LOS ANGELES: US President Donald Trump ordered Nationwide Guard troops to Los Angeles, a uncommon deployment anticipated Sunday in opposition to the state governor’s needs after sometimes-violent protests in opposition to immigration enforcement raids.
Trump took federal management of California’s state navy to push troopers into the nation’s second-biggest metropolis, a call deemed “purposefully inflammatory” by California Governor Gavin Newsom and of a sort not seen for many years based on US media.
The event got here after two days of confrontations that had seen federal brokers shoot flash-bang grenades and tear fuel in direction of crowds offended on the arrests of dozens of migrants in a metropolis with a big Latino inhabitants.
“It is as much as us to face up for our folks,” mentioned a Los Angeles resident whose mother and father are immigrants, declining to present her title.
“Whether or not we get damage, whether or not they fuel us, no matter they’re throwing at us. They’re by no means going to cease us. All now we have left is our voice,” she advised AFP as emergency companies lights flashed within the distance.
An AFP photographer noticed fires and fireworks mild up the streets throughout clashes, whereas a protester holding a Mexican flag stood in entrance of a burnt-out automotive that had been sprayed with a slogan in opposition to the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) company.
“President Trump has signed a Presidential Memorandum deploying 2,000 Nationwide Guardsmen to deal with the lawlessness that has been allowed to fester,” White Home Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt mentioned, blaming what she known as California’s “feckless” Democratic leaders.
“The Trump Administration has a zero tolerance coverage for legal conduct and violence, particularly when that violence is geared toward legislation enforcement officers making an attempt to do their jobs.”
Trump congratulated the Nationwide Guard for “a job properly executed” shortly earlier than midnight on Saturday in a submit on Reality Social.
Nevertheless, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass mentioned on social media platform X the troops had not but been deployed, whereas AFP journalists have to this point not seen them on the bottom.
Trump took a swipe at Bass and Newsom, saying in his submit they have been “unable to deal with the duty”, drawing a comparability with lethal fires that hit the town in January.
