your mobile device for all the latest news from around the country
