By KRYSTA FAURIA, OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ and JOHN SEEWER, Related Press
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Homeland Safety Secretary Kristi Noem pledged Thursday to hold on with the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown regardless of waves of unrest throughout the U.S., whereas in Texas hundreds of Nationwide Guard troops have been on standby in case extra hassle breaks out.
The strikes unfolded as cities nationwide braced for main demonstrations in opposition to President Donald Trump over the weekend, and their leaders pleaded with residents to protest peacefully.
Noem stated the immigration raids that fueled the protests will transfer ahead, saying brokers have hundreds of targets.
To this point, the protests have been centered largely in downtown LA close to Metropolis Corridor and a federal detention heart the place some immigrants are being held. A lot of the sprawling metropolis has been spared from the protests.
The courtroom listening to Thursday in San Francisco opened with Senior U.S. District Courtroom Decide Charles R. Breyer asking attorneys whether or not Trump adopted the regulation when he referred to as within the Nationwide Guard.
“We’re talking about the president exercising his authority, and the president is, of course, limited in that authority,” Breyer stated. “That’s the difference between a constitutional government and King George.”
The decide added: “This country was founded in response to a monarch, and the constitution is a document of limitations. I’m trying to figure out where the lines are drawn.”
Demonstrations have picked up throughout the U.S., with protests rising in additional than a dozen main cities. On Wednesday, police in Seattle used pepper spray to filter out protesters, and officers in Denver used smoke and pepper balls to manage a crowd.
Police in riot gear — many on horseback — charged at a bunch of protesters Wednesday evening in LA simply earlier than the beginning of the second evening of town’s downtown curfew. The officers struck some demonstrators with wood rods and later fired crowd-control projectiles. After the curfew went into impact, a handful of arrests have been made earlier than the world cleared out.
Noem calls motion in LA a blueprint
The immigration brokers conducting the raids in LA are “putting together a model and a blueprint” for different communities, Noem stated.
She pledged that federal authorities “are not going away,” despite the fact that, she stated, officers have been hit with rocks and bricks and assaulted. She stated individuals with felony information who’re within the nation illegally and violent protesters will “face consequences.”
“Just because you think you’re here as a citizen, or because you’re a member of a certain group or you’re not a citizen, it doesn’t mean that you’re going to be protected and not face consequences from the laws that this country stands for,” she stated.
Padilla stated later that he was demanding solutions in regards to the “increasingly extreme immigration enforcement actions” and solely wished to ask Noem a query. He stated he was handcuffed however not arrested.
A protester is arrested by California Freeway Patrol close to the federal constructing in downtown Los Angeles on Tuesday, June 10, 2025. (AP Photograph/Eric Thayer)
Jaslyn Hernandez, daughter of a automobile wash employee, embraces her sister Kimberly Hernandez, and their uncle Juan Medina throughout a press convention with households of detained automobile wash employees Wednesday, June 11, 2025, in Culver Metropolis, Calif. (AP Photograph/Ethan Swope)
Los Angeles Metro police on horseback disperse protesters on Wednesday, June 11, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photograph/Ethan Swope)
A person shouts right into a megaphone exterior Metropolis Corridor throughout a protest on Wednesday, June 11, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photograph/Ethan Swope)
Los Angeles cops encompass protesters beneath arrest on Wednesday, June 11, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photograph/Ethan Swope)
Protesters are loaded onto Los Angeles Police Division buses throughout a protest on Wednesday, June 11, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photograph/Ethan Swope)
Police confront a protesters exterior Metropolis Corridor throughout protests over federal immigration enforcement raids on Wednesday, June 11, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photograph/Ethan Swope)
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A protester is arrested by California Freeway Patrol close to the federal constructing in downtown Los Angeles on Tuesday, June 10, 2025. (AP Photograph/Eric Thayer)
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“If this is how this administration responds to a senator with a question, I can only imagine what they are doing to farm workers, to cooks, to day laborers throughout the Los Angeles community,” he stated.
Army involvement escalates in LA
The Trump administration has quickly expanded army deployments to Los Angeles over the previous week and has stated it’s keen to ship troops to different cities to help with immigration enforcement and controlling disturbances — in keeping with what Trump promised throughout final yr’s marketing campaign.
Some 2,000 Guard troopers are within the nation’s second-largest metropolis and are quickly to be joined by 2,000 extra, together with about 700 Marines, stated Maj. Gen. Scott Sherman, who’s in command of the operation.
About 500 of the Guard troops deployed to the Los Angeles protests have been skilled to accompany brokers on immigration operations, the commander stated Wednesday. The Guard has the authority to briefly detain individuals who assault officers, however any arrests have to be made by regulation enforcement.
Whereas some troops have already gone on such missions, he stated it’s too early to say if that can proceed even after the protests die down.
“We are expecting a ramp-up,” Sherman stated, noting that protests throughout the nation have been being mentioned. “I’m focused right here in LA, what’s going on right here. But you know, I think we’re, we’re very concerned.”
States face questions on deploying troops
With extra demonstrations anticipated over the weekend, and the chance that Trump might ship troops to different states for immigration enforcement, governors are weighing what to do.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, has put 5,000 Nationwide Guard members on standby in cities the place demonstrations are deliberate. In different Republican-controlled states, governors haven’t stated when or how they’re planning to deploy troops for protests.
A bunch of Democratic governors earlier this week signed an announcement calling Trump’s deployments “an alarming abuse of power.”
“Illinois follows the law. But let me be clear: We expect the federal government to follow the law too,” Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker stated Thursday throughout a Capitol Hill listening to on state immigration insurance policies. “We will not participate in abuses of power.”
Lots of have been arrested in LA protests
Los Angeles police have made about 470 arrests since Saturday, the overwhelming majority of which have been for failing to go away the world on the request of regulation enforcement, in line with the police division.
There have been a handful of extra severe prices, together with for assault in opposition to cops and for possession of a Molotov cocktail and a gun. 9 cops have been harm, largely with minor injures. Some have been transported to a hospital and launched.
Rodriguez reported from San Francisco and Seewer reported from Toledo, Ohio. Related Press writers Julie Watson in San Diego, Jesse Bedayn in Denver, and Jim Vertuno in Austin, Texas, contributed to this report.
Initially Revealed: June 12, 2025 at 1:50 PM EDT
