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National Guard troops were deployed on the streets of Los Angeles on Sunday as the Trump administration struggled to quell protests over the assault on alleged illegal immigration.
The move, authorized Saturday by President Donald Trump using a rarely invoked law designed to suppress invasions and rebellions, was accused of “inflammatory” by governor Gavin Newsom.
It comes after two days of unrest in the second largest city in the United States, prompted by federal agents arresting dozens of people in sweeping local businesses. More protests are planned on Sunday afternoon.
This development tests the capabilities of large democracies to resist the Trump administration and protect citizens from its enforcement actions.
Law enforcement officials faced off against hundreds of protesters over the weekend.
But by late Saturday, California leaders said the situation was under control and no support from federal forces was needed.
“The federal government has taken over the California State Guard and deployed 2,000 soldiers in Los Angeles, not because there’s a shortage of law enforcement, but because we want spectacles,” Newsom said Saturday.
On Saturday night, Defense Secretary Pete Hegses ratcheted the threat to California, a self-designated sanctuary for undocumented immigrants, by warning that the Trump administration could mobilize active-duty Marines based near San Diego. Newsom called the move “crazy.”
The House Speaker and Trump’s ally Mike Johnson defended the threat, telling ABC News:
But Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, who votes for Democrat, warned that Trump is “moving rapidly towards authoritarianism.” He accused the president of opposing the constitution and the rule of law.
Nanette Barragan, a Congressional Democrat that includes the South Los Angeles area in the district, who has witnessed many protests, told CNN that Trump “sends the National Guard because he doesn’t like the scene. He doesn’t like the scene of people protesting peacefully.”
She added that she spoke to the sheriff on the ground.
Barragan told Los Angeles officials were told by the federal government that they would “prepare for a 30-day execution,” but border emperor Tom Homan told NBC that “about 150 undocumented immigrants have already been detained in the city in the past two days.
The exact number of troops deployed were not confirmed by authorities on Sunday.
The US Northern Command said “elements of the California National Guard’s 79th Infantry Brigade Combat Team have begun deployment to the Los Angeles area,” with additional information being provided as “units have been identified and deployed.”
The deployment of the National Guard in Los Angeles is within a wider standoff between the White House and California.
The Trump administration, which seeks to arrest more than 3,000 immigrants every day, clashed with a largely democratic state after pledging resistance and non-cooperation to immigration and customs attacks.
Trump is threatening federal fund cuts due to California’s position on immigration, trans rights and other issues.
In retaliation, Newsom suggested that California might withhold federal tax payments, saying that “Califans pay their bills for the federal government. …It may be time to cut it off.”
He said more than $800 billion in taxes contributed than the state receives.
