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      ‘This moment was thrust upon him’: Gavin Newsom steps up to parry Trump’s ‘wrecking ball’ attacks on American democracy

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      When Donald Trump landed in Los Angeles to tour the ruins left by January’s devastating wildfires, just days after being sworn in for a second term, California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, was waiting on the tarmac to greet him. The surprisingly warm exchange between two longtime political rivals seemed to reflect a new reality: with a vengeful Trump back in the White House, fire-ravaged California – and its Democratic governor – had a great deal at stake.In the weeks that followed, Newsom met with Trump at the White House to lobby for federal disaster relief, then approved funding to strengthen the state’s legal defenses against challenges from the Trump administration. He invited Maga-world fixtures on to his podcast, including Steve Bannon, and infuriated progressives, and even some allies, when he said that it was “deeply unfair” for transgender athletes to compete in girls’ sports – a wedge issue central to Trump’s conservative agenda. All the while, his state was suing the Trump administration – over executive actions on immigration, federal funding and tariffs – at a rate of more than one lawsuit a week.Their fragile detente, already showing cracks, shattered spectacularly last week, when the president mobilized thousands of national guard troops and 700 marines – over the governor’s objections – to quell protests in Los Angeles sparked by immigration raids across the region.Newsom accused Trump of deliberately injecting chaos into a situation that local authorities had under control. Trump’s actions, he declared, were “madness” and marked an “unmistakable step toward authoritarianism”. Trump, in turn, called Newsom, whom he refers to as “Newscum”, grossly incompetent and suggested the governor should be arrested. “Gavin likes the publicity,” the president mused, though he later played down the threat.With guards troops deployed in the streets of Los Angeles, the 57-year-old governor of the country’s most populous state delivered a formal, state-of-the-union-style address warning that the president was taking a “wrecking ball” to American democracy.“Look, this isn’t just about protests in LA,” Newsom said on Tuesday. “This is about all of us. This is about you.”“California may be first – but it clearly won’t end here. Other states are next,” he said. “Democracy is next.”For months, Democrats, anti-Trump Republicans and a growing number of alarmed Americans had been clamoring for leaders who grasp what they say is the urgency of Trump’s assault on democratic norms and American institutions. When Trump activated California’s national guard troops, Newsom stepped into the ring – and hasn’t stopped swinging since.“This moment was thrust upon him,” said Mike Madrid, a sharp critic of Trump and former political director of the California Republican party, “and whether it was a battlefield conversion or a genuine moment, Gavin Newsom realized that the only way out of this was to fight.”View image in fullscreenIn the week since the national guard’s deployment to Los Angeles, Newsom has mounted an all-out offensive – battling Trump in the courts and in the court of public opinion. He has made himself ubiquitous: sitting for interviews with podcasters and YouTubers, national media and local media. On social media, he and his team are running a rapid response blitz – a stream of taunts, Star Wars memes and factchecks.Newsom sued to block the guard’s deployment without his consent. California later filed an emergency order asking a judge to bar the guard from assisting with immigration enforcement. On Thursday, a federal judge sided with the state, finding that Trump’s deployment of the guard was unlawful – though the victory was short-lived. Two hours later, the ninth US circuit court of appeals temporarily blocked the order.“He is not a king and he should stop acting like one,” Newsom said on Thursday, at a press conference before the ruling was paused.The White House has responded in kind, with Trump hurling insults back at Newsom. When asked what crime Newsom might be charged with, Trump sniped: “His primary crime is running for governor, because he’s done such a bad job.”Trump, thanking the appeals court on Friday, said: “If I didn’t send the military into Los Angeles, that city would be burning to the ground right now” – a claim Newsom, city officials and local law enforcement strongly dispute.Tensions escalated further on Thursday, when a senator from California, Alex Padilla, was forcibly removed and handcuffed after trying to ask a question at a press conference held by the homeland security secretary, Kristi Noem, amid the ongoing protests in Los Angeles. Newsom called the episode “outrageous, dictatorial, and shameful”.