AND SO IT BEGINS! FASCISM U$A!
Trump warns of 'troops everywhere' in LA if immigration raid protests escalate
Security forces clashed with protesters outside a Los Angeles detention center on Sunday as National Guard troops deployed by President Donald Trump spread across the city after days of unrest over immigration raids. Trump vowed "very strong law and order," hinting at possible wider troop deployments.
Issued on: 09/06/2025 -
By: FRANCE 24
Members of the National Guard were deployed to Los Angeles -- against the wishes of California Governor Gavin Newsom © Frederic J. Brown, AFP
Security forces clashed with protesters outside a detention center in Los Angeles on Sunday as National Guard troops deployed by President Donald Trump fanned out across the city following two days of unruly protests over raids by immigration agents.
Trump on Sunday vowed the troops would ensure "very strong law and order," while appearing to leave the door open to deploying soldiers in other cities.
The US military said 300 soldiers from the 79th Infantry Brigade Combat Team had been sent to three separate locations in the greater Los Angeles area, and were "conducting safety and protection of federal property & personnel."
Helmeted troops in camouflage gear and carrying guns were stationed at a federal detention center in downtown Los Angeles, where they joined Department of Homeland Security forces.
Security forces clashed with protesters outside a detention center in Los Angeles on Sunday as National Guard troops deployed by President Donald Trump fanned out across the city following two days of unruly protests over raids by immigration agents.
Trump on Sunday vowed the troops would ensure "very strong law and order," while appearing to leave the door open to deploying soldiers in other cities.
The US military said 300 soldiers from the 79th Infantry Brigade Combat Team had been sent to three separate locations in the greater Los Angeles area, and were "conducting safety and protection of federal property & personnel."
Helmeted troops in camouflage gear and carrying guns were stationed at a federal detention center in downtown Los Angeles, where they joined Department of Homeland Security forces.
Law enforcement clash with demonstrators during a protest following federal immigration operations, in the Compton neighborhood of Los Angeles, California early on June 8, 2025 © RINGO CHIU / AFP
Pepper spray and tear gas were fired into a small crowd -- including journalists -- as forces moved protesters back to allow a convoy of vehicles to enter the detention center.
Trump, asked about the use of troops, appeared to leave the door open to a more widespread deployment in other parts of the country.
"You have violent people, and we are not going to let them get away with it," he told reporters. "I think you're going to see some very strong law and order.""
Responding to a question about invoking the Insurrection Act -- which would allow the military to be used as a domestic police force -- Trump said: "We're looking at troops everywhere. We're not going to let this happen to our country."
The deployment in California -- the first over the head of a state governor since the Civil Rights era -- was "purposefully inflammatory," Governor Gavin Newsom said.
"Trump is sending 2,000 National Guard troops into LA County -- not to meet an unmet need, but to manufacture a crisis," Newsom posted on X Sunday.
"He's hoping for chaos so he can justify more crackdowns, more fear, more control. Stay calm. Never use violence. Stay peaceful."
Newsom's warning came after Los Angeles was rocked by two days of confrontations that saw federal agents firing flash-bang grenades and tear gas toward crowds angry at the arrests of dozens of migrants.
'Intimidation'
Republicans lined up behind Trump to dismiss the pushback by Newsom and other local officials against the National Guard deployment.
"I have no concern about that at all," Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson told ABC's "This Week", accusing Newsom of "an inability or unwillingness to do what is necessary".
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.
Demonstrators told AFP the purpose of the troops was not necessarily to keep order.
"I think it's an intimidation tactic," Thomas Henning said.
"These protests have been peaceful. There's no one trying to do any sort of damage right now and yet you have the National Guard with loaded magazines and large guns standing around trying to intimidate Americans from exercising our first amendment rights."
Pepper spray and tear gas were fired into a small crowd -- including journalists -- as forces moved protesters back to allow a convoy of vehicles to enter the detention center.
Trump, asked about the use of troops, appeared to leave the door open to a more widespread deployment in other parts of the country.
"You have violent people, and we are not going to let them get away with it," he told reporters. "I think you're going to see some very strong law and order.""
Responding to a question about invoking the Insurrection Act -- which would allow the military to be used as a domestic police force -- Trump said: "We're looking at troops everywhere. We're not going to let this happen to our country."
The deployment in California -- the first over the head of a state governor since the Civil Rights era -- was "purposefully inflammatory," Governor Gavin Newsom said.
