(Los Angeles) Hundreds of soldiers from the Marine Corps, mobilized by Donald Trump against the advice of the Californian authorities, reinforced on Tuesday in a Los Angeles already grid by thousands of soldiers and police, responsible for repressing the demonstrations against the expulsions of migrants.
The night has brought a precarious calm in the center of the megalopolis, some of which laden with tear gas testifies to the clashes of the past few days.
On the one hand of the protesters, sometimes gloved or masked, draped in a Mexican flag or peacefully raising their hands in the air. Some scream anti-Trump slogans, throw projectiles, brandish signs denouncing “fascism” or raids aimed at undocumented. On the other of the police officers in riot clothes, visor folded over the face, firmly holding their baton or their rubber bullet rifle.
These scenes were repeated in the night from Monday to Tuesday, despite a drop in intensity of the protest and more localized incidents. In the suburbs of Compton, the police used deafening grenades to disperse people gathered in front of an administrative retention center.
Photo Ethan Swope, Associated Press Archives
Police take shelter from projectiles during demonstrations in Los Angeles on June 9, 2025.
Tuesday is the fifth day of a double confrontation: that, on the ground, opposing the police against protests Protestant against the repressive policy of Donald Trump aimed at migrants illegally entered on American soil; And that, very political, opposing the administration of the Republican President and California, at the forefront of the Democratic States.
The billionaire of the White House is accused of playing the escalation and throwing oil on the fire by exceptionally disposing of thousands of soldiers in the second American city, however with an already over-equipped police.
After having mobilized 2,000 soldiers of the National Guard – of which 1,700 of which are already on the ground -, Donald Trump ordered the sending of 2,000 additional members. Being criticized for having taken a disproportionate measure, the president pressed the nail by announcing the deployment of 700 navies, an elite body normally used as an external projection force.
Already opposed to the sending of the National Guard, the State Democratic Governor, Gavin Newsom, estimated that the deployment of soldiers satisfied “the mad fantasy of a dictatorial president”.
An authoritarian drift, deplore many inhabitants of the metropolis to the strong population of Hispanic origin.
“They are supposed to protect us, but, instead, they are sent to attack us,” says AFP Kelly Diemer, a 47 -year -old demonstrator. She judges that the United States “is no longer a democracy”.
Without making oil stain, the movement has won other American metropolises by contagion. In Santa Ana, 50 kilometers southwest of Los Angeles, the police fired in the evening of tear gas in the direction of protesters crying slogans against the Federal Immigration Police (ICE), AFP journalists have noted.
Handling has also been reported in New York as well as in Texas. In New York, the police arrested during a demonstration in Manhattan, an AFP journalist noted, and Austin, tear gas was drawn, according to the KXAN channel, a subsidiary of NBC.
” Ego ”
Photo Ringo Chiu, Agence France-Presse Archives
After having mobilized 2,000 soldiers of the National Guard – of which 1,700 of which are already on the ground -, Donald Trump ordered the sending of 2,000 additional members. Then the president broke down the nail by announcing the deployment of 700 navies.
The decision to deploy a shock unit like the Navies is “extremely rare”, underlines at AFP Rachel Vanlandingham, a academic specialist in national security issues. According to her, these soldiers are neither trained in the maintenance of order nor used to working “with local law enforcement”, which is potentially accident -causing.
In difficulty on his budgetary law and weakened by his recent argument with Elon Musk, Donald Trump addresses warnings, on his social social platform, to those he calls “insurgents”: “If they spit, we hit, and I promise that we will hit like never before”.
A speech that hits the bullies with his worried supporters and other Californians. An owner of a small business, who prefers to keep anonymity, is said to be in favor of the muscular repression of the federal authorities.
“It is necessary to stop vandalism,” she told AFP while the storefront of her business has been tagged with graffiti. Since Friday, several cars have been set on fire.
“Very traumatic”
Friday, demonstrators tried to intervene in the face of the muscular arrests of immigrants led by migratory police.
“I saw my father handcuffed, hampered at the waist and the ankles. It was very traumatic, ”said a woman on Monday, a woman presenting herself as the daughter of Mario Romero, arrested.
California prosecutor Rob Bonta announced on Monday to prosecute Donald Trump in court, saying that his choice to mobilize the National Guard without the downstream of the governor “raped” the Constitution.
According to Donald Trump, the Californian metropolis would have been “striped the card” if he had decided to send the National Guard.
A version contradicted by the County Prosecutor of Los Angeles, Nathan Hochman.
“We have not noticed large-scale civilian disorders that would require 2,000 national guards and 500 or 700 additional soldiers,” he told the Newsnation channel.
Gavin Newsom, considered a potential candidate for the White House for 2028, is one of the favorite targets of the Republican, who launched on Monday that it would be “great” to stop him. His manager of the massive expulsion program, Tom Homan, assured Monday evening that the Trump administration had “no intention” to arrest the governor, advancing that the quote had been taken “out of context”.
