Now Reading: Marines to begin operations in Los Angeles
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Marines to begin operations in Los Angeles
Marines to begin operations in Los Angeles
See how Los Angeles protests intensified over one weekend
What started as a small protest over immigration raids on Friday ballooned into large demonstrations throughout the weekend. Here’s what happened.
As cities across the country braced for widespread protests against the Trump administration, hundreds of Marines moved into Los Angeles and will soon begin guarding federal property and personnel, a commander said on Friday.
Army National Guard Maj. Gen. Scott Sherman, the commander overseeing thousands of troops deployed by President Donald Trump to Los Angeles, said 200 Marines will begin guarding the Wilshire Federal Building at noon local time. Their deployment will free up National Guard troops that were assigned to protect the building after protests erupted in the city one week ago.
The news comes after an appeals court allowed Trump to maintain control of the California National Guard, temporarily blocking a federal judge’s earlier ruling that found the deployment unlawful and ordered Trump to return control of the troops back to Gov. Gavin Newsom.
The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency is carrying out a directive from Trump to find immigrants living in the United States without legal status. The aggressive crackdown has fueled anger and protests in Los Angeles and across the country, which have led to hundreds of arrests amid occasional violent clashes, vandalism and looting.
As the military presence ramped up in Los Angeles, communities large and small were preparing for what’s expected to be the largest protests against Trump since he took office. The “No King” rallies planned for June 14 will take place in nearly 2,000 communities across the nation to oppose what organizers describe as “corrupt, authoritarian politics.”
Ahead of the demonstrations, the governors of Kentucky and Texas signed executive orders deploying National Guard troops across their respective states. In New York City, Mayor Eric Adams on Friday said thousands of officers will be out in full force to ensure protests are kept safe and nonviolent. Meanwhile, in Florida, a local sheriff speaking at a news conference gave a stark warning to people who may attack law enforcement: “We will kill you.”
The Los Angeles Police Department arrested 49 people during demonstrations on Thursday, June 12, that saw officers fire non-lethal munitions and enforce a curfew in a section of downtown.
Most of the arrests were for failure to disperse or curfew violations, the department said in a post on X. Three people faced more serious charges, including robbery, resisting a police officer and pointing a laser at an airship.
Hundreds of people have been arrested at protests across California since unrest over immigration raids broke out on Friday, June 6.
Authorities are searching for at least four people who escaped the Delaney Hall migrant facility in New Jersey where complaints over conditions fueled several days of unrest that erupted on Thursday, June 12.
“DHS has become aware of 4 detainees at the privately held Delaney Hall Detention Facility escaping,” the Department of Homeland Security said in an emailed statement to USA TODAY. “Additional law enforcement partners have been brought in to find these escapees and a BOLO (be on the lookout bulletin) has been disseminated.”
Several immigration rights groups said detainees protested over insufficient food and other poor conditions at the facility. Unrest fueled a large law enforcement response on Thursday, and groups said there were reports of agents deploying tear gas and pepper spray.
Missouri Gov. Mike Kehoe signed an executive order activating the National Guard “as a precautionary measure in reaction to recent instances of civil unrest across the country.”
The move makes Kehoe the second governor to take such a step after Texas Gov. Greg Abbott earlier this week deployed National Guard troops across the state ahead of planned protests against immigration enforcement and what organizers see as Trump’s power grab.
Both Republican-led states have already seen protests this week. A demonstration in Austin, Texas, began peacefully before devolving into violent clashes between police and demonstrators, ending with 13 arrests and multiple injuries to law enforcement. In St. Louis, dozens of protesters rallied peacefully on an overpass, calling for a stop to immigration raids.
Americans are divided on Trump’s decision to deploy the National Guard and Marines to Los Angeles in reaction to protests over his administration’s immigration enforcement, a new Reuters/Ipsos poll has found.
Some 48% of respondents agreed with a statement that the president should “deploy the military to bring order to the streets” when protests turn violent, while 41% disagreed. Republicans overwhelmingly backed the idea of calling in troops while Democrats were firmly opposed.
Meanwhile, just 35% of respondents said they approved of Trump’s response to the protests in Los Angeles. Some 50% of people in the poll said they disapproved of Trump’s response.
– Reuters
The League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) and other national Latino organizations condemned the forceful removal of Democratic U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla from Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s news conference in Los Angeles on Thursday. LULAC, which is the oldest and largest Latino civil rights organization in the United States, has demanded an immediate investigation into the incident.
Videos showed Padilla being forced to the ground and handcuffed after trying to ask a question during the news conference, where Noem was discussing the protests over federal immigration raids. In a video statement released Thursday night, Padilla said he had been escorted to the news conference by a National Guardsman and an FBI agent after waiting for another scheduled briefing.
