Los Angeles has witnessed a fourth night of protests against the federal immigration crackdown, with United States President Donald Trump ordering the deployment of 700 Marines as well as 2,000 additional National Guard members.
The Trump administration’s intervention has widened the rift between Republicans and Democrats, including the leadership of California.
The deployment of Marines would mirror the events of 1992 when Marines were deployed alongside the National Guard for law enforcement in Los Angeles during riots that followed the acquittal of four policemen filmed beating Rodney King, a Black man.
California Governor Gavin Newsom has said he will sue the Trump administration over its deployment of the National Guard without his approval.
What is the latest from the protests?
Monday’s demonstrations were far less raucous, with thousands peacefully attending a rally at City Hall and hundreds protesting outside a federal complex that includes a detention centre where some immigrants are being held following workplace raids across the city.
The protesters gathered in front of a federal building, chanting slogans against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids. “I stand with all migrants,” signs read, along with “ICE out of LA” and “Fascism must go”.
Late on Monday, police began to disperse hundreds of demonstrators who had gathered outside a federal detention centre.
Trade union leader David Huerta was freed on a $50,000 bond on Monday. Huerta is the president of the Service Employees International Union California, which represents thousands of the state’s janitors, security officers, and other workers.
The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) said late on Monday afternoon that some protesters had started throwing objects at officers and the use of less lethal munitions had been authorised, adding in an X post: “Less lethal munitions may cause pain and discomfort.”
On Sunday, crowds blocked the 101 Freeway and set self-driving cars on fire as police responded with tear gas, rubber bullets and flashbangs.
The LAPD declared the protests in downtown LA an “unlawful assembly” on Sunday.
The protest also spilled over to San Francisco, where protesters rallied in solidarity with those in Los Angeles outside an ICE building. San Francisco police declared this an unlawful assembly and arrested about 60 people.
Protests sprang up in at least nine other US cities on Monday, including New York and Philadelphia, according to local news outlets.
What is unlawful assembly?
Legally, an unlawful assembly refers to an intentional meeting of three or more people that disrupts public order.
Why are there protests in LA?
The protests began on Friday night after ICE officials arrested 44 people for violating immigration laws.
The US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) later said ICE officials had arrested a total of 118 immigrants who did not have documents required to stay in the US.
Uniformed ICE agents went through the city in caravans of unmarked military-style vehicles to make the arrests.
The protests sprang up as a response to these operations. Crowds of demonstrators gathered outside a facility where some of the detainees were believed to be held.
Robert Cohen, professor of history and social studies at New York University, said this sequence of events was a consequence of the Trump administration getting “caught up in its own web of lies”.
“Even though the crime rate for undocumented immigrants is low, Trumpists spread hysteria about an imaginary immigrant crime wave and claim their priority is deporting millions of these supposedly criminal immigrants,” he told Al Jazeera. “But since there are not millions of immigrant criminals, ICE has taken to deporting immigrants who are law-abiding workers.”
Where are protests happening in Los Angeles?
The protests are largely taking place in downtown Los Angeles, where protesters spray-painted anti-ICE slogans on the walls of the Edward R Roybal Federal Building.
Which agencies are now involved?
Trump initially ordered the deployment of 2,000 National Guard members, who started arriving on Sunday, as the day saw maximum violence during the four days of protests driven by anger over immigration raids that critics say are breaking apart immigrant families.
It was followed by orders to deploy an additional 2,000 National Guard members as well as 700 Marines, escalating tensions between the president and Governor Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass.
It all started with ICE agents leading the immigration arrests.
After protests broke out on Friday, the LAPD was called in to quell civil unrest.
LAPD chief Jim McDonnell said at a news conference on Sunday that most of the protests in the city were peaceful.
“However, when peaceful demonstrations devolve into acts of vandalism or violence, especially violence directed at innocent people, law enforcement officers and others, we must respond firmly.”
McDonnell, in an earlier statement, said he was confident in the LAPD’s ability to handle large-scale demonstrations and that the Marines’ arrival without coordinating with the police department would present a “significant logistical and operational challenge” for them.
Newsom had slammed Trump’s decision on Saturday to deploy the National Guard without his involvement. “This is a serious breach of state sovereignty – inflaming tensions while pulling resources from where they’re actually needed.”
Bass described Trump’s deployment orders as “a chaotic escalation”.
Trump has defended the move, saying he deployed the National Guard troops “to deal with the violent, instigated riots” and “if we had not done so, Los Angeles would have been completely obliterated”.
But Mayor Bass told CNN that in contrast to Trump’s rhetoric, “this is isolated to a few streets. This is not citywide civil unrest.”
Deployment of Marines
The US military’s Northern Command issued a statement on Monday, saying about 700 Marines would “seamlessly integrate” with other troops protecting federal personnel and property in the Greater Los Angeles area.
“Due to increased threats to federal law enforcement officers and federal buildings, approximately 700 active-duty US Marines from Camp Pendleton are being deployed to Los Angeles to restore order,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth wrote in an X post on Sunday.
“We have an obligation to defend federal law enforcement officers – even if Gavin Newsom will not.”
In an earlier post, Hegseth said: “The National Guard, and Marines if need be, stand with ICE.”