"Trump is sending 2,000 National Guard troops into LA County -- not to meet an unmet need, but to manufacture a crisis," Newsom posted on X Sunday.
"He's hoping for chaos so he can justify more crackdowns, more fear, more control. Stay calm. Never use violence. Stay peaceful."
Newsom's warning came after Los Angeles was rocked by two days of confrontations that saw federal agents firing flash-bang grenades and tear gas toward crowds angry at the arrests of dozens of migrants.
'Intimidation'
Republicans lined up behind Trump to dismiss the pushback by Newsom and other local officials against the National Guard deployment.
"I have no concern about that at all," Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson told ABC's "This Week", accusing Newsom of "an inability or unwillingness to do what is necessary".
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.
Demonstrators told AFP the purpose of the troops was not necessarily to keep order.
"I think it's an intimidation tactic," Thomas Henning said.
"These protests have been peaceful. There's no one trying to do any sort of damage right now and yet you have the National Guard with loaded magazines and large guns standing around trying to intimidate Americans from exercising our first amendment rights."
A protester holding a Mexican flag stands on a burnt car during a standoff with law enforcement in Los Angeles County,California, June 7, 2025. © Barbara Davidson, Reuters
Estrella Corral said demonstrators were angry that hard-working migrants who have done nothing wrong were being snatched by masked immigration agents.
"This is our community, and we want to feel safe," she told AFP.
"Trump deploying the National Guard is ridiculous. I think he's escalating, he's trying to make a show for his agenda."
US Democratic governors on Sunday slammed President Donald Trump's deployment of troops to quell protests against immigration raids in Los Angeles, saying that authority should rest with state leadership.
"President Trump's move to deploy California's National Guard is an alarming abuse of power," the governors said in a joint statement. "It's important we respect the executive authority of our country's governors to manage their National Guards."
Protesters rally against immigration agents for second day in LA
Estrella Corral said demonstrators were angry that hard-working migrants who have done nothing wrong were being snatched by masked immigration agents.
"This is our community, and we want to feel safe," she told AFP.
"Trump deploying the National Guard is ridiculous. I think he's escalating, he's trying to make a show for his agenda."
US Democratic governors on Sunday slammed President Donald Trump's deployment of troops to quell protests against immigration raids in Los Angeles, saying that authority should rest with state leadership.
"President Trump's move to deploy California's National Guard is an alarming abuse of power," the governors said in a joint statement. "It's important we respect the executive authority of our country's governors to manage their National Guards."
Protesters rally against immigration agents for second day in LA
01:59© France 24
'Good men and women'
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 undocumented migrants -- who he has likened to "monsters" and "animals" -- since taking office in January.
Raids by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency in other US cities have triggered small-scale protests in recent months, but the Los Angeles unrest is the biggest and most sustained against Trump's immigration policies so far.
A CBS News poll taken before the Los Angeles protests showed a slight majority of Americans still approved of the immigration crackdown.
Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum on Sunday defended migrants living north of the border.
"Mexicans living in the United States are good men and women, honest people who went to the United States to seek a better life for themselves and to support their families. They are not criminals! They are good men and women!" she said.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
Troops sent by Trump reach protest-hit Los Angeles over governor’s wishes
By AFP
June 8, 2025
Members of the National Guard stand guard in front of a federal building in downtown Los Angeles, California on June 8, 2025 - Copyright AFP Frederic J. Brown
Bastien INZAURRALDE and Gilles CLARENNE
Hundreds of National Guard troops took up positions in Los Angeles Sunday on the orders of US President Donald Trump, a rare deployment over the head of the state governor, after unruly protests against immigration raids.
The US military said 300 soldiers from the 79th Infantry Brigade Combat Team had been sent to three separate locations in the greater Los Angeles area, and were “conducting safety and protection of federal property & personnel.”
Helmeted troops in camouflage gear and carrying guns could be seen in front of a federal complex — including a detention center — with the phrase “Our City” spray-painted on it in downtown Los Angeles.
The deployment overrode the protests of local officials, an extraordinary move not seen in decades that California Governor Gavin Newsom slammed as “purposefully inflammatory.”
It came ahead of more planned protests in the city, which has a large Latino population, including a call by organizers for a “mass mobilization” at City Hall at 2:00 pm local time (2100 GMT).
