President Donald Trump’s administration announced the deployment of 2,000 National Guard troops to Los Angeles on Saturday, following escalating tensions between federal agents and demonstrators protesting immigration raids.
Clashes broke out in the city’s Paramount neighbourhood, where federal agents faced off with hundreds of protesters and some waving Mexican flags during the second consecutive day of demonstrations.
Later Saturday evening, a smaller protest of around 60 people gathered in downtown Los Angeles, chanting slogans such as “ICE out of L.A.!”
Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth warned that the military was ready to mobilise active-duty troops if unrest continues, saying the Marines stationed at nearby Camp Pendleton were on high alert.
Trump, therefore, signed a presidential memorandum authorising the deployment of the National Guard to “address the lawlessness that has been allowed to fester,” according to a White House statement. The move was confirmed by Tom Homan, Trump’s border czar, who said the troops would be deployed immediately.
California Governor Gavin Newsom sharply criticised the decision, calling it purposefully inflammatory. In a statement on X (formerly Twitter), Newsom accused the administration of staging a spectacle rather than responding to any real threat.
“Don’t give them one,” “Never use violence. Speak out peacefully,” he urged and further condemned Hegseth’s remarks about using active-duty Marines, calling them deranged.
Trump, in a post on Truth Social, criticised both Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, saying, “If they can’t do their jobs, then the Federal Government will step in and solve the problems “RIOTS & LOOTERS the way it should be solved!!!”
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The protests underscore growing tension between the Democratic-led city and Trump’s Republican administration, which has doubled down on hardline immigration enforcement in his second term. Los Angeles, a city with a large Hispanic and immigrant population, has been at the forefront of opposition to Trump’s immigration policies.
Commenting on the protests, Vice President J.D. Vance posted on X: “Insurrectionists carrying foreign flags are attacking immigration enforcement officers, while one half of America’s political leadership has decided that border enforcement is evil.”
White House adviser Stephen Miller, a staunch immigration hardliner, described the protests as a “violent insurrection.”
Officials said the National Guard troops could be operational within 24 hours. Military planners were working Saturday to coordinate the logistics of the deployment.
The White House cited the 1807 Insurrection Act, which permits a president to deploy U.S. troops domestically to suppress civil disorder. The law was last invoked during the 1992 Los Angeles riots, then at the request of California’s governor.
Video from the Paramount protest showed rows of uniformed federal agents in gas masks facing off against protesters on streets cluttered with overturned shopping carts. Tear gas canisters were seen detonating, and several demonstrators were detained as authorities moved in to restore order.
