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PROTESTS AGAINST AGGRESSIVE immigration raids have continued in the United States after President Donald Trump ordered the deployment of National Guard troops and US marines in Los Angeles this week, against the wishes of the state’s Democratic governor.
More than 1,000 people massed yesterday in America’s second-biggest city for a sixth day of demostrations, as peaceful protesters marched through the streets.
A second night of curfew was in place as immigration raids continued.
“I would say for the most part everything is hunky dory right here at Ground Zero,” protester Lynn Sturgis, 66, a retired school teacher, told the AFP news agency.
“Our city is not at all on fire, it’s not burning down, as our terrible leader is trying to tell you.”
The mostly peaceful protests are the result of a sudden escalation by the Trump administration to arrest and deport undocumented immigrants.
Pockets of violence have included the burning of self-driving taxis and the hurling of stones at police.
Arrests by masked and armed men, who have refused to identify themselves during raids, continued yesterday.
A pastor in the LA suburb of Downey said five armed men driving out-of-state cars grabbed a Spanish-speaking man in the church’s carpark.
When she challenged the men and asked for their badge numbers and names, they refused.
“They did point their rifle at me and said, ‘You need to get back,’” Lopez told broadcaster KTLA.
Police and National Guard members have fired rubber bullets at protesters, and reporters, while Los Angeles residents have been demanding the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency (ICE) get out of the city.
The deployment of US military personnel on the streets of a major American city has been met with shock and concern by many.
This week, Mayor Karen Bass said LA residents are living in fear and that the city had become the site of an “experiment” conducted by the Trump administration.
“Our city is actually a test case for what happens when the federal government moves in and takes the authority away from the state or away from local government,” she said on Tuesday.
“By having the military, it de-escalates,” Trump said about the decision to send 700 marines to LA.
“They’re stopping an invasion,” he told graduates in an address at West Point military academy.
“This is the first, perhaps, of many,” Trump said yesterday of the National Guard and Marine deployments.
‘Democracy is under assault’
Trump won the election last year partly on promises to combat what he claims is an “invasion” by undocumented migrants.
“We’re going to have a safe country,” he told reporters on his way into a performance of “Les Miserables” in Washington.
“We’re not going to have what would have happened in Los Angeles. Remember, if I wasn’t there… Los Angeles would have been burning to the ground.”
Around 1,000 of the 4,700 troops Trump deployed are actively guarding facilities and working alongside ICE agents, said Scott Sherman, Deputy Commanding General Army North, who is leading operations.
The Pentagon has said the deployment will last for 60 days and cost taxpayers $134 million.
Governor Newsom, a Democrat widely viewed as eying a 2028 presidential run, has charged that Trump is seeking to escalate the confrontation for political gain.
He warned on Tuesday that the unprecedented militarization would creep beyond his state’s borders, claiming “democracy is under assault right before our eyes.”
Lawyers for California are expected in court today to seek an order blocking troops from accompanying immigration officers as they arrest migrants.
Trump administration lawyers called the application a “crass political stunt.”
Despite Trump’s threats to deploy the National Guard to other Democratic-run states, protesters appear to be undeterred.
In Spokane, Washington, a night curfew was declared after police arrested more than 30 protesters and fired pepper balls to disperse crowds, police chief Kevin Hall told a news conference.
Demonstrations were reported in St Louis, Raleigh, Manhattan, Indianapolis and Denver.
In San Antonio, hundreds marched and chanted near city hall, reports said, where Republican Texas Governor Greg Abbott has deployed the state’s National Guard.
A nationwide “No Kings” movement is expected on Saturday, when Trump will attend a highly unusual military parade in the US capital.
The parade, featuring warplanes and tanks, has been organized to celebrate the 250th anniversary of the founding of the US Army but also happens to be the day of Trump’s 79th birthday.
This evening the governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, said he had ordered the deployment of 5,000 Texas National Guard troops and 2,000 state police officers ahead of “No Kings” protests expected this Saturday.
“Peaceful protests are part of the fabric of our nation, but Texas will not tolerate the lawlessness we have seen in Los Angeles in response to President Donald Trump’s enforcement of immigration law,” Abbott said.
“Anyone engaging in acts of violence or damaging property will be arrested and held accountable to the full extent of the law.”
With reporting from AFP
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