Live Updates: L.A. Quiet as National Guard Troops Begin to Arrive
“President Trump ordered 2,000 National Guard troops to Los Angeles to assist immigration agents during protests against immigration raids. The deployment, which bypassed California Governor Gavin Newsom’s authority, is the first time since 1965 that a president has activated a state’s National Guard without the governor’s request. The troops, from the 79th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, are expected to arrive within 24 hours.
Protests over immigration raids in the Los Angeles area were expected to continue for a third day. Gov. Gavin Newsom said President Trump’s decision to call in National Guards was “purposefully inflammatory.”
Pinned
Los Angeles was quiet on Sunday morning as the first members of the National Guard arrived in the city, where President Trump took the extraordinary action of ordering them to assist immigration agents who clashed with demonstrators during two days of protests.
Mr. Trump’s decision to order in the guard made rare use of federal powers to bypass the authority of California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, who called the deployment “purposefully inflammatory” on Saturday night and added that there was “no unmet need.”
The troops deploying to the Los Angeles area are from the 79th Infantry Brigade Combat Team of the California National Guard, United States Northern Command said in a post on the social media platform X. Northcom said that some of the troops were already on the ground. A Northcom spokeswoman said more information would be provided soon.
Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, appearing on the CBS program “Face the Nation” Sunday, declined to give details about the National Guard deployment in Los Angeles. Asked if troops would remove protesters’ masks, she said, “I won’t get more specific on that, just because we never do when it comes to law enforcement operations.” President Trump said on Saturday that face coverings would not be tolerated at protests.
Confrontations between law enforcement and protesters
Several military vehicles and a handful of National Guard troops were gathered outside the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles early Sunday morning. The streets were otherwise largely quiet. Roads near the center and other federal buildings were closed, and a small group had begun gathering in the park behind Los Angeles City Hall for a planned march for maternal and child health.
Gov. Gavin Newsom of California sharply criticized Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who said that active duty Marines could be mobilized as part of the federal government’s response to protests against immigration raids in the Los Angeles area.
Mr. Hegseth’s suggestion came on Saturday after President Trump ordered at least 2,000 National Guard members to assist immigration agents following two days of clashes with demonstrators. Some of the demonstrations have been unruly, but local officials had not asked for federal assistance and Mr. Trump issued the order under a rarely used law to bypass Mr. Newsom’s authority.
As President Trump ordered at least 2,000 National Guard members to Los Angeles County on Saturday, some of the most active protests against immigration raids in the area were taking place near a Home Depot in Paramount, a small city some 25 miles southeast of the Hollywood sign. Law enforcement officers used flash-bang grenades and fired rubber bullets at demonstrators.
The mood had been tense in the city ever since Mr. Trump took office for the second time with promises to deport thousands of undocumented immigrants.
National Guard troops will arrive in Los Angeles County within the next 24 hours, the Trump administration’s top law enforcement official in Southern California said, to quell protests over immigration enforcement that are “out of control.”
Bill Essayli, the interim U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, said in an interview on Saturday night that the 2,000 troops were needed to keep the peace in the sprawling region.
Vera Moran, the owner of a bakery in Compton, got a call from an employee on duty Saturday afternoon saying she was going home because she was afraid of the dozens of sheriff’s patrol cars lined up outside.
Mrs. Moran had heard that there had been an immigration raid in nearby Paramount, and headed to the business that her family has operated since 2006, La Villa Bakery on East Alondra Boulevard, to keep an eye on the protests.
President Trump took extraordinary action on Saturday by calling up 2,000 National Guard troops to quell immigration protests in California, making rare use of federal powers and bypassing the authority of the state’s governor, Gavin Newsom.
It is the first time since 1965 that a president has activated a state’s National Guard force without a request from that state’s governor, according to Elizabeth Goitein, senior director of the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice, an independent law and policy organization. The last time was when President Lyndon B. Johnson sent troops to Alabama to protect civil rights demonstrators in 1965, she said.“
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