Troops sent by Trump reach protest-hit Los Angeles over governor's wishes

LOS ANGELES: Hundreds of National Guard troops took up positions in Los Angeles Sunday (Jun 8) on US President Donald Trump's orders, a rare deployment against the state governor's wishes, after unruly protests against immigration enforcement raids. 

The US military said 300 soldiers from the 79th Infantry Brigade Combat Team had been sent to three separate locations in the greater Los Angeles area, and were "conducting safety and protection of federal property & personnel."

Helmeted troops in camouflage gear and carrying automatic weapons could be seen in front of a federal complex, including a detention center, with the phrase "Our City" spray-painted on it in downtown Los Angeles.

The deployment overrode the protests of local officials, an extraordinary move not seen in decades that California Governor Gavin Newsom slammed as "purposefully inflammatory."

It came ahead of more planned protests in the city, which has a large Latino population, including a call by organizers for a "mass mobilization" at City Hall at 2pm local time (5am Monday, Singapore time).

A separate Pride parade in support of LGBTQ rights, also under assault by the Trump administration, also began Sunday in Hollywood, with organizers posting on Instagram that they were working with local law enforcement to keep the celebrations safe. 

"Trump is sending 2,000 National Guard troops into LA County, not to meet an unmet need, but to manufacture a crisis," Newsom posted on X Sunday.

"He's hoping for chaos so he can justify more crackdowns, more fear, more control. Stay calm. Never use violence. Stay peaceful."

Newsom's warning came after Los Angeles was rocked by two days of confrontations that saw federal agents firing flash-bang grenades and tear gas toward crowds angry at the arrests of dozens of migrants.

On Sunday pepper spray hung in the air from overnight, AFP reporters said.

'Escalation'

Republicans lined up behind Trump to dismiss the pushback by Newsom and other local officials against the National Guard deployment.

"I have no concern about that at all," Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson told ABC's "This Week", accusing Newsom of "an inability or unwillingness to do what is necessary".

As for threats by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Saturday to send in active-duty Marines on top of the Guard troops, Johnson said he did not see that as "heavy-handed."

"We have to be prepared to do what is necessary," he argued. 

Demonstrators that AFP spoke to said troops were not really being sent in to keep order.

"I think it's an intimidation tactic," said Thomas Henning.

"These protests have been peaceful. There's no one trying to do any sort of damage right now and yet you have the National Guard with loaded magazines and large guns standing around trying to intimidate Americans from exercising our first amendment rights."

Estrella Corral said demonstrators were angry that hard-working migrants who have done nothing wrong were being snatched by masked immigration agents.

"This is our community, and we want to feel safe," she told AFP.

"Trump deploying the National Guard is ridiculous. I think he's escalating, he's trying to make a show for his agenda."

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders said the move demonstrated "Trump's authoritarianism in real time." 

"Conduct massive illegal raids. Provoke a counter-response. Declare a state of emergency. Call in the troops," he wrote on social media, adding: "Unacceptable."

'Unacceptable'

The National Guard, a reserve military, is frequently used in natural disasters, and occasionally in instances of civil unrest, but almost always with the consent of local authorities.

It is the first time since 1965 that a president has deployed a National Guard without a request by a state governor, the former head of Human Rights Watch, US activist Kenneth Roth, posted on X.

Trump has delivered on a promise to crack down hard on undocumented migrants, who he has likened to "monsters" and "animals", since taking office in January. 

Raids by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency in other US cities have triggered small-scale protests in recent months, but the Los Angeles unrest is the biggest and most sustained against Trump's immigration policies so far.

A CBS News poll taken before the Los Angeles protests showed a slight majority of Americans still approved of the immigration crackdown.

Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum on Sunday defended migrants living in north of the border.

"Mexicans living in the United States are good men and women, honest people who went to the United States to seek a better life for themselves and to support their families. They are not criminals! They are good men and women!" she said.