Topline
California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Sunday night said his government will file a federal lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s use of the National Guard to quell protests over immigration raids in Los Angeles and dared administration officials to arrest him, as police detained dozens of people and unlawful assembly was declared in parts of the city.
Timeline
The LAPD told reporters at a late night press conference that it had arrested 10 people on Sunday, adding to the California Highway Patrol’s arrest tally of 17.
LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell told reporters that he was aware of the “deep fear and anxiety” among the immigrant community, and said the department is “committed to transparency, accountability, and treating every Angeleno with respect, regardless of their immigration status.”
Los Angeles Police Department said an “UNLAWFUL ASSEMBLY” declaration has been issued “for the area of the Civic Center part of Los Angeles” and said people with with “Cell Phones in the area…have received the alert.”
According to the New York Times, a man tried to aim his van at protesters near a gas station in downtown Los Angeles, but it is unclear if any people were harmed.
The LAPD later told the Times that it had detained the van driver, and noted “multiple charges to follow.”
The Los Angeles Police Department has announced that gatherings at Downtown Los Angeles have “been declared as an UNLAWFUL ASSEMBLY,” as it ordered people to “leave the Downtown Area immediately.”
In an interview with MSNBC, California Gov. Gavin Newsom dared the Trump administration to come and arrest him in response to earlier comments by the president’s border czar Tom Homan threatened to go after any official who interferes the immigration crackdown.
Newsom told MSNBC, “Come after me, arrest me, let’s just get it over with, tough guy…I don’t give a damn, but I care about my community.”
In his interview, Newsom once again accused Trump of “putting fuel on the fire,” with his actions and confirmed that his state will file a lawsuit against the Trump administration on Monday.
California’s Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis told CNN that she expects state officials to file a federal lawsuit on Monday against the Trump administration’s move to federalize and deploy the National Guard in Los Angeles.
Kounalakis said the lawsuit will say that the president did not have the “authority to call in the National Guard for 400 people protesting in a way that local law enforcement could clearly handle it.”
Earlier in the evening, California Gov. Gavin Newsom said he had made a formal request to the White House to “rescind their unlawful deployment of troops in Los Angeles county and return them to my command,”
The governor said: “This is a serious breach of state sovereignty — inflaming tensions while pulling resources from where they’re actually needed.”
When asked by reporters whether he would invoke the Insurrection Act, the law that gives presidents the authority to deploy the military domestically, Trump said, “Depends on whether or not there’s an insurrection,” adding he does not think the Los Angeles protests are an insurrection, though he said there are “violent people, and we’re not going to let them get away with it.”
Trump said he called California Gov. Gavin Newsom and told him he had to “take care” of the protests, otherwise he would “send in the troops,” and he told a reporter who asked whether California officials who obstruct deportations would face federal charges: “If officials stand in the way of law and order, yeah, they will face charges.”
About 300 members of the National Guard have been stationed across Los Angeles so far, The New York Times reported, the first soldiers as part of the 2,000 Trump has promised to station across the city as more protests are expected to take place this afternoon.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass told the Los Angeles Times said she tried to talk to the Trump administration to “tell them that there was absolutely no need to have troops on the ground here in Los Angeles,” stating the protests on Saturday were “relatively minor” and “peaceful,” with about 100 protesters.
Bass appeared to rebuff Trump’s claim the National Guard did a “great job” in the city, stating in a post on X that the National Guard had not yet been deployed at that time in Los Angeles, while praising Newsom and local law enforcement.
Trump said in a late-night Truth Social post the National Guard did a “great job” in Los Angeles, while slamming Newsom and Bass and the “Radical Left” protesters and stating protesters will no longer be allowed to wear masks: “What do these people have to hide, and why???”
Newsom slammed Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth for “threatening to deploy active-duty Marines on American soil against its own citizens” as “deranged behavior.”
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said it had arrested two people Saturday evening for alleged assault on a police officer, stating multiple officers had been injured by a Molotov cocktail, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Protesters exhibited “violent behavior” toward federal agents and local law enforcement, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department said in a statement, while clarifying it is not involved in federal law enforcement response and is instead focused on crowd and traffic control.
In a post on X, Newsom said the federal government is taking over the California National Guard and deploying soldiers in Los Angeles solely to create a “spectacle.”
Hegseth announced in a post on X the Department of Defense is “mobilizing the National Guard IMMEDIATELY to support federal law enforcement in Los Angeles,” stating Marines are standing by for deployment in case of violence.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt announced Trump would deploy 2,000 National Guard troops to Los Angeles to address “lawlessness,” citing protests targeting immigration officers.
What To Watch For
More protests are expected to take place Sunday, in what will be the third straight day of demonstrations against immigration raids in Los Angeles.
Why Did Protests Break Out In Los Angeles?
Protests broke out Friday and Saturday in Paramount and Compton, cities adjacent to Los Angeles, over immigration raids conducted by ICE, during which the agency detained 44 immigrants Friday and 118 immigrants Saturday, the Associated Press reported. Police and protesters clashed over the weekend, according to local reports and videos on social media, with law enforcement using tear gas and flash grenades to break up the crowds while some protesters threw rocks and lit vehicles on fire.
Does Trump Have The Authority To Deploy The California National Guard?
Trump reportedly said in a memo he is invoking Title 10 of the U.S. Code on Armed Services, which allows the federal government to deploy the National Guard if the United States is “invaded or is in danger of invasion by a foreign nation,” or if there is a “rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States.” Vice President JD Vance said in a post on X on Saturday night the influx of immigrants, which he called “Biden’s border crisis,” amounts to an “invasion,” rebuffing critics who have questioned whether Trump had the authority to deploy troops. Trump’s move has faced some pushback from constitutional scholars. “For the federal government to take over the California National Guard, without the request of the governor, to put down protests is truly chilling,” Erwin Chemerinsky, dean of the University of California Berkeley School of Law, told the Los Angeles Times.
Further Reading
The legal issues raised by Trump sending the National Guard to L.A. (Los Angeles Times)