National guard troops arrive in LA
National guard troops have arrived in Los Angeles, according to footage broadcast by news network ABC7.
The video showed troops in the downtown area of the city, ahead of an expected demonstration near City Hall.
They were also seen making their way through the Paramount area of LA, near Alondra and Orange.
Key events
Jasmine Crockett, a Democratic representative for Texas, has also weighed in on Donald Trump’s deployment of national guard troops in Los Angeles, saying on Sunday:
“First they illegally deport citizens. Then they unleash Ice to terrorize communities. Now they’ve got the national guard in LA to silence protesters. This ain’t about law and order. This is what authoritarianism looks like.”
Trump’s ‘border czar’: ‘Every day in LA we’re going to enforce immigration law’
Tom Homan, Donald Trump’s “border czar”, doubled down on the federal government’s pursuit of immigration crackdowns, despite widespread protests in Los Angeles that are held against the raids.
Speaking to NBC, Homan said:
“I’m telling you what, we’re going to keep enforcing law every day in LA … Every day in LA, we’re going to enforce immigration law. I don’t care if they like it or not.”
Homan went on to say that he would arrest anyone who obstructs immigration enforcement and did not rule out whether that would include California governor Gavin Newsom or Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass.
Instead, he said:
“I’ll say it about anybody … You cross that line, it’s a felony to knowingly harbor and conceal an illegal alien. It’s a felony to impede law enforcement doing their job.”
Newsom, Bass and a slew of California leaders have sharply criticized the Trump administration’s crackdowns against migrant communities, and more recently, Trump’s decision to deploy 2,000 California national guards to Los Angeles county – at the objection of both Newsom and Bass themselves.
Speaking to CBS’s Face the Nation on Sunday, homeland security secretary Kristi Noem accused Los Angeles leaders of failing at their jobs and said mayor Karen Bass “refused to recognise the dangerous situation she is perpetuating”.
Noem said:
“Often times in these cities, you have good leaders that help give back up to other law enforcement officers, but you have politicians who won’t give that kind of resource when it’s needed, unfortunately, waiting several hours for LAPD to show up.”
In response a question about the US attorney in Los Angeles telling CBS that Los Angeles police did help, Noem pushed back and said:
“They waited until we had officers in dangerous situations, then they responded.”
Noem then went on to urge demonstrators to “go to Congress and change” laws instead of protesting on the streets.
Here are some images coming through the newswires from Los Angeles county:
California governor Gavin Newsom on Trump: ‘He’s hoping for chaos’
On Sunday, California governor Gavin Newsom urged protestors to stay peaceful, saying that Donald Trump is “sending 2,000 national guard troops into LA county – not to meet an unmet need, but to manufacture a crisis”.
Newsom, who previously warned that Trump’s decision was for the sake of a spectacle, said:
“He’s hoping for chaos so he can justify more crackdowns, more fear, more control. Stay calm. Never use violence. Stay peaceful.”
Nick Stern, a British news photographer based in Los Angeles, is set to undergo emergency surgery for a wound sustained during the standoff between police and anti-Ice protesters in Los Angeles on Saturday.
Stern told the Guardian he had been covering the protest near a branch of Home Depot in Paramount, where immigrants workers are typically hired for day work, when he felt a sharp pain in his leg.
“I’m walking around taking photos and was untouched until around 9pm. I was walking across the road when I felt a mighty pain in my leg. I put my hand down and felt a lump kind of sticking out the back of my leg,” he said.
Stern believes he was probably hit by a non-lethal round that deputies were using along with flash-bang stun grenades for crowd control.
“People came over to help and got me on the curb. A medic was called, who cut off my clothes. In my leg was what felt like a five centimeter hole with muscle hanging out of it and blood all down my leg. The medic put a tourniquet on it, and a journalist I was with took me to ER.”
For the full story, click here:
Speaking to reporters on Saturday, Los Angeles county sheriff Robert Luna was asked about how law enforcement would respond if protests turn violent.
Luna said:
“I really hope that that is not the case, but in the business that I am in, I have to prepare for the worst. That’s why we’re calling in more resources. And as I was coming in, some of the larger groups were starting to disperse. So I urge them to please leave the area so that nothing nobody gets hurt, nobody gets arrested, if possible …
We’re going to maintain a significant presence here in the city of Paramount and we’re going to keep an eye on the rest of the county, just to make sure that other uprisings don’t start, and if they do that, there’s no violence or property damage there as well …
I never give specific numbers on deployment, but I can assure you, it’s several dozen groups of deputies that are here with more coming in.”
House minority leader: ‘This is the United States of America and we will not be intimidated by a wannabe dictator’
Hakeem Jeffries, the House minority leader, condemned the arrest and detention of David Huerta, the president of the California branch of the Service Employees International Union.
In a statement on X, Jeffries said:
“The violent assault and arrest of California SEIU president David Huerta is unacceptable. Mr. Huerta should be released immediately and all charges dropped …
Observing law enforcement activity is not a crime and the administration’s deployment of the national guard in response is inflammatory and provocative.
This is the United States of America and we will not be intimidated by a wannabe dictator in the executive branch. House Democrats will stand with David Huerta for as along as it takes until the charges are dropped, and the rogue federal actions that have been unleashed will be completely investigated and exposed.”
California governor Gavin Newsom pushed back against Donald Trump over the president’s decision to deploy the national guard in Los Angeles, saying on Sunday morning:
For those keeping track, Donald Trump’s National Guard had not been deployed on the ground when he posted this.
Here is a map of the protests occuring across Los Angeles in response to federal immigration raids:
