(Los Angeles) Governors of Democratic States castigated an “alarming abuse of power” on Sunday after Donald Trump unilaterally ordered the dispatch of soldiers to Los Angeles to face demonstrations against his migration policy.
“The decision of President Trump to deploy the National Guard to California is an abuse of alarming power,” the governors insisted in a joint statement, after the republican’s announcement to send the opinion of the local authorities 2000 members of this reserve armed force, mainly mobilized during natural disasters.
The latter promised on Sunday “a return to order” during a brief exchange with journalists, adding that he did not exclude the sending of troops elsewhere to the United States if necessary.
At the same time, new clashes between the police and the demonstrators broke out near a detention center for the second largest city in the country, where around 300 guards arrived on Sunday morning.
Their deployment comes after two days of demonstrations marked by clashes and violence in the Californian megalopolis where a large Hispanic population resides, inhabitants trying to intervene in the face of the muscular arrests of immigrants led by the Federal Immigration Police (ICE).
Photo Mike Blake, Reuters
National Guard soldiers deployed in Los Angeles
Mexican nationals were arrested in recent operations, Mexico President Claudia Sheinbaum announced on Sunday, calling on the United States to treat them with dignity.
It was “men and honest women who went to seek a better life (…) They are not criminals,” she insisted during a public speech.
“Defend our people”
Referring to an “invasion” of the United States by “criminals from abroad”, Donald Trump erected the fight against illegal immigration in absolute priority, and communicates abundantly on the arrests and expulsions of immigrants.
Led even in courts of the country, the latter have plunged into terror millions of immigrants without legal status.
In Los Angeles, important operations Friday and Saturday agents of the ICE, sometimes in civilian clothes, gave rise to opposition gatherings and violent clashes between demonstrators and police.
“We must defend our people,” a woman told AFP, herself a daughter of immigrants, refusing to give her name. “Whatever we are injured, they are gassed, they will never stop us. All we have left is our voice. »»
The images of clashes, barricades, projectile jets and charred car have been widely started on social networks. Several people were arrested according to the authorities.
Showdown
While condemning violence, local authorities have publicly regretted Donald Trump’s decision to send the National Guard.
“For me, it is only politics,” castigated Mayor Karen Bass with a local television while the governor of California Gavin Newsom denounced him a “deliberately incendiary” measure which only “worsens tensions”.
Photo Eric Thayer, Associated Press
A protester holds a sign while members of the border police in rugged outfit and equipped with gas masks are sticking to the outside of an industrial park in the paramount section of Los Angeles.
According to former head of the NGO Human Rights Watch, Kenneth Roth, this is the first time since 1965 that a president deploys these soldiers without prior request from a governor of state.
The federal government is engaged in an showdown with California, bastion of the progressive opposition, and “sanctuary state” protecting migrants.
On the spot, the presence of these soldiers worries more than it reassures, according to Jason Garcia, resident of Los Angeles. “I was in the army, and I know that the climbing of strength will just crescendo,” regrets this 39 -year -old man with AFP.
Photo Daniel Cole, Reuters
Protesters are held on a car destroyed during a confrontation between the police and the demonstrators following multiple immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), in the city of Paramount, in the County of Los Angeles, California, United States, June 7, 2025.
A pride march was also to be held Sunday in parallel with the gatherings against migration policy, its organizers having specified to be in contact with the authorities to ensure its attire safely.
On Saturday, the Minister of Defense Pete Hegseth even threatened to mobilize the regular army based not far if the violence continued.
“We have to be ready to do what is necessary,” said the head of the House of Representatives on Sunday, the elected Republican Mike Johnson, on ABC.
