See one weekend how Los Angeles’ protests intensified
What began as a small protest against Friday’s immigration attacks has swelled into large demonstrations throughout the weekend. This is what happened.
The showdown between the California governor and the California governor over President Trump’s use of the military to support a federal immigrant raid in Los Angeles headed to court Thursday almost a week after the Sweep sparked a string of sometimes violent protests.
US District Judge Charles Breyer hears Gov. Gavin Newsom’s claims seeking a temporary restraining order limiting the activities of 4,000 National Guard members and 700 Marines to protect federal buildings in a small area of downtown where most of the protests have occurred.
The recent military mission has been expanded to include protections for immigrants and customs enforcement officers who conducted the assault urged by Trump’s instructions to find immigrants living in the United States without legal status. The sweep has fueled six days of protest, resulting in hundreds of arrests in Los Angeles, and demonstrations and rallies have spread across the country.
Newsom has denounced military intervention as an illegal waste of resources and urged the court to block the military from participating in law enforcement activities. He hopes that the National Guard will eventually return to state control and that Trump’s actions have been declared illegal.
“If I didn’t act quickly on it, Los Angeles would be on the ground right now,” Trump said at an event at the John F. Kennedy Center for Performing Arts on Wednesday.
State and local leaders have disputed Trump’s claims, likening the president’s actions to a “authoritarian regime” and saying that the decision only caused anxiety.
The former Army and Navy secretaries, three retired admirals and two retired generals united to file an Amicus brief in Trump Newsom’s case, citing what is called “significant national security risks” inherent in Trump’s deployment of military forces in Los Angeles.
Amicus briefs are filed by people or organizations who are not directly involved in the lawsuit but have achieved status in the case. The group includes Democrats, former Army Secretary Lewis Caldera, and Republicans, former Army Secretary Sean O’Keefe.
According to the brief, deploying the military for domestic law enforcement would distract them from the main mission of national security and disaster response, National Guard personnel and active-duty Marines are not properly trained for such law enforcement activities, and the use of such military “should be a last resort to avoid politicization of the military, affecting recruitment, affecting military morale and withstanding military morale.
A square mile in downtown Los Angeles remained under Thursday’s curfew after leading to hundreds of people arrested Thursday. The anxiety continued on Wednesday night when police said protesters at one location threw “commercial grade fireworks and rocks” at officers, resulting in many arrests.
The protest occurred on June 6th in response to an ongoing ice attack that caused fear among migrant communities. While many protests were relatively peaceful, some turned into scenes of confusion as police fired them with “less fatal” ammunition, such as tear gas and flash bangs, to disperse the crowd.
700 active Marines have completed training for the Los Angeles mission, including de-escalation and crowd control, the US Northern Command announced. Marines were expected to be deployed on Thursday or Friday to protect federal officers and property, the order said in a statement.
Marines do not implement “civil law enforcement functions,” but could temporarily detain people to stop attacks, prevent harm to others, and prevent interference with federal agents performing their duties, the statement said.
“If an individual can safely transfer to appropriate civil law enforcement custody, temporary detention will soon be terminated.”
The three Democrat governors are expected to tell Congress on Thursday, June 12th that they will coordinate with federal immigration authorities to deport convicted offenders, but they cannot afford to carry the burden of tracking and detaining undocumented immigrants. New York Governor Kathy Hochul said in testimony prepared for the House Oversight and Accountability Committee that the state has transferred more than 1,300 prisoners to immigration and customs enforcement since taking office in August 2021.
“But you need to draw a line somewhere,” Hochur said. “New York cannot represent state officers to enforce citizen immigration violations, such as overstaying visas.”
– – Bad Jansen
The protest is planned for 1,800 communities nationwide on June 14th. This is the same day Trump has been holding a military parade in Washington, D.C. for decades, while the GOP has been claiming most of the symbols of patriotism, including the American flag, Republicans now protest that they are true patriots.
The rally, dubbed “No Kings Day,” against what is considered Trump’s grip on power, is expected to be the largest and most protest since Trump’s second term began, with more than 1,000 rallies in early April, which warned the protests that attracted 1 million Americans on the streets.
Organized by grassroots groups in cities and towns of all sizes, King’s Day was also Trump’s 79th birthday and flag day, coinciding with the US Army’s 250th anniversary ceremony. Executives argue that it is a coincidence that the parade will fall on Trump’s birthday. Click here for details.
Contribution: Reuters
