(Los Angeles) An American senator who was trying on Thursday to arrest a Minister of Donald Trump was evacuated by force and handcuffed, new access to tension between the Democrats and the administration on his anti-immigration policy, at the heart of the recent demonstrations in Los Angeles.
This city with the important Hispanic population has been the scene of demonstrations against the muscular arrest of foreigners in an irregular situation, overall peaceful but also marked by degradations and violence for days.
Donald Trump allocated the relative return to calm in Los Angeles on Thursday for two days to the deployment of approximately 4,000 reservists of the national guards and 700 marines which he ordered. But the curfew decreed by the democratic mayor of the city was also able to contribute to it.
Justice must look at the appeal of the governor of California Gavin Newsom on Thursday against the exceptional shipment of soldiers without the consent of local authorities, who denounce an authoritarian turn.
Photo Ronaldo Schemidt, agency France-Presse
Police pulled with a non -lethal weapon over a man who threw a can during a demonstration against federal immigration operations in Los Angeles, on June 11, 2025.
Gavin Newsom “had completely lost control of the situation. He should tell me thank you for saving her buttocks, instead of trying to justify his mistakes and her incompetence! ! ! “Said the president on Thursday.
A central figure in the Democratic opposition, Mr. Newsom, 57, is considered a possible Democratic candidate for the 2028 presidential election.
Senator on the ground
If the governor of California denounced “the mad fantasy of a dictatorial president”, it is another state democrat who found himself under the spotlight on Thursday.
Senator Alex Padilla was evacuated Manu Militari for interrupting a press conference in Los Angeles of the Minister of Internal Security Kristi Noem, according to an AFP photographer.
Social Truth screenshot
In a viral video, we hear her identify and challenge the minister before being forced to the ground and handcuffed by the agents.
The White House spokesman Karoline Leavitt said that “Senator Padilla should be ashamed of his childish behavior”.
The senator and the minister then exchanged for a quarter of an hour, according to the latter’s spokesperson, Tricia McLaughlin.
But the fate reserved for the senator, a particularly prestigious position in the United States, indignant the Democrats, their leader in the Senate Chuck Schumer evoking “totalitarianism hints”.
In Congress, a dozen parliamentarians of Hispanic origin went to the offices of the head of the House of Representatives, the Republican Mike Johnson, to ask him to defend their colleague and “the institution of the congress, democratic counter-power”.
“There is an intimidation campaign to try to silence the opposition,” said elected democrat Adriano Espailt.
“They are afraid”
Photo Bing Guan, Reuters
Protesters hold signs on the Firestone boulevard during a demonstration against federal immigration controls.
In the second metropolitan area of the country, the situation seemed to have returned to a certain calm.
“In general, everything is under control here in Ground Zero,” Lynn Sturgis, a 66-year-old retirement teacher, told AFP in front of the offices of the federal government, epicenter of demonstrations in the city center.
The demonstrations have extended in recent days to other American cities, still in limited proportions, such as in Las Vegas, Dallas, Austin, Chicago, Atlanta or Boston.
Migrants “have as much the right to be here, it doesn’t matter if they have arrived legally or illegally,” said a demonstrator named Apples to Las Vegas Review Journal. “It makes me sick for my boyfriend and his family. These are Cuban refugees, they are afraid to go shopping, to go to work. ”
In Mexico, where a number of undocumented migrants are from the United States from, President Claudia Sheinbaum explained that she said to a senior American official that she “did not agree on the use of police descents to arrest people who work honestly”.
Donald Trump had promised during his campaign to attack “criminals from abroad”.
But his efforts to combat illegal immigration have largely exceeded this framework and targeted in particular Latin American immigrants, essential for certain sectors of activity.
On the economic level, he admitted that he had to “do something” quickly to preserve the many immigrant workers in agriculture and hotels.