“This is a moment that tests the mettle of leaders,” said Brian Brokaw, a longtime political adviser to Newsom. He noted that Newsom’s tenure was defined by crisis from the very start.The day after he was elected in 2018, a gunman killed 12 people at a country music bar in Thousand Oaks and as the Camp fire – the deadliest wildfire in state history – raged toward the town of Paradise. Since then, Newsom has faced a near-constant onslaught: more fires, more mass shootings, floods, mudslides, drought, a global pandemic, mass protests after the murder of George Floyd, and the wildfires that swept Los Angeles earlier this year.“Newsom has pretty good instincts,” Brokaw said. “He knows what a moment like this requires – and that’s what you’re seeing from him now.”The rapidly intensifying standoff between Trump and Newsom has rallied Democrats. Twenty-two Democratic governors signed a joint statement in support of California, calling Trump’s troop deployment “ineffective and dangerous”. The signatories spanned the ideological spectrum of the party and included several governors who are potential 2028 presidential contenders, such as JB Pritzker of Illinois, Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania and Andy Beshear of Kentucky.“He has shown he’s not going to be intimidated, and we’re all for that,” Chuck Schumer, the Senate minority leader, said earlier this week.Even some of his critics have been impressed. Ezra Levin, the co-founder of Indivisible, one of the groups behind Saturday’s “day of defiance” protests against Trump, said Newsom’s pugilistic response to the president’s “bullying” has been “spot on”.“I think he’s been one of the leading members of the ‘roll over and play dead’ faction, one of these dead-dog Democrats,” Levin said. “But maybe – maybe – he is shifting sides, and I think it is very important that we welcome people and leaders when they do that.”The White House believes its maximalist response to unrest in California plays to its political advantage. Trump, who campaigned on a promise of mass deportations, has framed California’s resistance as an obstruction to what he says is a popular mandate. Images of protesters waving Mexican flags near burning robotaxis feed the rightwing narrative of disorder in Democratic-run cities such as Los Angeles.“To be very cynical about this, you can argue that this benefits both principals,” said Bill Whalen, a research fellow at the Hoover Institution thinktank at Stanford University. “Donald Trump gets to swing at his favorite piñata, California, but Gavin Newsom doesn’t mind taking the whacks because it plays pretty well with the Democratic base.”According to a YouGov flash poll, 45% of Americans disapprove of the Los Angeles protests, while 36% approve. Similar shares disapprove of Trump’s deployment of the marines – 47% to 34% – and the national guard – 45% to 38%.View image in fullscreenSince Trump’s 2024 victory, many Democrats have taken pains to show support for law enforcement and border security.Some say Newsom’s approach offers a clear path forward. He has been unequivocal in condemning sporadic violence, vowing “zero tolerance” for bad actors. At the same time, he has offered a full-throated defense of the city’s immigrant communities, accusing Trump of tearing apart families and “disappearing” neighbors.“What’s happening right now is very different than anything we’ve seen before,” Newsom said in his Tuesday address, accusing federal agents of indiscriminately targeting Latino neighborhoods. “Trump is pulling a military dragnet across LA, well beyond his stated intent to just go after violent and serious criminals.”Conservatives say Newsom’s posture is precisely what helped Trump make inroads in some of the bluest corners of the country last year. Steve Hilton, a former top adviser to former UK prime minister David Cameron now running for governor of California, accused Newsom of trying to “gaslight us”.“Do your job,” he said on Fox News, “instead of pretending this is fine.”Newsom rose to prominence as the mayor of San Francisco, defying state law to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. He served as the state’s lieutenant governor for eight years before being elected governor in the middle of Trump’s first term, riding a wave of progressive anger. He survived a 2021 recall attempt, fueled in part by backlash to his handling of the pandemic, and was easily re-elected in 2022. He campaigned aggressively for Biden in 2024, even as some in the party hoped he’d run himself. When Biden dropped out, Newsom quickly endorsed his fellow Californian, “fearless” Kamala Harris.Democrats’ staggering losses in November left the party leaderless and without power in Washington. As Democrats grasped for answers – how to oppose an emboldened president whom voters chose over them – Newsom launched a podcast. Some speculated Newsom’s moves – interviewing far-right figures on his podcast, cracking down on homeless encampments and moving to scale back health coverage for immigrants without legal status – were part of a calculated pivot toward the political center, in preparation for a 2028 presidential run.Asked recently at a press conference if he was trying to shed his liberal persona, Newsom said he had always been a “hard-headed pragmatist”. “I’m not an ideologue,” he added.California – the biggest blue state in the country – has long served as Trump’s favorite foil. From homelessness and crime to immigration and climate policy, Trump has painted the state as a cautionary tale – a failed experiment in liberal governance now a “symbol of our nation’s decline”.This week, amid his clash with Newsom, Trump signed into law a measure blocking California’s vehicle emissions rules and his administration announced plans to abolish two of the state’s newest national monuments.