After protests erupted in the Californian city over raids on undocumented migrants, the U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday authorised deployment of 2,000 National Guardsmen to Los Angeles to deal with the clashes.
Trump Orders Deployment Of 2000 National Guard To LA Amid ICE Raids
The unrest, which has been going on for two days, started after a series of raids by the immigration authority - Immigration and Customs Enforcement - in the Los Angeles district.
The unrest, which has been going on for two days, was over a series of raids by the immigration authority - Immigration and Customs Enforcement - in the Los Angeles district.
At least 118 immigrants have been arrested in the city within a week - including a prominent union leader while protesting. California Governor Gavin Newsom has denounced the raids as "cruel".
Confrontation broke out on Saturday near a Home Depot in Paramount - a region predominantly populated by the Latino community - situated south of Los Angeles. Clashes happened between the protestors and the federal agents who used flash-bang explosives, tear gas and pepper balls, while protesters threw rocks and cement.
“The Trump Administration has a zero tolerance policy for criminal behavior and violence, especially when that violence is aimed at law enforcement officers trying to do their jobs,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Saturday evening.
The White House also stated that Trump would deploy the National Guard to “address the lawlessness that has been allowed to fester.”
The protests in the Paramount district had calmed down by Saturday evening.
Newsom, a Democrat, on X posted that the decision was “purposefully inflammatory and will only escalate tensions,” later mentioning that the federal government "wants a spectacle."
"Continued chaotic federal sweeps, across California, to meet an arbitrary arrest quota are as reckless as they are cruel,” he said in a statement.
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