The Pentagon confirms Donald Trump is deploying another 2,000 National Guard troops and it is activating 700 Marines in the Los Angeles area to help the federal response to protests against immigration raids
The president has defended his decision to deploy the National Guard while California Governor Gavin Newsom sues the administration over the move
Demonstrations began outside in downtown LA on Friday after it emerged Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers were carrying out raids across the city
Newsom shot back at Trump over the move to send in Marines: “U.S. Marines have served honorably across multiple wars in defense of democracy. They are heroes. They shouldn’t be deployed on American soil facing their own countrymen to fulfill the deranged fantasy of a dictatorial President.”
The addition of active-duty troops marks a significant escalation. It comes comes as California officials say they will sue the Trump administration challenging the decision to federalize the National Guard and send its members onto city streets amid increasingly hostile protests over Trump immigration policies, California Attorney General Rob Bonta said Monday.
In addition to the Marines, Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell announced on Monday that 2,000 National Guardsmen would be deployed to Los Angeles. The mobilization of additional troops comes after Trump already authorized 2,000 guardsmen to be deployed to the city.More protests are expected in Los Angeles today.
The American Civil Liberties Union is planning to lead a peaceful rally in the downtown area from around 8pm UK time.
That rally, in solidarity with the Service Employees International Union California (SEIU), will call for the release of the union’s president David Huerta, who was injured and detained while documenting an ICE raid on Friday.
The Los Angeles Unified School District will also meet tonight to discuss the ICE activity in the area.
Superintendent Alberto Carvalho on Friday said the raids were causing “unnecessary fear, confusion and trauma for our students and families” and the district “stands with our immigrant families”.
But before that, a news conference will take place at about 5pm UK time to decry ICE raids that unfolded there on Friday and “ripped dozens of Zapotec and indigenous immigrant workers from their jobs, their communities, and their families”.
Advocacy group Mujeres En Accion said 14 Zapotec families, an indigenous people from the Mexican state of Oaxaca, were affected by raids.