“If it’s a day ending in Y, it’s another day of Trump’s war on California,” the governor’s office tweeted.Steve Maviglio, a Democratic political consultant, said Newsom’s “guerrilla warfare” tactics may raise the governor’s national profile – but at a cost.“We know that the president doesn’t respond well to being attacked,” Maviglio said, adding: “It’s likely going to result in a lot less federal dollars coming our way – which is about the last thing we need right now with a multibillion-dollar budget deficit.”Yet Newsom’s attempt at conciliation yielded little protection. Earlier this month, the Trump administration warned it may pull billions in funding from California’s long-delayed high-speed rail project. Trump has threatened to “maybe permanently” strip federal funding if the state continues to allow transgender athletes to compete in girls’ and women’s sports. And California is still waiting for the disaster aid Newsom sought after the fires.Newsom has argued in recent interviews that Trump can’t be placated. The governor suggested the state had leverage: it could withhold the billions in taxes its residents pay the federal government. (He has since tempered the idea, but said he urged his team to get “creative” on how the state might push back on Trump’s threats.)Newsom also suggested that growing public opposition to the immigration crackdown was working, after Trump conceded that his immigration tactics were hurting agriculture and hospitality. “Turns out, chasing hardworking people through ranches and snatching women and children off the streets is not good policy,” Newsom shot back.Though protests have calmed, the situation remains volatile. With the appeals court decision, Trump remains in command of the national guard through at least next week. On Friday, US marines temporarily detained a man outside the Wilshire Federal Building in Los Angeles – the first known detention of a civilian by active-duty troops deployed there by Trump.Speaking in Los Angeles, Noem pledged to “liberate” Los Angeles and vowed that the Trump administration would continue its immigration operations across the region.Ahead of planned protests on Saturday, Newsom ordered the state to “pre-deploy” additional resources to support law enforcement throughout the state. Organized as a show of defiance against Trump’s military parade staged in the streets of Washington DC on Saturday to celebrate the US army’s 250th anniversary and the president’s 79th birthday, the events have multiplied since Trump deployed guard troops to Los Angeles.For Newsom, the stakes are bigger than California. He has framed this moment as a test of democratic resilience in the face of creeping authoritarianism. And for those who have long sounded the alarm, the governor is meeting it.“He’s become what Democrats nationally have been waiting for since the election,” Madrid said. “He’s the tip of the spear – the more strenuously he fights, the more aggressive he is, the more he uses Trump’s tactics against him, the more he’s going to be rewarded.”David Smith in Washington and Rachel Leingang contributed reporting More

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      What the foreign flags at the LA protests really mean

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      At the White House on Wednesday, the press secretary, Karoline Leavitt, told reporters Donald Trump’s decision to dispatch the military to Los Angeles had been triggered by something he’d seen: “images of foreign flags being waved” during protests over federal immigration raids.Leavitt did not specify which images the president had been so disturbed by, but the fact that some protesters denouncing his immigration crackdown have waved Mexican, Guatemalan and Salvadorian flags, or hybrid flags that combine those banners with the American flag, has been taken as an affront by supporters of his mass deportation campaign.The architect of that policy, Stephen Miller, has complained bitterly about flag-waving protesters on the streets of his Los Angeles hometown, and shared video of demonstrators on social media with the comment: “Look at all the foreign flags. Los Angeles is occupied territory.”Trump himself even claimed, during his deeply partisan speech to soldiers at Fort Bragg on Tuesday, that his deployment of active-duty marines to the city was justified because of the protesters he called “rioters bearing foreign flags with the aim of continuing a foreign invasion”.But observers