A separate Pride parade in support of LGBTQ rights — also under assault by the Trump administration — also began Sunday in Hollywood, with organizers posting on Instagram that they were working with local law enforcement to keep the celebrations safe.
“Trump is sending 2,000 National Guard troops into LA County — not to meet an unmet need, but to manufacture a crisis,” Newsom posted on X Sunday.
“He’s hoping for chaos so he can justify more crackdowns, more fear, more control. Stay calm. Never use violence. Stay peaceful.”
Newsom’s warning came after Los Angeles was rocked by two days of confrontations that saw federal agents firing flash-bang grenades and tear gas toward crowds angry at the arrests of dozens of migrants.
On Sunday pepper spray hung in the air from overnight, AFP reporters said.
– ‘Escalation’ –
Republicans lined up behind Trump to dismiss the pushback by Newsom and other local officials against the National Guard deployment.
“I have no concern about that at all,” Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson told ABC’s “This Week”, accusing Newsom of “an inability or unwillingness to do what is necessary”.
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.
Demonstrators that AFP spoke to said troops were not really being sent in to keep order.
“I think it’s an intimidation tactic,” said Thomas Henning.
“These protests have been peaceful. There’s no one trying to do any sort of damage right now and yet you have the National Guard with loaded magazines and large guns standing around trying to intimidate Americans from exercising our first amendment rights.”
Estrella Corral said demonstrators were angry that hard-working migrants who have done nothing wrong were being snatched by masked immigration agents.
“This is our community, and we want to feel safe,” she told AFP.
“Trump deploying the National Guard is ridiculous. I think he’s escalating, he’s trying to make a show for his agenda.”
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders said the move demonstrated “Trump’s authoritarianism in real time.”
“Conduct massive illegal raids. Provoke a counter-response. Declare a state of emergency. Call in the troops,” he wrote on social media, adding: “Unacceptable.”
– ‘Unacceptable’ –
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.
It is the first time since 1965 that a president has deployed a National Guard without a request by a state governor, the former head of Human Rights Watch, US activist Kenneth Roth, posted on X.
Trump has delivered on a promise to crack down hard on undocumented migrants — who he has likened to “monsters” and “animals” — since taking office in January.
Raids by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency in other US cities have triggered small-scale protests in recent months, but the Los Angeles unrest is the biggest and most sustained against Trump’s immigration policies so far.
A CBS News poll taken before the Los Angeles protests showed a slight majority of Americans still approved of the immigration crackdown.
Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum on Sunday defended migrants living in north of the border.
“Mexicans living in the United States are good men and women, honest people who went to the United States to seek a better life for themselves and to support their families. They are not criminals! They are good men and women!” she said
By AFP
June 8, 2025
Members of the National Guard stand guard in front of a federal building in downtown Los Angeles, California on June 8, 2025 - Copyright AFP Frederic J. Brown
Bastien INZAURRALDE and Gilles CLARENNE
Hundreds of National Guard troops took up positions in Los Angeles Sunday on the orders of US President Donald Trump, a rare deployment over the head of the state governor, after unruly protests against immigration raids.
The US military said 300 soldiers from the 79th Infantry Brigade Combat Team had been sent to three separate locations in the greater Los Angeles area, and were “conducting safety and protection of federal property & personnel.”
Helmeted troops in camouflage gear and carrying guns could be seen in front of a federal complex — including a detention center — with the phrase “Our City” spray-painted on it in downtown Los Angeles.
The deployment overrode the protests of local officials, an extraordinary move not seen in decades that California Governor Gavin Newsom slammed as “purposefully inflammatory.”
It came ahead of more planned protests in the city, which has a large Latino population, including a call by organizers for a “mass mobilization” at City Hall at 2:00 pm local time (2100 GMT).
A separate Pride parade in support of LGBTQ rights — also under assault by the Trump administration — also began Sunday in Hollywood, with organizers posting on Instagram that they were working with local law enforcement to keep the celebrations safe.
“Trump is sending 2,000 National Guard troops into LA County — not to meet an unmet need, but to manufacture a crisis,” Newsom posted on X Sunday.
“He’s hoping for chaos so he can justify more crackdowns, more fear, more control. Stay calm. Never use violence. Stay peaceful.”
Newsom’s warning came after Los Angeles was rocked by two days of confrontations that saw federal agents firing flash-bang grenades and tear gas toward crowds angry at the arrests of dozens of migrants.
On Sunday pepper spray hung in the air from overnight, AFP reporters said.
