LOS ANGELES – Hundreds of US Marines arrived in Los Angeles overnight and more were expected on June 10 under orders from President Donald Trump, who has also activated 4,000 National Guard troops to quell protests despite objections from California Governor Gavin Newsom and other local leaders.
Los Angeles has seen days of public outrage since the Trump administration launched a series of immigration raids on June 6, though local officials said the demonstrations on June 9 were largely peaceful.
About half of the roughly 700 Marines that Mr Trump ordered to Los Angeles arrived on the evening of June 9, and the remaining troops were set to enter the city on June 10.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass told KABC that more than 100 people were arrested on June 9, but that the majority of protesters were nonviolent.
Over the weekend, protesters threw rocks and other objects at officers and vehicles and set several cars ablaze. Police responded by firing projectiles like pepper balls, as well as flash bang grenades and tear gas.
Mr Trump has justified his decision to deploy active military troops to Los Angeles by describing the protests as a violent occupation of the city, a characterisation that Mr Newsom and Ms Bass have said is grossly exaggerated.
Mr Newsom said Mr Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops has only inflamed the situation and made it more difficult for local law enforcement to respond to the demonstrations.
In a statement on June 9, Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) Chief Jim McDonnell said the department had not been notified that any Marines were travelling to Los Angeles, and that their possible arrival “presents a significant logistical and operational challenge” for police.
Mr Trump’s decision to mobilise 700 Marines based in Southern California escalated his confrontation with Mr Newsom, who filed a lawsuit on June 9 asserting that Mr Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops without the governor’s consent was illegal.
The deployment was the first time in decades that a president activated the National Guard without a request from a sitting governor.
While the Marines are only tasked with guarding federal property temporarily until the full contingent of 4,000 Guard troops arrives, the use of active military to respond to civil disturbances is extremely rare.
“This isn’t about public safety,” Mr Newsom wrote on X on June 9. “It’s about stroking a dangerous president’s ego.”
The top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, Senator Jack Reed, said he was “gravely troubled” by Mr Trump’s deployment of active-duty Marines.
“Since our nation’s founding, the American people have been perfectly clear: We do not want the military conducting law enforcement on US soil,” he said.
In a post early on June 10 on Truth Social, Mr Trump claimed Los Angeles would be “burning to the ground right now” if he had not deployed troops to the city.
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Demonstrations and arrests
The raids are part of Mr Trump’s sweeping immigration crackdown, which Democrats and immigrant advocates have said are indiscriminately breaking up families.
US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem pledged on June 9 to carry out more operations to round up suspected immigration violators.
Trump officials have branded the protests as lawless and blamed state and local Democrats for protecting undocumented immigrants with sanctuary cities.
Hundreds of demonstrators gathered on June 9 outside a federal detention centre in downtown Los Angeles where immigrants have been held, chanting “free them all” and waving Mexican and Central American flags.
National Guard forces formed a human barricade to keep people out of the building. Later that day, police began dispersing the crowd using gas canisters and arrested some protesters.
At dusk, officers had running confrontations with protesters who scattered into the Little Tokyo section of the city.
As people watched from apartment patios above street level and as tourists huddled inside hotels, a large contingent of LAPD and officers and sheriff’s deputies fired several flash bangs that boomed through side streets along with tear gas.
Protests spread to neighbouring Orange County late on June 9 after immigration raids there, with demonstrators gathering at the Santa Ana Federal building, according to local officials and news reports.
Protests also sprang up in at least nine other US cities on June 9, including New York, Philadelphia and San Francisco, according to local news reports.
In Austin, Texas, police fired non-lethal munitions and detained several people as they clashed with a crowd of several hundred protesters. REUTERS
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