National Guard troops began arriving in Los Angeles early Sunday, June 8 after being ordered there by US President Donald Trump, a rare deployment against the state governor's wishes after sometimes violent protests against immigration enforcement raids. Trump took federal control of California's state military to push soldiers into the country's second-biggest city, an extraordinary move not seen for decades and deemed "purposefully inflammatory" by California Governor Gavin Newsom.
Helmeted troops carrying automatic weapons and with camouflaged vehicles could be seen in the Compton neighborhood of Los Angeles early Sunday, ahead of more protests, including a call by organizers for a "mass mobilization" at City Hall at 2:00 pm local time (2100 GMT). The development came after two days of confrontations during which federal agents fired flash-bang grenades and tear gas toward crowds angry at the arrests of dozens of migrants in a city with a large Latino population.
Republicans lined up behind Trump on Sunday to dismiss warnings by Newsom and other local officials that the protests had been largely peaceful, and that the deployment was against their wishes and would exacerbate tensions. "I have no concern about that at all," Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson told ABC's This Week when asked, adding that Newsom "has shown an inability or unwillingness to do what is necessary there, so the president stepped in."
As for threats by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Saturday to send in active-duty Marines on top of the Guard troops, Johnson said he did not see that as "heavy-handed." "We have to be prepared to do what is necessary," he argued.
Federal authorities "want a spectacle. Don't give them one. Never use violence. Speak out peacefully," Newsom had posted on X late Saturday. He branded Hegseth's threat "deranged." "We agree that if you're being violent, you should be arrested... But this is not what's happening," California Congresswoman Nanette Barragan told CNN on Sunday. "We are having an administration that's targeting peaceful protests... The president is sending the National Guard because he doesn't like the scenes," the Democrat said.
Trump had signed a memorandum sending 2,000 National Guard troops to Los Angeles, the White House said Saturday. The National Guard – a reserve military – is frequently used in natural disasters, and occasionally in instances of civil unrest, but almost always with the consent of local authorities.
Trump has delivered on a promise to crack down hard on the entry and presence of undocumented migrants – who he has likened to "monsters" and "animals" – since taking office in January. ICE raids in other US cities have triggered small-scale protests in recent months, but the Los Angeles unrest is the biggest and most sustained against the Trump administration's policies so far.