– ‘Escalation’ –
Republicans lined up behind Trump to dismiss the pushback by Newsom and other local officials against the National Guard deployment.
“I have no concern about that at all,” Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson told ABC’s “This Week”, accusing Newsom of “an inability or unwillingness to do what is necessary”.
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.
Demonstrators that AFP spoke to said troops were not really being sent in to keep order.
“I think it’s an intimidation tactic,” said Thomas Henning.
“These protests have been peaceful. There’s no one trying to do any sort of damage right now and yet you have the National Guard with loaded magazines and large guns standing around trying to intimidate Americans from exercising our first amendment rights.”
Estrella Corral said demonstrators were angry that hard-working migrants who have done nothing wrong were being snatched by masked immigration agents.
“This is our community, and we want to feel safe,” she told AFP.
“Trump deploying the National Guard is ridiculous. I think he’s escalating, he’s trying to make a show for his agenda.”
Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders said the move demonstrated “Trump’s authoritarianism in real time.”
“Conduct massive illegal raids. Provoke a counter-response. Declare a state of emergency. Call in the troops,” he wrote on social media, adding: “Unacceptable.”
– ‘Unacceptable’ –
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.
It is the first time since 1965 that a president has deployed a National Guard without a request by a state governor, the former head of Human Rights Watch, US activist Kenneth Roth, posted on X.
Trump has delivered on a promise to crack down hard on undocumented migrants — who he has likened to “monsters” and “animals” — since taking office in January.
Raids by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency in other US cities have triggered small-scale protests in recent months, but the Los Angeles unrest is the biggest and most sustained against Trump’s immigration policies so far.
A CBS News poll taken before the Los Angeles protests showed a slight majority of Americans still approved of the immigration crackdown.
Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum on Sunday defended migrants living in north of the border.
“Mexicans living in the United States are good men and women, honest people who went to the United States to seek a better life for themselves and to support their families. They are not criminals! They are good men and women!” she said
Trump orders National Guard to control LA immigration 'riots'
Copyright AP Photo
By Euronews with AP
Published on 08/06/2025
Claiming that state officials “cannot perform their duties,” US President Donald Trump dispatched the National Guard to control Los Angeles' immigration “insurgencies”.
Donald Trump is deploying 2,000 California National Guard troops to Los Angeles over the objections of Governor Gavin Newsom after a second day of clashes between hundreds of protesters and federal immigration authorities in riot gear.
Newsom wrote on social media: “The federal government is creating chaos so it can have an excuse to escalate things. This is not the way any civilised country behaves”.
He described the decision to deploy the National Guard as a “deliberate and cowardly” action, adding that it would “only escalate tensions.”
Trump reacted to Gavin Newsom in a posting on his “Truth Social” platform on Saturday, writing, “If Governor Gavin Newsom of California and Mayor Karen Bass of Los Angeles can't fulfill their duties that everyone knows they can't, then the federal government will step in and solve the problem of rioters and looters the way it needs to be solved!!!”
Confrontations broke out on Saturday near a Home Depot in the heavily Latino city of Paramount, south of Los Angeles, where federal agents were staging at a Department of Homeland Security office nearby. Agents unleashed tear gas, flash-bang explosives and pepper balls, and protesters hurled rocks and cement at Border Patrol vehicles. Smoke wafted from small piles of burning refuse in the streets.
Tensions were high after a series of sweeps by immigration authorities the previous day, including in LA's fashion district and at a Home Depot, as the weeklong tally of immigrant arrests in the city climbed past 100. A prominent union leader was arrested while protesting and accused of impeding law enforcement.
The White House announced that Trump would deploy the Guard to “address the lawlessness that has been allowed to fester.” It wasn't clear when the troops would arrive.
In a signal of the administration's aggressive approach, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth threatened to deploy the U.S. military.
“If violence continues, active-duty Marines at Camp Pendleton will also be mobilized — they are on high alert,” Hegseth said on X.
Trump's order came after clashes in Paramount and neighboring Compton, where a car was set on fire. Protests continued into the evening in Paramount, with several hundred demonstrators gathered near a doughnut shop, and authorities holding up barbed wire to keep the crowd back.
Crowds also gathered again outside federal buildings in downtown Los Angeles, including a detention center, where local police declared an unlawful assembly and began to arrest people.
