Trump Federalizes California Guard to Protect ICE From Protestors

AP (“Trump deploys California National Guard to LA to quell protests despite the governor’s objections“):

President Donald Trump is deploying 2,000 California National Guard troops to Los Angeles over the objections of Gov. Gavin Newsom after a second day of clashes between hundreds of protesters and federal immigration authorities in riot gear.

Confrontations broke out on Saturday near a Home Depot in the heavily Latino city of Paramount, south of Los Angeles, where federal agents were staging at a Department of Homeland Security office nearby. Agents unleashed tear gas, flash-bang explosives and pepper balls, and protesters hurled rocks and cement at Border Patrol vehicles. Smoke wafted from small piles of burning refuse in the streets.

Tensions were high after a series of sweeps by immigration authorities the previous day, including in LA’s fashion district and at a Home Depot, as the weeklong tally of immigrant arrests in the city climbed past 100. A prominent union leader was arrested while protesting and accused of impeding law enforcement.

The White House announced that Trump would deploy the Guard to “address the lawlessness that has been allowed to fester.” It wasn’t clear when the troops would arrive.

Newsom, a Democrat, said in a post on the social platform X that it was “purposefully inflammatory and will only escalate tensions.” He later said the federal government wants a spectacle and urged people not to give them one by becoming violent.

In a signal of the administration’s aggressive approach, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth threatened to deploy the U.S. military.

“If violence continues, active-duty Marines at Camp Pendleton will also be mobilized — they are on high alert,” Hegseth said on X.

Trump’s order came after clashes in Paramount and neighboring Compton, where a car was set on fire. Protests continued into the evening in Paramount, with several hundred demonstrators gathered near a doughnut shop, and authorities holding up barbed wire to keep the crowd back.

[…]

The president’s move came shortly after he issued a threat on his social media network saying that if Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass did not “do their jobs,” then “the Federal Government will step in and solve the problem, RIOTS & LOOTERS, the way it should be solved!!!”

Trump signed the order shortly before he went to attend a UFC fight in New Jersey, where he sat ringside with boxer Mike Tyson.

Newsom said in his statement that local authorities “are able to access law enforcement assistance at a moment’s notice,” and “there is currently no unmet need.”

The California Highway Patrol said Newsom directed it to deploy additional officers to “maintain public safety.”

Speaking on ABC7, Bass said that “we certainly want to make the opportunities available for people to exercise their First Amendment rights, but the minute that things turn to violence … that is not acceptable and people are going to be held accountable.”

It’s difficult to judge these things from text accounts. ICE agents should be able to do their jobs without interference—let alone violence—from demonstrators. But staging a massive sweep in a predominantly Latino neighborhood, dressed in paramilitary gear, is intentionally intimidating and anxiety-inducing. And it’s not at all clear from the news accounts I’ve read and video snippets I’ve seen whether the smoke, tear gas, and flash-bang grenades were a response to crowd violence or helped spark it.

Newsom is almost certainly right that sending 2000-plus Guardsmen in riot gear will escalate tensions. It’s also the case that protests can be held nearby, in a way that doesn’t interfere with the duty of federal law enforcement officers.