A deployment of 2,000 National Guardsmen has been ordered to Los Angeles by US President Donald Trump, in the wake of intense protests against the government’s actions towards migrants. The decision was made in response to what the White House described as a surge in violence against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents and federal police in the city.
According to a statement by the President’s Press Secretary, Karoline Leavitt, the deployment is necessary to counter the growing lawlessness that has taken hold in Los Angeles. Leavitt alleged that “violent mobs” had attacked ICE agents and federal police, who were carrying out deportation measures in the city and that the state’s “inept democratic politicians” had abandoned their responsibility to protect their citizens.
The President has signed an executive order authorizing the deployment, with the goal of “moving against the lawlessness that can spread” Leavitt said. Those arrested would be quickly brought to justice and the President’s Commander-in-Chief would ensure that the laws of the United States are fully and consistently enforced.
California’s Governor, Gavin Newsom, has sharply criticized the move, characterizing it as a spectacle rather than a genuine response to the situation. He claimed that the federal government was not deploying the National Guard because of a lack of police resources, but rather to create a show of force. Newsom urged protesters not to give the government the opportunity to do so.
Over the weekend, more than a dozen people were arrested in clashes between demonstrators and federal agents, with details of the incidents not being provided by the authorities. The move comes as the backdrop of the Trump administration’s efforts to implement a mass deportation of immigrants.