Standoff in Paramount
Earlier in Paramount, immigration officers faced off with demonstrators at the entrance to a business park, across from the back of a Home Depot. They set off fireworks and pulled shopping carts into the street, broke up cinder blocks and pelted a procession of Border Patrol vans as they departed and careened down a boulevard.
U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said federal agents made more arrests of people with deportation orders on Saturday, but none at the Home Depot. The Department of Homeland Security has a building next door and agents were staging there as they prepared to carry out operations, he said on Fox11 Los Angeles. He didn't say how many people were arrested Saturday or where.
Paramount Mayor Peggy Lemons told multiple news outlets that community members showed up in response because people are fearful about activity by immigration agents.
“When you handle things the way that this appears to be handled, it’s not a surprise that chaos would follow,” Lemons said.
Some demonstrators jeered at officers while recording the events on smartphones.
“ICE out of Paramount. We see you for what you are,” a woman said through a megaphone. “You are not welcome here.”
More than a dozen people were arrested and accused of impeding immigration agents, Essayli posted on X, including the names and mug shots of some of those arrested. He didn't say where they were protesting.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement that the work the immigration authorities were doing when met with protests is “essential to halting and reversing the invasion of illegal criminals into the United States. In the wake of this violence, California’s feckless Democrat leaders have completely abdicated their responsibility to protect their citizens.”
The president’s move came shortly after he issued a threat on his social media network saying that if Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass did not “do their jobs,” then “the Federal Government will step in and solve the problem, RIOTS & LOOTERS, the way it should be solved!!!”
Speaking on TV station ABC7, Bass said that “we certainly want to make the opportunities available for people to exercise their First Amendment rights, but the minute that things turn to violence ... that is not acceptable and people are going to be held accountable.”
She said she had spoken with members of the Trump administration and insisted that she and Newsom were in control and there was no need for the National Guard to be deployed.
Arrests in Los Angeles
Protests kicked off a day earlier in Los Angeles after federal authorities arrested 44 people for violating immigration law Friday.
The Department of Homeland Security later said recent ICE operations in Los Angeles resulted in the arrest of 118 immigrants, including five people linked to criminal organizations and people with prior criminal histories.
David Huerta, regional president of the Service Employees International Union, was also arrested Friday while protesting. The Justice Department confirmed that he was being held Saturday at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles ahead of a scheduled Monday court appearance.
Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called for his immediate release, warning of a “disturbing pattern of arresting and detaining American citizens for exercising their right to free speech.”
The Trump administration's continued warnings and threats come as the Los Angeles Police Department says protests across the city are now proceeding “peacefully.”
'Don't shoot!' Maxine Waters begs National Guard not to use guns at protest
David Edwards
June 8, 2025
Fox Live/screen grab
Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) pleaded with National Guard troops not to use their weapons against protesters.
The California lawmaker showed up at an anti-ICE demonstration near Los Angeles on Sunday after President Donald Trump ordered the National Guard to be deployed.
"There's no reason to shoot anybody!" Waters shouted to the service members. "Don't allow them to make your service a service where you're killing people."
"Don't do it. Defy them!" she added. "Don't shoot those guns for anything!"
David Edwards
June 8, 2025
RAWW STORY
Fox Live/screen grab
Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) pleaded with National Guard troops not to use their weapons against protesters.
The California lawmaker showed up at an anti-ICE demonstration near Los Angeles on Sunday after President Donald Trump ordered the National Guard to be deployed.
"There's no reason to shoot anybody!" Waters shouted to the service members. "Don't allow them to make your service a service where you're killing people."
"Don't do it. Defy them!" she added. "Don't shoot those guns for anything!"
Watch the video below from Fox Live or at the link.
Masked agents launch sweeping immigration raids in LA and New York
Masked and heavily armed federal agents carried out sweeping immigration raids in Los Angeles while plainclothes agents in New York pounced on two immigrants in the hallway of a courthouse on Friday. "These tactics sow terror in our communities and disrupt basic principles of safety in our city," LA Mayor Karen Bass said in a statement.
Issued on: 07/06/2025 -
By: FRANCE 24
Video by: FRANCE 24
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller – the right-wing architect of some of the president's most extreme immigration policies and who grew up in LA's Santa Monica – insisted on social media platform X that Bass had "no say in this at all".
"Federal law is supreme and federal law will be enforced," he wrote.
Clashes with protesters
Service Employees International Union leader David Huerta was briefly detained while documenting one of the raids in Los Angeles, according to media reports.