“Now, I’m OK for people who are wondering how I’m doing,” Padilla, who is from California, added. “But the big lesson here is if they can do that to me … what are they doing to a lot of the folks that are out there when the cameras are not on?”
In a statement on X, Noem said she met with Padilla for 15 minutes after his removal from the news conference and added that the pair exchanged phone numbers and intend to speak further. “I wish he would’ve acted that way in the beginning rather than creating a scene,” she said.
Billionaire Walmart heiress Christy Walton took out a full-page advertisement in the New York Times urging people to join nationwide protests against the Trump administration on Saturday, June 14, drawing swift condemnation from Trump supporters.
The advertisement, which ran on Sunday, encourages readers to take to the streets as part of the some 2,000 demonstrations planned across the country. The “No Kings Day” protests are expected to be the largest demonstrations against Trump since he took office, and also coincide with Trump’s military parade in Washington.
Walmart sought to distance itself from the advertisement placed by one of the richest women in America. “The advertisements from Christy Walton are in no way connected to or endorsed by Walmart,” the company said in a statement.
An immigration detention facility in New Jersey, where at least two officials were arrested last month, became the site of unrest on Thursday, June 12, triggering a large law enforcement response.
Several immigration rights groups said detainees protested over insufficient food and other poor conditions at Delaney Hall, the first immigrant detention center to open during President Donald Trump’s second term. Regarding the law enforcement response, groups said there were reports of agents deploying tear gas and pepper spray.
Officials have not provided details about the incident. Newark Mayor Ras Baraka, a critic of the facility who was arrested in front of it on May 9, said in a statement that he is concerned about reports of what has happened at the Delaney Hall “from withholding food and poor treatment, to uprising and escaped detainees.”
“This entire situation lacks sufficient oversight of every basic detail — including local zoning laws and fundamental constitutional rights,” he said on X. “We must put an end to this chaos and not allow this operation to continue unchecked.”
A week after protests began in Los Angeles, more anti-ICE demonstrations have sprung up in cities nationwide in solidarity with LA protesters. Protests have been reported in San Francisco, New York, Washington, Boston, Dallas, Chicago, Atlanta and many more.
In Portland, authorities said overnight that 10 people were arrested for their alleged behavior during a protest outside an ICE facility the evening of June 12. The 10 arrested ranged in ages from 19 to 33 and were booked on charges that included arson, disorderly conduct and assault on an officer.
Two officers had minor injuries, the Portland Police Bureau said.
In its order temporarily allowing Trump to maintain his control over the National Guard, the appeals court did not issue a final ruling but delivered what’s called an “administrative stay.” It gave the appeals judges time to consider Trump’s request to block Breyer’s order. The appeals court was made up of a panel of three judges, two of which were appointed by Trump and one by former President Joe Biden.
A hearing was scheduled for the appeals court on Tuesday, June 17 at noon.
Breyer, the federal judge who ruled Trump’s deployment of the Guard was unlawful, issued just hours before the appeals court ruling a 36-page decision in which he said the president’s actions were illegal and a violation of the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution. Breyer was appointed in 1997 by former Democratic President Bill Clinton and is the brother of retired Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer.
Breyer wrote he was “troubled by the implication inherent in Defendants’ argument that protest against the federal government, a core civil liberty protected by the First Amendment, can justify a finding of rebellion,” responding to the Trump administration’s justification for sending in the National Guard.
“(T)here can be no debate that most protesters demonstrated peacefully,” the judge said.
Following days of protests in Los Angeles, which were mostly confined to parts of the city’s downtown area, a partial curfew remained in effect for the third consecutive night. The curfew, lasting from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. PT for pockets of downtown Los Angeles, was implemented on Tuesday.
“My hope is after continuing it a few more days, that people will get the message that we are serious,” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said at a Thursday news conference.
Shortly before the curfew went into effect on Thursday night, the Los Angeles Police Department’s Central Division reported people in a crowd throwing bricks, concrete, and commercial-grade fireworks.
“Less lethal munitions have been authorized,” LAPD said in a post on X at about 7:55 p.m. local time.
“No Kings” Day organizers say it is more important than ever to have a “national day of peaceful protest” on June 14, following the decision by Trump to send 700 Marines and 4,000 National Guard troops to Los Angeles.
“I think we will see the largest peaceful single day protests that this country has seen certainly since the first Trump term,” said Indivisible cofounder Ezra Levin, one of the organizers.
Now, about 2,000 protests and rallies named “No Kings” Day are planned to oppose what they see as Trump’s power grab, nearly double that of the April 5 “Hands Off” protest that saw millions of Americans turn out in big and small cities nationwide. Organizers expect millions of Americans to turn out across the country on June 14.
Contributing: Reuters
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