Trump sends several thousand soldiers to Los Angeles. The mayor accuses that the city is used as a “experiment”

The Trump administration held about 4,000 members of the National Guard in Los Angeles on Monday, June 9, in response to the protests against immigration rays.

Members of the National Guard of Los Angeles Photo: Jason Harond/Getty Images

The extraordinary mobilization of troops against American residents is considered “authoritarian” by leaders in California. The tensions between the federal government and the second largest city of the United States escalated dramatically at the weekend, when the inhabitants went out to demonstrate against a series of brutal repression on immigrant communities.

The rays in the region affected the workers in the districts of garments, day laborers and restaurants, and the president of an important California union was arrested by federal agents while serving as an observer of the community during the arrest of the US Immigration and Customs Control Service (ICE).

Although they faced tear gas and other ammunition during the weekend, the protesters continued to mobilize on Monday, and the families of the detained immigrants pleaded for the release of their loved ones.

The Trump administration initially said that 2,000 members of the National Guard were sent to Los Angeles, but California Governor, Gavin Newsom, said late on Monday that Federal officials sent 2,000 soldiers, although he said that only 300 have been held so far, the rest “standing, unused, in federal buildings without order”, The Guardian reports.

The federal authorities have also stated that the army will send about 700 marine prisoners, marking an exceptionally rare deployment targeting people in the country.

Protests spread throughout the country

The peaceful protests against ICE spread Monday throughout the country, including New York, Chicago, Dallas and San Francisco, where hundreds of people gathered for a march through the Latin Mission neighborhood of the city.

In Austin, the protesters marched in front of a ice processing center, chanting slogans such as “Ready with ice“And displaying banners like”No human being is illegal“In the center of Los Angeles, the American Civil Freedom Union (ACLU) organized a demonstration demanding the cessation of ICE rays. Intermittent protests continued until evening, when the police used rubber bullets to disperse several hundred people gathered near the federal building.

The Trump administration, sued

The tensions continued, because California filed a trial against the Trump administration, contesting the federal level of the National State Guard.

Tom Homan, former director of ICE, nicknamed “Tsar of Trump Administration Borders“, He threatened to arrest anyone obstructs efforts to apply immigration to California, including governor Newsom and the mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass. About this measure, California's governor said”a clear step towards authoritarianism”.

Newsom caused the administration to implement the threats, causing Trump to answer: “I would do it if I were Tom. I think it's great“.

Trump, who congratulated the troops of the National Guard for a “excellent job” before they arrived in the city, said that it was “completely destroyed“Without them.

Homan claimed at Fox News that Ice “pulled out of the streets a lot of bad people“He said, without giving details, that he arrested members of bands and people with serious criminal convictions, but also acknowledged that ICE retained immigrants without criminal record.

Homan also told NBC News that other rays are coming, and ICE arrests continued in southern California.

Rob Bonta, the Attorney General of California who filed the trial, said that the president “tries to produce chaos and crisis on the field for his own political purposes”.

In the trial of California, filed for a late Monday against Trump and Pete Hegseth, the US Secretary of Defense, said that the president of “Used a protest that local authorities had under control to make another unprecedented power capture … to the detriment of the Sovereignty of the California state and in contempt of the governor's authority and role as the supreme commander of the National Guard of the State.”.

The process, which is trying to block the defense department at the National Guard of the State, said that there was no “rebellion” or “insurrection” in LA. It has also been said that, during checks, ICE agents “have taken actions that inflamed tensions and caused protests“And”they aroused panic“. It was also mentioned that ICE isolated entire streets around the targeted buildings, used unmarked armored vehicles with paramilitary equipment and did not coordinate with the law enforcement authorities in LA.

The reactions of the relatives of the arrested

Families targeted by recent raids offered more reactions on Monday. Trabajadores Unidos Workers United, a group of immigrant rights, organized a press conference in front of Ambiance Apparel, a warehouse in the clothing neighborhood that was searched on Friday.

A woman said she attended the raid in which her father was “kidnapped by ice“Adding:”What happened was not correct. It was not legal. In this country we all have the right to a fair trial … I saw with my eyes the pain of the families, crying, screaming, not knowing what to do“.

Yurien Contreras said that his family has not discussed with her father, Mario Romero, since he was arrested.

“I witnessed the way they put my father handcuffs, tied him with chains from the belt and ankles ”, she said.

Mayor Karen Bass said Los Angeles is a “City proud of immigrants ” And he firmly condemned the rays, declaring reporters on Monday evening that most of the detained persons did not have access to lawyers, and many have “missing“In unknown places.

“Cannot underline the level of fear and terror that exists in Angelenos“, She said, adding that she will not accept the White House to use as”Case test“For this type of federal repression.

Bass also condemned the acts of vandalism and said that the protesters will be arrested for documents “violent“. The Los Angeles (LAPD) police said on Monday that 29 people were arrested on Saturday for” non -dispersal “and that there were 21 other arrests on Sunday, under a number of accusations, including robberies, attempted murder with a cocktail and aggression on an officer.

Over 600 rubber bullets pulled by police on the weekend

Civil rights activists have criticized the militarized response of local law enforcement, including LAPD, which has a history of injury to the protesters, sometimes leading to costly damages. Several journalists were injured in protests, an Australian reporter being shot on Sunday by a short distance rubber while transmitting live.

LAPD said the officers fired over 600 rubber bullets over the weekend. Thousands of people protested Sunday, gathering around the town hall and a federal detention center and, at one point, occupying a highway.

Jim McDonnell, the head of LAPD, said that when the officers shoot on the protesters, they use “specific ammunition”, but added: “That doesn't mean I always get the desired target”.

As for the conduct of Marine prisons in the city, he said that his department was not officially notified and said that their arrival would represent a “Significant logistics and operational challenge”.

The mayor of Los Angeles said that the troops of the National Guard were simply guarding two buildings: “Do they need marine prisoners above? I do not understand. “

Meanwhile, Hegseth has said that Marine kids are necessary to “restore order” and “defend the federal law officers.”

Trump's federalization is the first time that an American president uses such power from the 1992 Los Angeles riots, when a large-scale violence broke out in the payment of four white police officers for brutally beating Rodney King. It was also the first unfolding without the express request of the governor of 1965.

Los Angeles County hosts 3.5 million immigrants, representing one third of the population. Demonstrations take place in the context in which the White House has aggressively intensified the application of immigration laws, with mass restraints in overcrowded areas.