"Hard-working people, and members of our family and our community, are being treated like criminals," Huerta said in a statement after his release.
Homeland Security Investigations spokesperson Yasmeen Pitts O'Keefe told the Los Angeles Times that federal agents were executing search warrants related to the harbouring of people illegally in the country.
Hundreds of protesters gathered in downtown Los Angeles on Friday afternoon to demand the release of detainees, broadcaster ABC7 reported.
The largely peaceful rally was later ordered to disperse by police, with some violent clashes between protesters and riot police being reported.
NY courthouse arrests
Across the country, plainclothes agents in New York pounced on two immigrants in the hallway of a courthouse Friday.
AFP saw the officers yell for the men not to move before forcing them to lie face-down on the ground as they were handcuffed and arrested.
It was not immediately clear why the two men were arrested.
'Illegal abductions'
Human rights groups are outraged by such operations, arguing that they sap trust in the courts and make immigrants wary of showing up for appointments as they try to gain legal US residency.
"They're illegal abductions," said Karen Ortiz, a court employee who was demonstrating Friday against the sudden arrests of migrants.
"We need to sound the alarm and show the public how serious this is, and one way we can do that is actually physically putting ourselves between a masked ICE agent and someone they're trying to detain and send away," she told AFP.
Trump has dramatically tested the limits of executive power to crack down on foreigners without papers since he returned to office, arguing that the United States is being invaded by criminals and other undesirables.
In fact, crossings at the US-Mexico border had already fallen sharply throughout 2024 from a high in late 2023. And even illegal immigrants commit crimes at lower rates than US-born nationals, according to multiple studies and the government's own statistics.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
Masked and heavily armed federal agents carried out sweeping immigration raids in Los Angeles while plainclothes agents in New York pounced on two immigrants in the hallway of a courthouse on Friday. "These tactics sow terror in our communities and disrupt basic principles of safety in our city," LA Mayor Karen Bass said in a statement.
Issued on: 07/06/2025 -
By: FRANCE 24
Video by: FRANCE 24
01:46
Two migrants are forcefully detained by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in the hallways of immigration court in New York City after appearing for an appointment with immigration authorities. © Charly Triballeau, AFP
Masked federal agents wrestled migrants into handcuffs and unmarked vehicles in two of the most diverse cities in the world on Friday.
Agents used extreme tactics, conducting unprecedented raids on at least three areas of Los Angeles to detain dozens of people.
At one sweep less than two miles from Los Angeles City Hall, agents threw flash-bang grenades to disperse angry crowds of people following alongside a convoy of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) vehicles as protesters hurled eggs and epithets at the agents, media reported.
"As a Mayor of a proud city of immigrants, who contribute to our city in so many ways, I am deeply angered by what has taken place," LA Mayor Karen Bass said in a statement. "These tactics sow terror in our communities and disrupt basic principles of safety in our city."
Masked federal agents wrestled migrants into handcuffs and unmarked vehicles in two of the most diverse cities in the world on Friday.
Agents used extreme tactics, conducting unprecedented raids on at least three areas of Los Angeles to detain dozens of people.
At one sweep less than two miles from Los Angeles City Hall, agents threw flash-bang grenades to disperse angry crowds of people following alongside a convoy of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) vehicles as protesters hurled eggs and epithets at the agents, media reported.
"As a Mayor of a proud city of immigrants, who contribute to our city in so many ways, I am deeply angered by what has taken place," LA Mayor Karen Bass said in a statement. "These tactics sow terror in our communities and disrupt basic principles of safety in our city."
Plainclothes federal agents with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement wait in a hallway outside of an immigration courtroom in New York City. © Charly Triballeau, AFP
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller – the right-wing architect of some of the president's most extreme immigration policies and who grew up in LA's Santa Monica – insisted on social media platform X that Bass had "no say in this at all".
"Federal law is supreme and federal law will be enforced," he wrote.
Clashes with protesters
Service Employees International Union leader David Huerta was briefly detained while documenting one of the raids in Los Angeles, according to media reports.
"Hard-working people, and members of our family and our community, are being treated like criminals," Huerta said in a statement after his release.
Homeland Security Investigations spokesperson Yasmeen Pitts O'Keefe told the Los Angeles Times that federal agents were executing search warrants related to the harbouring of people illegally in the country.
