Marines deployed as LA braces for 4th day of anti-ICE protests
Protesters confront police on the 101 Freeway near the Metropolitan Detention Center of downtown Los Angeles, Sunday, June 8, 2025, following last night’s immigration raid protest. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)
LOS ANGELES – Tensions sparked by immigration raids across Los Angeles County and a weekend of violent protests remained heightened Monday, with demonstrators again gathering near a federal detention facility downtown and reports that hundreds of US Marines had been deployed to the city.
US Northern Command confirmed Sunday that about 500 Marines from the 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines in Twentynine Palms east of Los Angeles were prepared to deploy if needed “to augment and support the (Department of Defense’s) protection of federal property and personnel efforts.”
Early Monday afternoon, CNN and ABC News reported that as many as 700 Marines had officially been deployed to the area, although there was no official confirmation from the military. Responding to the reports, the governor’s office issued a statement saying the Marines were only being moved “from one base to another base.”
“At this time, the information that we have is that Marines are not being deployed — there is a difference between that and being mobilized,” according to the governor’s office, which added, “The level of escalation is completely unwarranted, uncalled for and unprecedented, mobilizing the best in class branch of the U.S. military against its own citizens.”
The news came as several dozen protesters gathered Monday afternoon on Alameda Street near Temple Street, about a block from the federal Metropolitan Detention Center. The crowd was under close surveillance of Los Angeles Police Department officers in riot gear.
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An officer on the scene urged the protesters to move out of the street to avoid disrupting traffic, but the crowd remained in place. At one point, a series of vans and other vehicles heading for the detention center made its way through the crowd, although one protester briefly stood in front of one of the vehicles.
The crowd included a group of clergy.
Overall, the group was peaceful, not clashing with police. Several blocks away, hundreds of union members attended a large rally in support of arrested union leader David Huerta, president SEIU California, who was detained Friday and set to appear in federal court Monday afternoon. After rallying at Grand Park, those protesters began marching toward the Metropolitan Detention Center.
Concerns also escalated Monday morning in Huntington Park, where immigration officials were spotted near a Home Depot store. It was unclear if anyone was actually detained.
Protests raged in the Los Angeles are the past three nights, sparked by a series of Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids in the area on Friday.
INQUIRER.NET USA photo by Joe Cobilla
INQUIRER.NET USA photo by Joe Cobilla
Tensions appeared to heighten significantly over the weekend when President Donald Trump federalized as many as 2,000 California National Guard troops to deploy them to Los Angeles to protect federal facilities.
U.S. National Guard are deployed around downtown Los Angeles, Sunday, June 8, 2025, following an immigration raid protest the night before. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer)
It was unclear when the hundreds of Marines might actually arrive in the area.
Rep. Mike Levin, D-Los Angeles, issued a statement calling the Marine deployment “an astounding overreach of authoritarian power.”
Monday began with a heightened police presence around the Civic Center area downtown, standing guard over businesses with shattered glass windows, looted shelves and copious amounts of graffiti.
The Los Angeles Police Department reported Sunday it made 10 arrestsand the California Highway Patrol said it made 19 arrests, mostly marchers who were on the Hollywood (101) Freeway in downtown.
Over the three days of protests, dozens more arrests are believed to have occurred.
National Guard troops arrived in downtown Los Angeles at 4 a.m. Sunday after Trump ordered their deployment, over the strenuous objection of local Democrats, led by Mayor Karen Bass and Gov. Gavin Newsom. By early afternoon they were facing off with angry protesters as they tried to protect the Edward R. Roybal Federal Building and the Metropolitan Detention Center.
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At about 6 p.m. Sunday, the Los Angeles Police Department requested mutual aid from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, which sent more than 100 deputies to support the LAPD and the California Highway Patrol as they tried to quell increasingly violent protests.
Sheriff Robert G. Luna then requested mutual assistance from law enforcement agencies inside and outside of the county, and the department coordinated with the California Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES) to deploy additional resources in hopes of quelling the violence.
Around 7:30 p.m. Sunday, police shut down the Hollywood (101) Freeway for the second time that day due to protesters on an overpass throwing rocks, debris and firecrackers at California Highway Patrol officers and vehicles in southbound lanes, causing severe damage to the vehicles.
The LAPD went on Tactical Alert, declared an unlawful assembly in the area of Alameda Street between Second and Alisostreets and battled with more than 1,000 demonstrators who marched from Boyle Heights to the Edward R. Roybal Federal Building.
Troops on horseback, ground and air resources were deployed with less-lethal munitions to combat the protesters.
On Sunday evening, police declared an unlawful assembly for the entire Civic Center area of downtown, and closing traffic on Spring Street between Temple and First streets, where demonstrators used chairs from Grand Park and other items to blockade the street. Less-lethal munitions were authorized and were used.
Around 6:30 p.m. Sunday, protesters used pink chairs, possibly from nearby Grand Park in an attempt to establish barricades in multiple locations, including Spring and Temple streets, outside City Hall and LAPD Headquarters.
Meanwhile, black smoke emanated from about a half-dozen Waymo driverless cars that were summoned to Los Angeles Street only to be destroyed and set on fire. Authorities allowed the vehicles to burn themselves out rather than send in firefighters to extinguish them.
