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US President Donald Trump said he will deploy 2,000 National Guardsmen to California following clashes in Los Angeles between federal agents and protesters demonstrating against raids on suspected illegal immigrants.
The order, made in a presidential memorandum late on Saturday, will intensify tensions between the Trump administration and California, the largest US state and a self-designated sanctuary for undocumented immigrants.
It came after US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers squared off against protesters on Saturday in the city of Paramount in LA.
Officers in riot gear and gas masks used tear gas to disperse a crowd following hours of protests near a Home Depot store, where labourers often congregate to pick up day jobs. Agents also used flash-bang grenades, leaving streets strewn with empty canisters and overturned shopping carts.
On Friday agents launched sweeps of three LA businesses, including a different Home Depot location and a pair of companies in the city’s fashion district, which resulted in 44 arrests.
Protests erupted soon after in downtown LA with hundreds marching near a federal building. Skirmishes broke out, with police firing rubber bullets and tear gas.
California governor Gavin Newsom said the decision to deploy the National Guard was “purposefully inflammatory and will only escalate tensions”.
“This is the wrong mission and will erode public trust,” he said.
US defence secretary Pete Hegseth escalated the rhetoric further when he threatened to send in the Marines.
“If violence continues, active duty Marines at Camp Pendleton will also be mobilized — they are on high alert,” he posted on X.
Karen Bass, LA’s mayor, condemned the immigration sweeps, declaring “We will not stand for this”.
“I am deeply angered,” she wrote on X on Friday night, saying the tactics “sow terror in our communities”.
Trump administration officials pushed back against Bass on Saturday. Stephen Miller, deputy chief of staff and Homeland Security adviser, responded that Bass had “no say in this at all”.
In a separate tweet, he called the protests a “violent insurrection against the laws and sovereignty of the United States”.
In a statement, DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said Bass and Newsom must call for an end to the “violent targeting of law enforcement in Los Angeles by lawless rioters”.
Trump has made deportations a cornerstone of his domestic agenda, setting a goal of at least 3,000 arrests of migrants each day. Politicians in heavily Democratic California have pledged to resist deportations and say they will not co-operate with the ICE.
Trump has threatened to cut off federal funding to California over the state’s stance on immigration, transgender rights and other issues. In response, Newsom suggested on Friday that the state may stop paying its federal taxes.
“Californians pay the bills for the federal government,” Newsom said on X. “We pay over $80 BILLION more in taxes than we get back. Maybe it’s time to cut that off.”
