Over the weekend, protests against immigration raids carried out by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Los Angeles intensified as Trump demanded a military response to people exercising their right to protest. The protests follow a push by the Trump team for more immigration raids, disrupting local communities and lives, with ICE bragging on social media that they had arrested 118 people during a June 6 raid.
“This is exactly what Donald Trump wanted. He flamed the fires and illegally acted to federalize the National Guard. The order he signed doesn’t just apply to CA. It will allow him to go into ANY STATE and do the same thing. We’re suing him,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom wrote on Monday.
Police have used flash bang grenades, rubber bullets, and other weapons against protesters and journalists in the ensuing chaos.
The escalation follows a reported push at the highest levels of the Trump administration for more visible immigration enforcement after early efforts have fizzled.
A May 30 report in the conservative Washington Examiner revealed that ICE agents are feeling pressured to inflate deportation and arrest numbers. Multiple immigration officials told the outlet that Stephen Miller, senior Trump aide and the architect of Trump’s anti-immigrant policies in both of his administrations, has spearheaded the effort.
“They’ve been threatened, told they’re watching their emails and texts and Signals,” an official told the Examiner, referencing the intensified focus from higher-ups. Miller reportedly held a meeting with ICE officers, directors, and special agents and told them, “You guys aren’t doing a good job. You’re horrible leaders.”
“Stephen Miller wants everybody arrested. ‘Why aren’t you at Home Depot? Why aren’t you at 7-Eleven?'” an official told the Examiner.
Within days, operations began in Los Angeles, triggering a response in the community.
During the 2024 presidential election, Trump routinely lied about the criminal danger posed by undocumented immigrants. Trump regularly exaggerated the overall number and rates of crime purportedly committed by migrants—returning to his longtime racist obsession with blaming this mostly Latino segment of the population.
In office, Trump and his team are finding out that there aren’t the numbers to justify his dangerous rhetoric and so they have instead done things like abducting dissenters and deporting people who haven’t been convicted of any crime.
California officials like Newsom and Bass have made it clear to Trump that they do not want the National Guard operating in their state and city. The state of California is planning to file a lawsuit on Monday challenging President Trump’s order federalizing its National Guard forces, according to The New York Times.
Trump wants an excuse to attack the left and continue to justify his anti-immigrant bigotry, so he will continue to escalate. And while things seem to finally be calming down in downtown LA, protests are expected in more than a dozen cities nationwide.
CA Gov. Gavin Newsom responds to Trump's military call-up:
Last night, President Trump ordered the deployment of 2,000 National Guard troops in Los Angeles, using the excuse of protests against his immigration raids.
Let me be totally clear about what is happening here.
We have been working closely with law enforcement. There is no unmet need. The President is attempting to inflame passions and provoke a response.
He would like nothing more than for this provocative show of force -- and Pete Hegseth's absurd threat to deploy United States Marines on American soil – to escalate tensions and incite violence.
These are not people who have some deep conviction about protecting law enforcement. This is a President who failed to call up the National Guard when it was actually needed -- on January 6th -- and then pardoned the participants as one of his first acts as president.
They want a spectacle. They want the violence.
They think this is good for them politically.
That is why White House aides were posting pictures of Trump getting popcorn last night.
This is not the way a civilized country behaves. It is completely deranged behavior.
To the people of Los Angeles and across the country who are protesting these immigration raids:
Don't give them the spectacle they want. Never use violence. Speak out peacefully and in large numbers.
I know many of you have been watching the news about this, so I thought it important to reach out.
Thank you for reading,
Gavin Newsom
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