Other Republicans have echoed Hegseth’s sentiments.
“One of our core principles is maintaining peace through strength. We do that on foreign affairs and domestic affairs as well. I don’t think that’s heavy-handed,” Mike Johnson, speaker of the US House of Representatives, told ABC News.
But Governor Newsom called the deployment of Marines reckless and “disrespectful to our troops” in a post on X.
“This isn’t about public safety,” Newsom said. “It’s about stroking a dangerous President’s ego.”
How many people have been arrested?
At least 56 people have been arrested during the protests in Los Angeles. More than 150 protesters have been arrested overall, across several US cities where protests erupted.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott said in an X post that more than one dozen protesters were arrested in Austin, while in Santa Ana, a spokesperson for the city’s police department said the National Guard had arrived to secure federal buildings.
The LAPD said five officers sustained minor injuries.
What’s happening to Waymo in Los Angeles?
The protesters have vandalised and set ablaze several self-driving cars that belong to the ride-hailing company Waymo.
Los Angeles media outlets reported that protesters spray-painted anti-ICE messages on multiple self-driving cars lined up near the federal building in Los Angeles.
On Sunday, in a post on X, the LAPD advised against visiting the area.
What are Trump administration officials saying?
In a series of posts on his Truth Social platform, Trump criticised Newsom and Bass, both Democrats.
In one post on Sunday, he wrote: “Governor Gavin Newscum and ‘Mayor’ Bass should apologise to the people of Los Angeles for the absolutely horrible job that they have done, and this now includes the ongoing L.A. riots. These are not protesters, they are troublemakers and insurrectionists. Remember, NO MASKS!”
US Vice President JD Vance said the administration would not be intimidated by “lawlessness” and that Trump would not “back down”.
“We will stand by the FBI agents tracking down violent criminals, by the guardsmen, local police, and Marines restoring order, and by the ICE agents enforcing our immigration laws,” he wrote on X.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem wrote in an X post: “A message to the LA rioters: you will not stop us or slow us down. @ICEgov will continue to enforce the law.”
A message to the LA rioters: you will not stop us or slow us down. @ICEgov will continue to enforce the law.
And if you lay a hand on a law enforcement officer, you will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
— Secretary Kristi Noem (@Sec_Noem) June 7, 2025
Cohen said that for Trump to describe the protests as an “insurrection” was “absurd”.
“The irony, of course, is that Trump, who pardoned and praised the real insurrectionists who besieged the Capitol at his behest back on January 6, 2021, now wants to pretend he is some great foe of civil disorder,” Cohen said, referring to Trump’s decision to pardon about 1,500 participants in the riots on the US Capitol in Washington, DC, seeking to overturn Joe Biden’s win over Trump in the 2020 presidential election.
What are Democrats saying?
Democrats have tried to walk a fine line between condemning the ICE raids and the National Guard deployment while also opposing violence against law enforcement officials.
“We will always protect the constitutional right for Angelenos to peacefully protest. However, violence, destruction and vandalism will not be tolerated in our City and those responsible will be held fully accountable,” Bass wrote in an X post.
Bass also posted on Sunday that she had a meeting with Newsom and McDonnell. “Angelenos – don’t engage in violence and chaos. Don’t give the administration what they want,” she wrote, referring to the Trump administration.
Former Vice President Kamala Harris, who is from California, posted a statement on X on Sunday. She wrote: “Deploying the National Guard is a dangerous escalation meant to provoke chaos. In addition to the recent ICE raids in Southern California and across our nation, it is part of the Trump Administration’s cruel, calculated agenda to spread panic and division.”
My statement on what's unfolding in Los Angeles. pic.twitter.com/rujs8mrVPK
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) June 8, 2025
Newsom, meanwhile, has promised legal action against the Trump administration. “Commandeering a state’s National Guard without consulting the governor of that state is illegal and immoral,” Newsom told MSNBC on Sunday.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta said Trump’s order was unnecessary and counterproductive.
“Let me be clear: There is no invasion. There is no rebellion. The President is trying to manufacture chaos and crisis on the ground for his own political ends,” Bonta said.
Are there parallels between the protests and the Rodney King riots?
The Trump administration’s response to the protests in Los Angeles has drawn parallels with the riots that engulfed the second most populous US city in 1992.
In 1991, the police were chasing King, an African American man, for driving while intoxicated. When officers caught up with him, they ordered him out of his car. A video recorded by a bystander showed King being beaten by the police officers for 15 minutes. As a result, he ended up with bone fractures, broken teeth and brain damage.
Four officers were charged with excessive use of force. In 1992, a jury found the four officers not guilty. Hours after the verdict, riots broke out in Los Angeles.
Then-California Governor Pete Wilson deployed 2,000 National Guard soldiers to the city. Additionally, 1,500 Marines were deployed – the last time the elite force was deployed for domestic law enforcement. The unrest lasted six days and resulted in the deaths of 63 people and widespread looting and arson.
Unlike the riots, the ongoing protests in Los Angeles have largely been peaceful, with isolated clashes between protesters and law enforcement officers.
Wilson and then-President George HW Bush, both Republicans, were on the same page in terms of authorising the deployment of National Guard forces, unlike Trump and Newsom.
