Los Angeles vehemently protests Trump’s extreme increase in US immigration policies

Donald Trump’s administration vowed to suppress opposition in Los Angeles.

Late Saturday night, following protests against immigration raids in the city, the US president deployed National Guard soldiers in LA – a significant escalation of the administration’s promise of “mass deportations.” The administration has committed to quelling protests and has warned local leaders to prepare for at least 30 days of intensified immigration enforcement.

However, the substantial show of force may have stirred a counter-reaction. The city is now facing a robust backlash.

Upon being inaugurated for his second term, Trump launched draconian immigration restrictions. ICE agents began surprising people at home, in schools, and churches. Children were being held in facilities that activists termed “baby jails,” and asylum seekers were being banished to a harsh mega-prison in El Salvador.

Protests erupted across the US; however, the type of resistance that characterized Trump’s first term seemed to wane. Official institutions were beginning to give in to the president’s threats. While the administration intensified immigration raids and stripped immigrants of their rights, politicians made only feeble objections.

Then, Trump targeted Los Angeles.

The aggression with which federal agents targeted their objectives fueled the outrage, including at a clothing manufacturer in LA’s garment district, Home Depot in the Westlake district, and a warehouse in South Los Angeles. The ACLU reported that the arrests were carried out without judicial warrants, leading to more than 200 people being detained.

Lawyers stated that ICE has been holding detained families in the basements of federal immigration facilities, separating children and mothers from their fathers. Agents denied attorneys and family members access, according to the Immigrant Defenders Law Center (ImmDef).

As immigration officers dressed in riot gear took workers from their jobs, other agents used tear gas and flash-bang grenades against protesters, escalating the situation and attracting hundreds to join the protests.

Among the protesters arrested was David Huerta, president of SEIU-USWW and SEIU California. The images of the middle-aged man in a plaid button-down shirt being shoved to the ground have enraged millions of union workers across the US, according to LA Times columnist Anita Chabria.

Trump responded to the protests with an increasing show of force, bypassing the governor to enact the state’s National Guard for the first time since the 1992 Los Angeles riots, when police officers were acquitted for beating Rodney King. Pete Hegseth, the defense secretary, suggested that in addition to the 2,000 promised guardsmen, the government may send in the marines – a proposal California Governor Gavin Newsom called “deranged”.

JD Vance suggested that the administration was targeting this Democratic city in a Democratic state as part of a political lesson, referring to protesters as “insurrectionists”.

The militarization is part of a strategy to “flood the zone”, according to White House border czar Tom Homan, who stated that the administration will focus on “sanctuary cities” that refuse to collaborate with immigration enforcers.

But communities are averse to witnessing their friends and neighbors being handcuffed. “These are workers, these are fathers, these are mothers,” said Angelica Salas, executive director of the advocacy group Chirla, at a press conference on Friday. “Our community is under attack and is being terrorized.”

Congresswoman Maxine Waters, who was also refused entry to the federal immigration office in downtown LA, stated that the crowds should “grow and grow and grow” until Trump retracts his deployment of soldiers.

Similar raids took place in Newark, Chicago, Nashville, and other US cities. In San Diego last week, a neighborhood responded to federal agents raiding restaurants, with people shouting “Shame! Shame!” at officers in military gear.

“The administration is testing Los Angeles to see if we break under pressure,” said Lindsay Toczylowski, president of ImmDef. “But we won’t back down.”