The deployment of 2,000 National Guard troops to the California city of Los Angeles, where an immigration crackdown has sparked protests and violence for a second day, has been ordered by US President Donald Trump.
In a statement released on Saturday, the White House stated that Trump was using the guardsmen to “address the lawlessness that has been allowed to fester” in the second-most populated city in the United States.
Additionally, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth stated that the Marines at neighboring Camp Pendleton were “on high alert” and that the Pentagon was ready to mobilize active-duty troops “if violence continues” in Los Angeles.
The Democratic governor of California, Gavin Newsom, described the Republican president’s choice as “purposefully inflammatory.”
As the crowds demanded that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers leave their city, riot-garbed security officers used tear gas on hundreds of demonstrators in the Paramount neighborhood of southeast Los Angeles on Saturday. The street was littered with overturned shopping carts.
Some of the demonstrators wore breathing masks over their faces and waved the Mexican flag.
They set a car on fire and threw rocks, bottles, and pyrotechnics at security personnel.
Reports of ongoing immigration raids close to a local home improvement store prompted the altercations.
Conflicts had also occurred in Los Angeles the previous evening, when ICE officers conducted raids at multiple locations and detained at least 44 individuals on suspicion of immigration offenses.
“Set them free, let them stay!” was the slogan of demonstrators who gathered outside a federal detention facility where the detainees were being processed after the arrests.
Some scribbled graffiti on the building, while others carried signs with anti-ICE messages.
In announcing Trump’s decision to send out the National Guard, the White House called the demonstrators “violent mobs” who had attacked federal agents and ICE personnel “carrying out basic deportations” in Los Angeles.
The flood of illegal criminals into the United States must be stopped and reversed, and this requires these activities. California’s incompetent Democratic leaders have fully abandoned their duty to safeguard their people in the wake of horrific violence.
The president took this action soon after threatening Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass on social media that “the Federal Government will step in and solve the problem, RIOTS & LOOTERS, the way it should be solved!!!” if they failed to “do their jobs.”
The timing of the National Guard troops’ arrival is uncertain.
However, Tom Homan, Trump’s border czar, stated on Fox News that the National Guard would arrive in Los Angeles on Saturday.
Source: Fox News, Al Jazeera and other media outlets
