US President Donald Trump ordered on Sunday the deployment of 2,000 National Guard troops to Los Angeles, as federal agents faced off with hundreds of demonstrators for a second consecutive day of protests following a wave of immigration raids.
The White House announced that Trump signed a presidential memorandum authorizing the deployment to “address the chaos that has been allowed to fester.”
In a post on Truth Social, Trump warned that if California Governor Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass “fail to do their jobs,” the federal government would intervene directly to restore order.
WE’RE TAKING OUR COUNTRY BACK!
President Trump has officially taken control of the California National Guard and will be deploying THOUSANDS of troops to the streets of Los Angeles tonight, per Gov. Newsom
LET’S GO! pic.twitter.com/JOO5TcHzHk
— ᶜᵒᵐᵐᵉⁿᵗᵃʳʸ Barron Trump🇺🇸 (@BarronTNews_) June 8, 2025
Pentagon on Standby
War Secretary Pete Hegseth confirmed that the Pentagon is prepared to mobilize active-duty forces “if violence continues.” He added that US Marines stationed at nearby Camp Pendleton are on high alert.
Governor Newsom denounced Trump’s order as a “deliberate provocation,” insisting the move was not driven by any law enforcement shortfall but rather a political show of force. He called Hegseth’s threat to deploy Marines against US citizens “deranged behavior.”
Let’s do a simple Econ 101 lesson for @realDonaldTrump. pic.twitter.com/UiT8LLm6q3
— Gavin Newsom (@GavinNewsom) June 7, 2025
Democratic Senator Adam Schiff also criticized the decision, calling the unilateral deployment without the governor’s consent “unprecedented” and a calculated effort to inflame tensions and escalate the situation.
Mayor Bass confirmed late Sunday that no National Guard units had yet arrived in the city.
Federal Agents Brace for More Unrest
A senior federal law enforcement official in Southern California said National Guard troops are expected to reach Los Angeles within 24 hours to help suppress demonstrators protesting the administration’s hardline immigration policies.
On Saturday, clashes erupted between security personnel and protesters in Paramount, southeast of downtown, where demonstrators waved Mexican flags and wore respiratory masks.
Later that evening, around 60 protesters rallied in downtown Los Angeles, chanting slogans demanding the resignation of immigration enforcement officers and an end to the raids.
Immigration Crackdown Sparks Uproar
The protests come in response to a series of raids launched Friday by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which led to the arrest of at least 44 individuals on immigration-related charges.
The demonstrations have intensified political tensions in Los Angeles — a Democrat-led city where census data shows a significant portion of residents are foreign-born and of Latin American descent — pitting local officials against a Republican White House that has made aggressive immigration enforcement central to Trump’s second-term agenda.
Reuters, citing US officials, reported that the Trump administration has not yet invoked the Insurrection Act of 1807, which allows the president to deploy active-duty military forces domestically to quell civil unrest.
The Los Angeles Police Department said several protesters were arrested on Saturday night after refusing to disperse, though no further details were provided.
The White House has set a daily arrest target of at least 3,000 undocumented immigrants, part of Trump’s broader pledge to carry out mass deportations and seal the US-Mexico border.
