LOS ANGELES--Hundreds of U.S. Marines arrived in the Los Angeles area on Tuesday under orders from President Donald Trump, as the city's mayor declared a curfew for parts of the downtown area and police arrested 197 people in a fifth day of street protests.
Trump has also activated 4,000 National Guard troops to quell protests in the city despite objections from California Governor Gavin Newsom that the deployments were unnecessary, illegal and politically motivated.
The city has seen five days of public protests since the Trump administration launched a series of immigration raids on Friday, with police arresting 197 people on Tuesday and Mayor Karen Bass announcing a curfew for one square mile (2.5 square km) of downtown Los Angeles that will last several days. Even so, state and local officials have called Trump's response an extreme overreaction to mostly peaceful demonstrations.
About 700 Marines were in a staging area in the Seal Beach area about 30 miles (50 km) south of Los Angeles, awaiting deployment to specific locations, a U.S. official said.California's two senators, Adam Schiff and Alex Padilla, said in a joint statement that active-duty military personnel should only be mobilized domestically "during the most extreme circumstances, and these are not them."
Trump, who has made the immigration crackdown his signature issue, used a speech honoring soldiers on Tuesday to defend his decision, telling soldiers at the Army base in Fort Bragg, North Carolina: "Generations of Army heroes did not shed their blood on distant shores only to watch our country be destroyed by invasion and third-world lawlessness."
"What you're witnessing in California is a full-blown assault on peace, on public order and on national sovereignty, carried out by rioters bearing foreign flags," Trump said, adding his administration would "liberate Los Angeles."
Demonstrators have waved the flags of Mexico and other countries in solidarity for the migrants rounded in a series of intensifying raids.
Homeland Security said Monday its Immigration and Customs Enforcement division had arrested 2,000 immigration offenders per day recently, far above the 311 daily average in fiscal year 2024 under former President Joe Biden.
Los Angeles mayor Bass emphasized at a press conference that unrest has been limited to a few downtown blocks and she drew a distinction between the majority of demonstrators protesting peacefully and a smaller number of agitators she blamed for violence and looting.She later told another briefing a curfew had been considered for several days but decided to impose one starting Tuesday night after 23 business were looted on Monday night.
In what has become a ritual each afternoon, police on Tuesday started forcing demonstrators away from the streets outside the Metropolitan Detention Center, where many detained migrants are held. Multiple groups of protesters meandered through downtown Los Angeles, monitored or followed by police armed with less lethal munitions. Police said they arrested 197 people, more than doubling the total number of arrests in the region since Saturday.
Nearby business owners who were scrubbing off graffiti and sweeping up litter said they did not support the immigration raids and felt Trump's response was only fanning the flames."I agree with what the protesters are defending - they're standing up for the Latino community," said Frank Chavez, 53, manager of an office building. "But there are a few carrying out vandalism and violence, and that must be stopped."
Protests took place in other cities including Chicago, where police led at least two demonstrators away in handcuffs from a combative march through downtown. Other protesters shouted "Shame! Shame!" as officers took away detained demonstrators.Hundreds of people turned out for the evening protest, carrying signs with messages such as: "The people say ICE out" and "Immigrants made America".
"Even if they send the police, or dogs or whatever, we're always going to be out here," said protester Marquise Howard, 24.