Hundreds of protesters gathered in downtown Los Angeles on Friday afternoon to demand the release of detainees, broadcaster ABC7 reported.
The largely peaceful rally was later ordered to disperse by police, with some violent clashes between protesters and riot police being reported.
NY courthouse arrests
Across the country, plainclothes agents in New York pounced on two immigrants in the hallway of a courthouse Friday.
AFP saw the officers yell for the men not to move before forcing them to lie face-down on the ground as they were handcuffed and arrested.
It was not immediately clear why the two men were arrested.
Dominican national Joaquín Rosario, 34, is detained by a masked Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent at the exit of the courtroom where he voluntarily attended an immigration hearing. © Charly Triballeau, AFP
ICE agents have intensified such operations in and around American immigration courts in recent weeks.
The Department of Homeland Security revoked regulations that limited agents' access to protected areas such as courts after Trump returned to office in January.
One of the men arrested in New York was Joaquin Rosario, a 34-year-old Dominican who arrived in the United States a year ago, registered as he came in and who had his first immigration hearing Friday, his relative Julian Rosario said.
"He was at ease. He did not think anything was going to happen," the relative said, adding that Rosario was so unworried he had not brought his lawyer with him.
The other detainee appeared to be Asian. He arrived accompanied only by one of many immigration advocacy group volunteers who walk immigrants to and from the courtroom.
The volunteers screamed out as the agents arrested the two men but it did nothing to halt the raid.
ICE agents have intensified such operations in and around American immigration courts in recent weeks.
The Department of Homeland Security revoked regulations that limited agents' access to protected areas such as courts after Trump returned to office in January.
One of the men arrested in New York was Joaquin Rosario, a 34-year-old Dominican who arrived in the United States a year ago, registered as he came in and who had his first immigration hearing Friday, his relative Julian Rosario said.
"He was at ease. He did not think anything was going to happen," the relative said, adding that Rosario was so unworried he had not brought his lawyer with him.
The other detainee appeared to be Asian. He arrived accompanied only by one of many immigration advocacy group volunteers who walk immigrants to and from the courtroom.
The volunteers screamed out as the agents arrested the two men but it did nothing to halt the raid.
A man is detained by plainclothes officers with Immigration and Customs Enforcement after appearing for his court hearing in New York City. © Charly Triballeau, AFP
'Illegal abductions'
Human rights groups are outraged by such operations, arguing that they sap trust in the courts and make immigrants wary of showing up for appointments as they try to gain legal US residency.
"They're illegal abductions," said Karen Ortiz, a court employee who was demonstrating Friday against the sudden arrests of migrants.
"We need to sound the alarm and show the public how serious this is, and one way we can do that is actually physically putting ourselves between a masked ICE agent and someone they're trying to detain and send away," she told AFP.
Trump has dramatically tested the limits of executive power to crack down on foreigners without papers since he returned to office, arguing that the United States is being invaded by criminals and other undesirables.
In fact, crossings at the US-Mexico border had already fallen sharply throughout 2024 from a high in late 2023. And even illegal immigrants commit crimes at lower rates than US-born nationals, according to multiple studies and the government's own statistics.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP)
Op-Ed: National Guard in LA – Melodrama and lousy illegals numbers tell the story
By Paul Wallis
June 8, 2025
Members of the National Guard stand guard in front of a federal building in downtown Los Angeles, California on June 8, 2025 - Copyright AFP Frederic J. Brown
The deployment of 2,000 National Guard has generated more headlines than the trashing of the southern states in the big tornadoes a couple of weeks back. In a city the size of LA, 2000 people could get lost in a street fair, armed or not.
The “riots” appear to have involved a few bottles being thrown, like a rowdy weekend. Even FOX News hasn’t cited any serious casualties among protesters or law enforcement. By global standards, the anti-ICE riots seem strangely unremarkable.
. Next, it’s the Marines, “if necessary”.
Marines? Bit of a comedown from Iwo Jima, isn’t it? I can see it now – “How we stormed the beaches of the takeout counter at Wendy’s”, etc.
Meanwhile, politics continues to very expensively dwarf realities.
A quick rundown:
Trump declared war on illegal immigrants in his campaign.
LA is very much a Latino city, and Latinos were very conspicuously among those targeted for deportation.
A very large amount of money is being spent deporting people who usually make low wages. This huge hit to the budget was predicted by just about everyone.