with a more nuanced understanding of the Los Angeles communities being targeted in these raids, and of the nation’s history as a refuge for immigrants, suggest that the flags are not intended to signal allegiance to any foreign government but rather to signal solidarity with immigrants from those places and, for Americans with roots in those countries, to express pride in their heritage.Lalo Alcaraz, a Mexican American satirist and editorial cartoonist, who coined the term “self-deportation” in the 1990s as part of an elaborate prank in response to the anti-immigrant policies of then California governor Pete Wilson, said that the protesters carrying those flags in LA are not immigrants themselves, but “the younger generation that are American citizens and that have pride in their immigrant parents”. Their parents, he said, “are hard-working good people who come from other countries – Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador. This is why they proudly wave those flags.”“Of course they’re proud of their roots, and honestly, what has the American flag done for them but persecute their families?” Alcaraz added. “They are promised that there is a right way to immigrate, that there will be a pathway to citizenship, but this promise has been ignored because corporations make profits off the low wages and hard work of these immigrants, and want to keep them in limbo because it’s easier to control them.”That sentiment was echoed by a protester named Jesus, who told NPR during a protest this week that he waved the Mexican flag because “I’m proud of my Mexican heritage, you know? Even though it was several generations ago, my family members were immigrants.”As NPR’s Adrian Florido pointed out, the large number of flags from other parts of the Americas at these protests contrasted sharply with what was seen in the same place two decades ago.View image in fullscreenIn 2006, when huge marches brought hundreds of thousands of people to the streets of LA to protest against Republicans in Congress introducing a restrictive immigration bill that would close off paths to citizenship and build fences along the border, organizers urged the demonstrators to wave American flags.“Apparently taking stock of complaints about the number of Mexican flags in previous demonstrations, organizers made sure that the vast majority of marchers Monday carried American flags,” the Los Angeles Times reported in 2006 on the massive May Day march that year. Images from that rally showed that Mexican flags were vastly outnumbered in a sea of American flags.Others have pointed out that, for Americans with European roots, waving the flags of their ancestors, from Ireland or Italy, for example, is considered uncontroversial.“The reason Mexicans and Mexican Americans wave the Mexican flag is the same reason the Irish wave the Irish flag,” David Bier, director of immigration studies at the Cato Institute, wrote on Friday. “Not because they want to go back there, but because they are proud of their Heritage and want to stand up for people with their ancestry.”“When you persecute a minority, it makes them more aware of their identity and differences from the majority, slowing assimilation,” he added. “In other words, the Trump agenda is bad for the very thing Trumpists claim to want.”In that light, it is worth recalling that charges of dual loyalty were once hurled at Irish and Italian immigrants, too. Less than a century ago, in fact, American citizens from Irish and Italian families were viewed with hatred and suspicion by native-born, white Protestants.To take one example, when 1,000 robed members of the Ku Klux Klan rioted at the 1927 Memorial Day parade in Queens, and seven men were arrested, one of their chief targets was New York’s Irish American-led police force, which tried to prevent them from marching. One of those men was the current president’s father, Fred Trump. (A report from the time in a Brooklyn newspaper said that “a charge of refusing to disperse from a parade when ordered to do so” against Trump was quickly dismissed.)The deep vein of hatred Italian immigrants faced was even a motivating factor in the the first Columbus Day proclamation, issued by Benjamin Harrison in 1892. The then US president hoped to gain support from new Italian American voters, but he was also trying to absolve the country of the stain from a deadly anti-Italian riot the year before in New Orleans, in which 11 Italian immigrants had been falsely accused of murder and were lynched by a mob.One of Trump’s first acts on returning to office this year was to issue a proclamation that Columbus Day would be celebrated during his administration without any acknowledgement of the Indigenous people who suffered so much in the centuries after his voyage to this hemisphere. More

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      Has Trump turned the US into a police state? – podcast

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      Trump keeps national guards in LA for now as appeals court puts brakes on ban

