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President Trump and his allies have painted Los Angeles over the weekend as a city consumed by “riots” over violent protests and immigrant raids.
On Saturday evening, Trump insisted that his anxiety was out of control. He bypassed Governor Gavin Newsom and called for the National Guard. Defense Secretary Pete Hegses suggested that US Marines from Camp Pendleton may need to be deployed next on the streets.
For the governor, who portrays the nation as portrayed as depicted in an uncontrolled grip of a rebellion, Newsom responded in an unusual way. He began publishing Californians with an increasingly sophisticated series of urgent political advice on how to not play in the hands of the president.
“The president is trying to inflam his passion and cause a reaction,” Newsom wrote in an email Sunday morning. “They want violence. I think they’re good for them politically.”
He said, “We have pleaded with the people of Los Angeles and people across the country protesting these immigrant raids. Don’t give them the sight they want.”
Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies are holding law enforcement to keep protesters moving forward as the day of demonstrations continues into Saturday evening in Compton.
(Gina Ferazzi/Los Angeles Times)
Hours later, Newsom posted to X that the president was “sponsoring troops to LA County to manufacture a crisis rather than meeting unmet needs.”
Los Angeles County was the site of a conflict that was scattered between authorities and protesters on Saturday, but was not in chaos. The governor’s message illustrates the complex political situation that the weekend event created for California leaders and immigration rights advocates.
They are furious at what they see as a forceful federal tactic in carrying out immigrant raids. But they are also afraid that the federal government will win the image battle and convince America that it exploded into a rebellion that Los Angeles needs to be suppressed.
“This is a tightrope walk in how to fight this, resist this, get up and protect people, don’t directly adhere to their hands,” said former Los Angeles Councilman Mike Bonin, who is now executive director of the California State University Civil Service Institute.
Bonin added that he had been monitoring reports of immigrant standoffs at Fox News and other right-leaning exits, “about the Trump administration trying to quell violent riots in Chaos Los Angeles.”
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, who spoke in a Sunday morning interview, forced the violence, was also known as the federal response.
She calls the administration’s actions “astress,” and “total destroy the city that has already experienced a lot.” She also condemned violence and said those who engaged in it and those who engaged in vandalism should be “arrested and accountable to the full extent of the law.”
“The protests that took place in Los Angeles last night were relatively minor,” she added, “I don’t know what they’re talking about because they say the city is out of control.” Saturday’s demonstration in Los Angeles was heavily confined to federal metropolitan detention centers where immigrants were detained. A bigger protest unfolded in Paramount, southeast of Los Angeles
Political consultant Mike Madrid said in an interview that the Trump administration was able to put California officials in the midst of a dangerous situation.
On the one hand, he said there is a legitimate threat to the public order. “There are thousands of people on the streets of Los Angeles,” he pointed out. “There’s someone throwing rocks at a police car.”
California officials must seek law and order, he said. However, Madrid added: “Escalation benefits the president. He wants violence. He wants damage. He wants destruction.”
The National Guard was stationed at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles on Sunday.
(Jason Armand/Los Angeles Times)
The streets were almost calm as National Guard forces began moving to Los Angeles on Sunday morning and protesters began gathering.
Speaking to “NBC News” Jacob Soborov on Sunday, Trump’s so-called border emperor Tom Homan blasted the governor over criticism of the administration’s efforts to detain and detain immigrants without proper documentation.
“Governor Newsom should be on the phone to thank President Trump for making the nation safer,” he said.
He also poses a threat by saying that if Newsom, Bass and others interfere with US immigration and customs enforcement operations, they could face arrests. “It’s a felony to knowingly embrace and hide an illegal foreigner. It’s a felony to prevent law enforcement from doing their job.”
The Department of Homeland Security issued a news report Sunday in the names of several people arrested in Los Angeles, calling it “the worst illegal alien criminal in Los Angeles, including murderers, sex offenders and other violent offenders.”
The release added, “California politicians and rioters defend violent illegal alien criminals at the expense of American safety,” and DHS Deputy Director Tricia McLaughlin asked, “Why do Governor Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass care more about violent murderers and sex offenders than protecting their own citizens?”
Meanwhile, immigration rights groups called for a rally on Sunday afternoon in Lapcita Orvera, near downtown, one of the hearts of the immigration rights movement.
“There is a constitutional crisis in Los Angeles, with violations of amendments to Articles 1, 4 and 14 currently underway,” said Jaime Gutierrez, a civil rights lawyer who is one of the organizers, in a statement. “This is not just a policy disagreement. …It’s a blueprint for tyranny.”
And as protesters began to gather, more and more officials joined the chorus, urging people on the streets with political optics in mind.
The message seemed to resonate.
Julie Solis, 50, walked with a Mexican flag along Alameda Avenue on Sunday, urging the crowd to “keep peaceful,” warning protesters that the National Guard had been deployed to justify further attacks from federal law enforcement, making Los Angeles seem out of hand.
“They want to be arrested,” she said. “They want to see us fail. We need to be peace. We need to be eloquent.”
Times staff writers Seema Mehta and James Queally contributed to this report.
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