Trump Moves California National Guard to LA Amid Protests Against Governor's Wishes

Members of the National Guard faced off with protesters in Los Angeles on Sunday, and tear gas was fired at a growing crowd that gathered outside a federal complex hours after the federal troops arrived in the city on President Donald Trump’s orders. (AP video: Eugene Garcia)

BY  NEWS BLEND 360

Updated 9:52 AM EDT, June 8, 2025

PARAMOUNT, Calif. (NB360) — President Donald Trump is sending 2,000 California National Guard troops to Los Angeles, despite opposition from Gov. Gavin Newsom, following a second day of confrontations between hundreds of protesters and federal immigration officers equipped with riot gear.

Clashes erupted on Saturday near a Home Depot in the predominantly Latino city of Paramount, south of Los Angeles, where federal agents were gathering at a nearby Department of Homeland Security office. Agents used tear gas, flash-bang explosives, and pepper balls, while protesters threw rocks and cement at Border Patrol vehicles. Smoke rose from small piles of burning debris in the streets.

Tensions were heightened after a series of immigration authority raids the previous day, including in LA’s fashion district and at a Home Depot, as the week's count of immigrant arrests in the city surpassed 100. A well-known union leader was arrested during a protest and charged with obstructing law enforcement.

The White House stated that Trump would deploy the Guard to “address the lawlessness that has been allowed to fester.” The timing of the troops' arrival was unclear.

Newsom, a Democrat, expressed on the social platform X that this move was “purposefully inflammatory and will only escalate tensions.” He later commented that the federal government seeks a spectacle and urged people not to provide one by resorting to violence.

Signaling the administration’s assertive stance, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth threatened to deploy the U.S. military.

A car burns during a protest in Compton, Calif., Saturday, June 7, 2025, after federal immigration authorities conducted operations. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer)

"If the violence persists, active-duty Marines at Camp Pendleton will be deployed, as they are currently on high alert," Hegseth stated on X.

Trump's directive followed incidents in Paramount and nearby Compton, where a vehicle was set ablaze. Demonstrations continued into the night in Paramount, with several hundred protesters assembling near a doughnut shop, while authorities used barbed wire to maintain distance from the crowd.

Groups also reconvened outside federal buildings in downtown Los Angeles, including a detention center, where local police declared an unlawful assembly and began making arrests.

Protesters confront law enforcement agents outside an industrial park in Paramount, Calif., on Saturday, June 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer)

Standoff in Paramount

Earlier in Paramount, immigration officers clashed with demonstrators at the entrance of a business park, opposite the rear of a Home Depot. Protesters set off fireworks, dragged shopping carts into the street, broke cinder blocks, and hurled them at a line of Border Patrol vans as they sped away down a boulevard.

U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli stated that federal agents made additional arrests of individuals with deportation orders on Saturday, but none occurred at the Home Depot. The Department of Homeland Security has a facility next door, where agents were gathering in preparation for operations, he mentioned on Fox11 Los Angeles. He did not disclose the number of arrests made on Saturday or their locations.

Paramount Mayor Peggy Lemons informed several news outlets that community members gathered in response due to concerns about immigration agents' activities.

“When you manage situations in this manner, it’s not surprising that chaos ensues,” Lemons remarked.

Some demonstrators taunted officers while capturing the events on smartphones.

“ICE out of Paramount. We see you for what you are,” a woman declared through a megaphone. “You are not welcome here.”

Over a dozen people were arrested and charged with obstructing immigration agents, Essayli posted on X, including the names and mugshots of some arrestees. He did not specify their protest locations.

Trump calls up the Guard

According to Newsom's office, Trump placed a segment of California’s National Guard under Title 10 authority, making him, instead of the governor, the head of the command chain.

Border Patrol personnel deploy tear gas during a demonstration over the dozens detained in an operation by federal immigration authorities a day earlier, in Paramount, Calif., Saturday, June 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer)

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement that the work the immigration authorities were doing when met with protests is “essential to halting and reversing the invasion of illegal criminals into the United States. In the wake of this violence, California’s feckless Democrat leaders have completely abdicated their responsibility to protect their citizens.”

The president’s move came shortly after he issued a threat on his social media network saying that if Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass did not “do their jobs,” then “the Federal Government will step in and solve the problem, RIOTS & LOOTERS, the way it should be solved!!!”

Trump signed the order shortly before he went to attend a UFC fight in New Jersey, where he sat ringside with boxer Mike Tyson.

Newsom said in his statement that local authorities “are able to access law enforcement assistance at a moment’s notice,” and “there is currently no unmet need.”

The California Highway Patrol said Newsom directed it to deploy additional officers to “maintain public safety.”

“Everyone has the right to peacefully protest, but let me be clear: violence and destruction are unacceptable, and those responsible will be held accountable,” Bass said in a statement early Sunday.

She said she had spoken with members of the Trump administration and insisted that she and Newsom were in control and there was no need for the National Guard to be deployed.

In 2020, Trump asked governors of several states to deploy their National Guard troops to Washington, D.C., to quell protests after George Floyd was killed by Minneapolis police. Many agreed and sent troops.

Trump also threatened at the time to invoke the Insurrection Act for those protests — an intervention rarely seen in modern American history. But then-Defense Secretary Mark Esper pushed back, saying the law should be invoked “only in the most urgent and dire of situations.”

Police detain a man during a protest in Paramount, Calif., Saturday, June 7, 2025, after federal immigration authorities conducted operations. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer)

In 1992, George H.W. Bush invoked the Insurrection Act in response to the riots in Los Angeles that followed the acquittal of white police officers who were recorded beating Black motorist Rodney King.

During his first term, Trump did not use the act, nor did he do so on Saturday, as noted by Leavitt and Newsom.

Arrests in Los Angeles

Protests began a day earlier in Los Angeles after federal authorities arrested 44 individuals for immigration law violations on Friday.

The Department of Homeland Security later reported that recent ICE operations in Los Angeles led to the arrest of 118 immigrants, including five individuals associated with criminal organizations and those with previous criminal records.

David Huerta, the regional president of the Service Employees International Union, was also arrested on Friday while protesting. The Justice Department confirmed he was detained on Saturday at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles, awaiting a court appearance scheduled for Monday.

Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer demanded his immediate release, expressing concern over a “disturbing pattern of arresting and detaining American citizens for exercising their right to free speech.”

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