The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has escalated its response to anti-deportation protests in Los Angeles with the mobilization of 700 marines, deploying active-duty military on the ground and deepening tensions with California officials.
The turmoil comes as Los Angeles saw a fourth night of clashes between police and demonstrators rallying against a rising number of raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents, who local officials say have stoked fear in the immigrant-rich community.
Trump and California Gov. Gavin Newsom clashed again over the response to the unrest, with the state suing the administration for mobilizing National Guard troops in the city. Trump, meanwhile, suggested to reporters that Newsom, a Democrat widely seen as a potential presidential contender in 2028, could be arrested if he interferes with the federal immigration raids or response to the unrest.
On Monday, largely peaceful daytime protests morphed into scattered clashes with police shooting less-lethal ammunition and some protesters throwing bottles.
The protests have largely been limited to a few small parts of a city that spreads over several hundred square miles and is connected by a web of freeways. There was no sign of unrest in areas such as Century City, Hollywood Hills and Santa Monica that are miles away from downtown, with businesses and residents largely unaffected.
However, incidents have started to spread beyond the city limits. In Santa Ana, southeast of Los Angeles in Orange County, protesters faced off with law enforcement after immigration raids took place there.
Protests also turned disruptive in San Francisco, where 148 people were arrested Sunday evening. About 60 of those were tied to demonstrations that became violent near a downtown ICE office, according to the San Francisco Police Department. Local businesses had windows broken and vehicles from the city’s municipal transit system were vandalized, Mayor Daniel Lurie said.
In a sign of how the protests and immigration raids had gripped the area, Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Alberto Carvalho ordered the police to monitor the perimeters of about 100 campuses, citing fears that federal immigration agents may interfere with graduation ceremonies Monday and Tuesday. Carvalho said he’d received "threats from high-level” entities.
"Come after me. Don’t go after my kids,” he said.
California lawsuit
The Trump administration has argued the conditions in LA are spiraling and that federal forces are needed to support immigration agents and restore order. A Defense Department official said Monday that the marines, based at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms, California, were on the move after getting notice over the weekend.
U.S. law generally bars the use of the active-duty U.S. military — the Army, Navy, Air Force and marines — from carrying out domestic law enforcement. The deployment of the marines adds to Trump’s order over the weekend that directed the U.S. Northern Command to assume control of the National Guard and dispatch them to LA.
Newsom and LA Mayor Karen Bass have accused Trump of making the situation worse. In an X post Monday, the governor called the decision to bring in marines "un-American,” and said the administration’s deployment of National Guard troops was both "reckless” and "pointless.”
California and Newsom sued the Trump administration Monday, calling the mobilization of the state’s National Guard and the marines unnecessary and unlawful and accusing the president of "another unprecedented power grab.” In a 22-page complaint filed late Monday in San Francisco federal court, the governor urged a judge to void the president’s orders and transfer the National Guard from Defense Department control "back to the rightful command” of the state.
"Deploying over 4,000 federalized military forces to quell a protest or prevent future protests despite the lack of evidence that local law enforcement was incapable of asserting control and ensuring public safety during such protests” is unconstitutional, according to the suit.
‘Just one look’
Trump, in a series of posts on Truth Social, said sending in the National Guard was a "great decision,” derided the idea that the protests were largely peaceful, and said that "If we had not done so, Los Angeles would have been completely obliterated.”
"Just one look at the pictures and videos of the Violence and Destruction tells you all you have to know,” Trump said. "We will always do what is needed to keep our Citizens SAFE, so we can, together, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
The president also backed comments from his border adviser Tom Homan, who threatened to arrest state and local officials who obstruct federal immigration enforcement, including Newsom and Bass.
"I would do it if I were Tom. I think it’s great,” Trump said at the White House. "I like Gavin Newsom, he’s a nice guy but he’s grossly incompetent, everybody knows that.”
Homan later said in a CNN interview Monday that the governor hasn’t done anything at this time to warrant arrest.
Waymo, the self-driving car service, owned by Google parent Alphabet Inc., suspended its taxi service in the downtown Los Angeles on Monday after demonstrators torched its driverless cars. Earlier in the day, cleanup crews removed cars that were burned in unrest that turned violent with some looting and police making at least 31 arrests overnight. Five officers were injured as crowds clashed with law enforcement.
Protests continue
Also on Monday, LAPD reported three demonstrations in the civic center and issued traffic advisories to avoid the area, according to posts on X. Helicopter footage on local television stations showed multiple groups of protesters clustered in an area near federal buildings and Highway 101, the major artery that was swarmed by protesters Sunday. As of mid-afternoon, there were no reports of vandalism or arrests, said LAPD Officer Rosario Cervantes.
One rally in Grand Park was called by the Service Employees International Union, whose leader, David Huerta, was charged Monday with a federal felony of interfering with law enforcement.
Between 60 and 80 people joined a protest against Trump’s travel ban Monday morning at a parking structure at Los Angeles International Airport organized by the Council on American-Islamic Relations, a civil rights group. Enjy El-Kadi, a CAIR spokesperson, said the protest didn’t interfere with any travel or traffic out of the airport.
Officials said they are prepared to prosecute people who engage in destructive behavior, but also defended sanctuary city policies that prevent local law enforcement from coordinating with immigration authorities in most cases. "We stand united with our immigrant community right now,” District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said at a press briefing Monday.
The United Nations on Monday warned against a further "militarization” of the situation in LA.
"We certainly hope that all parties on the ground will de-escalate the situation,” deputy spokesman for the Secretary-General Farhan Haq said at a press briefing. "We do not want to see any further militarization of this situation and we encourage the parties at the local, state and federal levels to work to do that.”
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