The troops of the United States National Guard began to arrive at Los Angeles early on Sunday after being deployed by President Donald Trump, a weird deployment against the wishes of the state governor after sometimes violent protests against immigration application raids.
Trump took federal control of the California state army to push the soldiers to the second largest city in the country, an extraordinary movement not seen for decades and considered “inflammatory on purpose” by the governor of California, Gavin Newsom.
Casco troops that transported automatic weapons and with camouflaged vehicles could be seen in the Compton neighborhood of the city of California on the early Sunday, before more protests, including a call from the organizers for a “mass mobilization” in the town hall at 2 pm, local time (2100 GMT).
The development occurred after two days of confrontations during which federal agents fired flash-base grenades and tear gas towards crowds angry at the arrests of dozens of migrants in a city with a large Latin population.
The Republicans aligned behind Trump on Sunday to dismiss Newsom’s warnings and other local officials that the protests had been largely peaceful, and that the deployment was against their wishes and would exacerbate tensions.
“I have no concerns about that at all,” said Republican President of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson ABC ‘This week’ when asked, and added that Newsom “has shown an inability or lack of will to do what is necessary there, so the president intervened.”
As for the threats of the Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, on Saturday to send to the active service marines at the top of the Guardian troops, Johnson said he did not see him as “hard.”
“We have to be prepared to do what is necessary,” he argued.
Federal authorities “want a show. I don’t give them … never use violence. He speaks peacefully,” Newsom had published in X on Saturday late. He marked the “upset” hegesh threat.
“We agree that if you are being violent, you should be arrested … but this is not what is happening,” said California Congressman Nanette Barragan CNN Sunday.
“We are having an administration that points to peaceful protests … The president is sending the National Guard because he does not like the scenes,” said the Democrat.
During the night, a AFP The photographer saw fires and fireworks illuminated by the streets during the clashes, while a protester who held a Mexican flag stopped in front of a burnt car that had been sprayed with a slogan against the Immigration Agency and application of Customs (ICE).
“It is up to us to defend our people,” said a resident of Los Angeles whose parents are immigrants, who refuse to give their name as the lights of emergency services intervened in the distance.
‘Zero tolerance’
Trump had signed a memorandum that sends 2,000 national guard troops to Los Angeles, the White House said Saturday.
The National Guard, a reserve army, is often used in natural disasters, and occasionally in cases of civil disturbances, but almost always with the consent of local authorities.
It is the first time since 1965 that a president has deployed a national guard without a request by a state governor, former Wuman Rights Watch, American activist Kenneth Roth, published in X, accusing Trump to “create a show so he can continue with his immigration raids.”
But the National Guard is “specifically trained for this type of multitude situation,” said National Security Secretary Kristi Noem CBS” Face the Nation ‘on Sunday, refusing to disseminate where in Los Angeles they would be deployed.
Trump has fulfilled the promise of taking energetic measures against the entry and presence of undocumented migrants, who has compared “monsters” and “animals”, since he assumed the position in January.
Ice raids in other American cities have caused small -scale protests in recent months, but Los Angeles’ disturbances are the largest and most sustained against Trump administration policies so far.
TO CBS news The survey taken before Los Angeles protests showed that a slight majority of Americans still approved immigration repression.
The masked and armed immigration agents carried out raids in the high -profile workplace in separate parts of Los Angeles on Fridays and Saturdays, attracting angry crowds and highlighting the confrontations of a day duration.
Fernando Delgado, a 24 -year -old resident, said the raids were “injustices” and that the detainees were “human beings like any other.”
The confrontation demonstrated “Trump’s authoritarianism in real time,” Vermont Bernie Sanders senator published Sunday.
“Massive incursions. It causes a setback. Declare an emergency state. Call troops,” he wrote, added: “Unacceptable.”