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      An appeals court has temporarily returned control of California’s national guard to Donald Trump, just hours after a federal judge ruled the president’s use of the guards to suppress protests in Los Angeles was illegal and banned it.The 9th US Circuit court of appeals order means Trump retains command of the guards for now and can continue to use them to respond to protests against his immigration crackdown. The court could later decide against his control.It’s a temporary victory for Trump in back-and-forth court decisions on who should control the security force, an issue that has pitted California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, against the president and angered Democrats, who see the deployment as an abuse of power.The three-judge panel that paused the ruling included two judges appointed by Trump in his first term. The other is a judge appointed by Joe Biden. The panel said it would hold a hearing on Tuesday to consider the merits of the order from District Judge Charles Breyer from earlier in the day.Breyer ruled the Guard deployment was illegal and both violated the 10th amendment and exceeded Trump’s statutory authority. The order applied only to the National Guard troops and not Marines who were also deployed to the LA protests. The judge said he would not rule on the Marines because they were not out on the streets yet.In issuing a temporary restraining order against Trump, Breyer found the president had failed to show there was a “rebellion” in Los Angeles that required him to federalize the guard and failed to comply with the procedural steps to notify the governor.“His actions were illegal – both exceeding the scope of his statutory authority and violating the Tenth Amendment to the United States constitution. He must therefore return control of the California National Guard to the Governor,” Breyer wrote.The request for the injunction is part of a lawsuit filed by the state of California challenging Trump’s move to call up more than 4,000 national guard troops and about 700 active-duty marines based in Twentynine Palms, California, over Newsom’s objections.Beryer’s decision came after a hearing in federal district court in San Francisco where the justice department argued Trump had the sole and unreviewable power to decide whether there was a “rebellion” that needed federal intervention.Breyer rejected both arguments in his sweeping 36-page opinion, effectively rebuking the justice department for trying to suggest the conditions to take control of the guard had been met as long as Trump had decided himself that was the case.“The president’s discretion in what to do next does not mean that the president can unilaterally and without judicial review declare that a vacancy exists in order to fill it. That is classic ipse dixit,” Breyer wrote, adding that the definition of rebellion had clearly not been met.The temporary restraining order did not touch on Trump and his defense secretary, Pete Hegseth, moving to deploy the marines, in large part because the justice department told the judge they were only being used to protect federal buildings and personnel.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionUsing the military for protective purposes, Breyer suggested at the hearing, would not be a violation of the Posse Comitatus Act, a 19th-century law prohibiting the use of troops to engage in law enforcement activities on domestic soil.Trump has been suggesting the idea of deploying troops against Americans since his first term, when some Black Lives Matter protests in the summer of 2020 turned violent. He opted against doing so at the time, but has since expressed regret to advisers that he did not punish them more aggressively.Notably, during a campaign rally in 2023, Trump vowed to respond more forcefully if elected to a second term. “You’re supposed to not be involved in that, you just have to be asked by the governor or the mayor to come in,” he said of the president’s usual role in deciding whether to send in the military. “The next time, I’m not waiting.”The Associated Press contributed reporting. More

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      Senator Alex Padilla forcibly removed from Kristi Noem’s LA press conference

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      Alex Padilla, a Democratic California senator and vocal critic of the Trump administration’s immigration polices, was forcibly removed and handcuffed as he attempted to ask a question at a press conference held by Kristi Noem, the homeland security secretary, in Los Angeles on Thursday.In video taken of the incident that has since gone viral on social media, Padilla is seen being restrained and removed from the room by Secret Service agents.“I’m Senator Alex Padilla. I have questions for the secretary,” Padilla shouts, as he struggles to move past against the men pushing him back toward the exit.