Six months of ICE at work have achieved around 72,000 actual removals according to TRAC Immigration. The service has a few other highly unflattering things to say about the administration’s cheering for itself. Like the Biden administration removing about three times more illegal immigrants, without the chronic dysfunctions and questionable legalities.
$150 billion is in the budget for immigration enforcement. In another six months, the number of removals would be 150,000 at the current rate. There are believed to be about 10 million illegal immigrants in the US. Do the numbers and figure out the time frames.
Given the number of people allegedly trying to get into the US over the years, you can assume that they haven’t stopped coming. Numbers were already dropping from January 2024. They’re still coming, and the lowest number for one month was around 50,000 in January 2025.
On that basis, about 300,000 people would have entered the US since Trump took office, and ICE has removed 72,000 in the same length of time. Also note that simply because these are illegal entries, the likely numbers are somewhat higher.
Not too impressive, is it?
On the even less impressive side, we have a supposed desire to Federalize the National Guard. This issue has a severe sting in it. Usually, the National Guard is under state control, unless there’s a war. The President, or blurry, unfocused alleged president in this case, takes command during wartime.
Russia has a similar system, except that Putin already directly controls their national guard. Encouraging, isn’t it?
Many critics, credible or otherwise, have stated that Trump wanted to use a domestic issue to impose martial law and become a dictator.
Well, he can’t do it like that.
You can’t declare war on your own country.
Not even in the name of national security.
You can bankrupt it, neglect it, and humiliate it, but you can’t nuke it or “conquer” it.
Seems unfair, doesn’t it?
It’s cost trillions, anyway.
“We have met the enemy, and this time he really is us.”
By Paul Wallis
June 8, 2025
Members of the National Guard stand guard in front of a federal building in downtown Los Angeles, California on June 8, 2025 - Copyright AFP Frederic J. Brown
The deployment of 2,000 National Guard has generated more headlines than the trashing of the southern states in the big tornadoes a couple of weeks back. In a city the size of LA, 2000 people could get lost in a street fair, armed or not.
The “riots” appear to have involved a few bottles being thrown, like a rowdy weekend. Even FOX News hasn’t cited any serious casualties among protesters or law enforcement. By global standards, the anti-ICE riots seem strangely unremarkable.
. Next, it’s the Marines, “if necessary”.
Marines? Bit of a comedown from Iwo Jima, isn’t it? I can see it now – “How we stormed the beaches of the takeout counter at Wendy’s”, etc.
Meanwhile, politics continues to very expensively dwarf realities.
A quick rundown:
Trump declared war on illegal immigrants in his campaign.
LA is very much a Latino city, and Latinos were very conspicuously among those targeted for deportation.
A very large amount of money is being spent deporting people who usually make low wages. This huge hit to the budget was predicted by just about everyone.
Six months of ICE at work have achieved around 72,000 actual removals according to TRAC Immigration. The service has a few other highly unflattering things to say about the administration’s cheering for itself. Like the Biden administration removing about three times more illegal immigrants, without the chronic dysfunctions and questionable legalities.
$150 billion is in the budget for immigration enforcement. In another six months, the number of removals would be 150,000 at the current rate. There are believed to be about 10 million illegal immigrants in the US. Do the numbers and figure out the time frames.
Given the number of people allegedly trying to get into the US over the years, you can assume that they haven’t stopped coming. Numbers were already dropping from January 2024. They’re still coming, and the lowest number for one month was around 50,000 in January 2025.
On that basis, about 300,000 people would have entered the US since Trump took office, and ICE has removed 72,000 in the same length of time. Also note that simply because these are illegal entries, the likely numbers are somewhat higher.
Not too impressive, is it?
On the even less impressive side, we have a supposed desire to Federalize the National Guard. This issue has a severe sting in it. Usually, the National Guard is under state control, unless there’s a war. The President, or blurry, unfocused alleged president in this case, takes command during wartime.
Russia has a similar system, except that Putin already directly controls their national guard. Encouraging, isn’t it?
Many critics, credible or otherwise, have stated that Trump wanted to use a domestic issue to impose martial law and become a dictator.
Well, he can’t do it like that.
You can’t declare war on your own country.
Not even in the name of national security.
You can bankrupt it, neglect it, and humiliate it, but you can’t nuke it or “conquer” it.
Seems unfair, doesn’t it?
It’s cost trillions, anyway.
“We have met the enemy, and this time he really is us.”
No comments:
Post a Comment