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“Burning lithium-ion batteries release toxic gases, including hydrogen fluoride, posing risks to responders and those nearby,” officials stated.
Video also showed multiple LAPD vehicles vandalized.
“These images are unacceptable … these kids on the car, folks that are taking advantage of this, these aren’t peaceful protesters, a lot of these folks. A lot of great people out there doing the right thing, but then you get these insurgents groups coming in, sort of these anarchists that are there to create real problems, and they’re just playing right into Donald Trump’s hands,” Newsom told NBC’s Jacob Soboroff. “They need to be called out. They need to be arrested. It is wrong to destroy other people’s property and it is wrong to create the conditions that only exacerbate this. But Donald Trump, at the end of the day, is the sponsor of these conditions.”
By 7 p.m. Sunday, the car fires were extinguished by the Los Angeles Fire Department.
Around 9 p.m. Sunday, the LAPD declared the entirety of downtown an unlawful assembly, telling all demonstrators to leave immediately. Police said demonstrators marched to the LA Live area and slowed traffic on Figueroa near 11th Street by walking through the center of the roadway. A single police cruiser was struck by a bicycle thrown by a pedestrian in the area.
A second police vehicle was pelted with items after showing up to assist.
Arrests were reported as some protesters threw bottles and other objects at officers and attempted to breach police lines.
On Sunday night, LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell echoed Newsom’s comments about “anarchist” agitators taking advantage of legitimate civil rights protests to cause damage and inflame violence. McDonnell stated the LAPD was overwhelmed Sunday night by the number of protesters, with attacks on officers that included Molotov cocktails, hammers and stones.
“We recognize that immigration enforcement operations can cause a deep fear and anxiety, particularly in immigrant communities. That’s why we’re committed to transparency, accountability and treating every Angeleno with respect, regardless of their immigration status. … Our job is to keep everyone safe,” McDonnell said. “We will continue to support peaceful protests and enforce the law on criminal action.”
“The LAPD supports and protects the First Amendment right to free speech. We’re committed to treating every Angeleno with respect, regardless of their immigration status. … Our job is to keep everyone safe,” he said.
“I’ve seen civil unrest before, and generally, the second and third days are more violent,” McDonnell said, adding that he had spoken with Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman, who said he would be filing charges where appropriate … “and won’t be shy about that.”
McDonnell noted that while the vast majority of people protesting were trying to do so peacefully, agitators typically take advantage of civil demonstrations to sow violence, arriving at protests with commercial-grade fireworks to shoot at officers, cinder blocks that are broken into pieces and also hurled at police, and other destructive materials.
During Sunday’s protest near the Metropolitan Detention Center, National Guard members threw tear gas canisters and smoke grenades toward the demonstrators.
The Presidential Memorandum posted Saturday on the White House website ordered the deployment of the Guard in light of “numerous incidents ofviolence and disorder (which) … threaten to continue in response to the
enforcement of Federal law by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and other United States Government personnel who are performing Federal functions and supporting the faithful execution of Federal immigration laws.”
The order states, in part that “The members and units of the National Guard called into Federal service shall be at least 2,000 National Guard personnel and the duration of duty shall be for 60 days or at the discretion of the Secretary of Defense.”
The chaos began with a series of immigration enforcement raids Friday that sparked demonstrations featuring dozens of arrests and profane and threatening graffiti left on government buildings, and continued Saturday withviolent protests in Paramount during the day and in downtown Los Angeles on Saturday evening.
Despite the unruly crowds, Mayor Karen Bass said federal reinforcements were not needed, and she laid blame at the feet of the Trump administration, saying it escalated the violence with the deployment of National Guard troops.
“I’m very disappointed that he chose to do this, because it’s just not necessary,” Bass said Sunday. “There (were) protests last night in Los Angeles — my understanding is that there were about 120 protesters. Several of them did commit acts of vandalism, but there was nothing that was happening in downtown Los Angeles that the Los Angeles Police Department could not manage to deal with, so to me, this is completely unnecessary, I think it’s the administration just posturing. To have 100 troops in Westwood, where nothing had happened at all, and 100 downtown is just overreach.”
Newsom, who typically only deploys the California National Guard uponrequest from local law enforcement, accused Trump of trying to create a “spectacle” rather than acting on a “legitimate need.”
The governor later said he had “formally requested the Trump administration rescind their unlawful deployment of troops in Los Angeles county and return them to my command. We didn’t have a problem until Trump got involved. This is a serious breach of state sovereignty — inflaming tensions while pulling resources from where they’re actually needed.”
“Rescind the order. Return control to California,” he said.
The state filed a lawsuit against the federal government Monday challenging the legality of the National Guard deployment.
Trump addressed the situation in a social media post Sunday.
“A once great American city, Los Angeles, has been invaded and occupied by illegal aliens and criminals,” Trump said on Truth Social. “Now violent, insurrectionist mobs are swarming and attacking our federal agents totry and stop our deportation operations. But these lawless riots only strengthen our resolve.
“Order will be restored, the illegals will be expelled, and Los Angeles will be set free. Thank you for your attention to this matter!” (CNS)
