President Donald Trump warned that the federal government will intervene in Los Angeles to restore order, as his administration began mobilizing the National Guard in response to growing unrest over a wave of immigration raids.
“If Governor Gavin Newscum, of California, and Mayor Karen Bass, of Los Angeles, can’t do their jobs — which everyone knows they can’t — then the Federal Government will step in and solve the problem, RIOTS & LOOTERS, the way it should be solved!!!” Trump wrote on Truth Social on Saturday.
The deployment plans come as demonstrations intensified for a second day following US Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions across the city. ICE said it arrested 2,000 undocumented people a day this week nationwide, including 118 individuals in the Los Angeles area.
Authorities are mobilizing troops to “address violence and destruction occurring near raid locations where demonstrators are gathering,” border czar Tom Homan said in an interview with Fox News’The Big Weekend Show.
More than 1,000 protesters surrounded a federal building in downtown LA on Friday, and additional demonstrations broke out Saturday in Paramount, just south of the city. Local media reported tear gas and flash-bang grenades deployed to disperse the crowds.
The Department of Homeland Security earlier Saturday accused Democratic leaders in California, including Newsom and Bass, of contributing to violence.
“The violent targeting of law enforcement in Los Angeles by lawless rioters is despicable and Mayor Bass and Governor Newsom must call for it to end,” DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement.
Newsom said the federal government’s plan to take control of the state National Guard and deploy 2,000 troops was “purposefully inflammatory” and likely to escalate tensions. Bass said the “tactics sow terror in our communities.”
The LA Police Department said that it wasn’t participating in the federal immigration enforcement crackdown.
“The LD is not involved in civil immigration enforcement,” Police Chief Jim McDonnell wrote on social media. “While the LD will continue to have a visible presence in all our communities to ensure public safety, we will not assist or participate in any sort of mass deportations nor will the LD try to determine an individual’s immigration status.”
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem warned the protesters that any violence against officers will be prosecuted. “You will not stop us or slow us down,” she said in an X post. Multiple arrests have been made, FBI Deputy Director Dan Bongino said in an X post.
ICE has pledged to continue ramping up arrests as authorities carry out Trump’s promise to oversee the largest deportation effort in US history. The president has also threatened to cut off federal funding to the most populous US state after disputes over immigration, transgender issues and allegations of antisemitism on college campuses.
Small Business Administration chief Kelly Loeffler announced on Saturday that her agency would begin relocating its regional office out of LA, citing what she described as the city’s failure to cooperate with ICE.
“If a city won’t protect its people, we won’t stay,” Loeffler wrote on X.
With assistance from Janine Phakdeetham.
This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
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