“Hands off!” Padilla says at least three times. Outside the room, he is pinned to the floor and placed in handcuffs.Emerging afterward, Padilla, the ranking member of the judiciary subcommittee on immigration, citizenship and border safety, said he and his colleagues had repeatedly asked DHS for more information on its “increasingly extreme immigration enforcement actions” but had not received a response to his inquiries.“If this is how this administration responds to a senator with a question, if this is how the DHS responds to a senator with a question, you can only imagine what they’re doing to farm workers, to cooks, to day laborers, throughout the LA community and throughout California and throughout the country,” Padilla, the son of immigrants from Mexico, told reporters. “We will hold this administration accountable.”The extraordinary scene stunned his Democratic colleagues from Capitol Hill to California, though his actions drew criticism from Republicans, including the House speaker, Mike Johnson, who called for Padilla’s censure. It comes amid escalating tensions between California and the federal government, after Donald Trump deployed national guard troops and US Marines to LA to quell protests prompted by immigration raids, over the objections of the state’s governor and the city’s mayor.“I am shocked by how far we have descended in the first 140 days of this administration,” Adam Schiff, the junior senator from California said in a speech from the Senate floor shortly after viewing the video of the incident. “What is becoming of our democracy? Are there no limits to what this administration will do? Is there no line they will not cross?”In a statement, the DHS said the senator “chose disrespectful political theatre” and disrupted a live news conference. They falsely claimed that Padilla had failed to identify himself and believed he was an attacker when he “lunged toward” Noem as she delivered remarks.“Mr Padilla was told repeatedly to back away and did not comply with officers’ repeated commands,” the department said in a statement posted on X, adding that officers responded and “acted appropriately”.The deputy FBI director Dan Bongino accused Padilla of “not wearing a security pin” and said he “physically resisted law enforcement when confronted”.“Our FBI personnel acted completely appropriately while assisting Secret Service and we are grateful for their professionalism and service,” Bongino added.Noem was in Los Angeles to accompany federal agents on immigration operations in the area.Noem said Padilla’s approach “wasn’t appropriate” and that she wished he had reached out to her office before interrupting the event. Following the incident, she and the senator met for 15 minutes, according to DHS. Noem told reporters that they had a “great” and “productive” conversation and exchanged phone numbers.Democratic officials said they were stunned by what the House minority leader, Hakeem Jeffries, described as the “manhandling” of a sitting US senator.The California governor, Gavin Newsom, called Padilla “one of the most decent people I know”, before adding: “This is outrageous, dictatorial, and shameful. Trump and his shock troops are out of control. This must end now.”Chuck Schumer, the Senate Democratic leader, wrote on X that “watching this video sickened my stomach, the manhandling of a United States Senator, Senator Padilla. We need immediate answers to what the hell went on.”Jimmy Gomez, a California representative, wrote on X : “This isn’t just shocking, it’s a threat to the rule of law and democratic accountability. Sen Padilla is conducting oversight over the lawlessness of the Trump and the violations of the #RuleOfLaw. If this can happen to immigrant communities, it can happen to anyone.”Tina Smith, a Minnesota senator, said: “This is disgusting. If this is how they treat Alex Padilla, a United States Senator, how do you think they’ll treat you?”Norma Torres, a California representative, lambasted the treatment of Padilla in an impassioned video, writing: “Let’s call it what it is: a disgraceful abuse of power. Senator Alex Padilla was dragged and handcuffed out for daring to question Secretary Noem. This wasn’t a threat – it was dissent. They’re not keeping us safe – they’re silencing us.”The clash with Padilla comes just days after the Democratic representative LaMonica McIver of New Jersey was indicted on federal charges alleging she assaulted and interfered with immigration officers after a clash with law enforcement at a May protest outside a detention facility in Newark. Democrats have cast the charges as a politically motivated attempt by the Trump administration to intimidate the opposition.As he exited the floor of the House of Representatives, Johnson said the senator had been at fault, accusing him of “charging a cabinet secretary at a press conference” and calling his actions “wildly inappropriate”.“A sitting member of Congress should not act like that,” he said. “It is beneath a member of the Congress, it is beneath a US senator.”Johnson said he believes Padilla’s behavior “merits immediate attention” by Congress and “at a minimum, it rises to the level of a censure”. More

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      Why did Angelenos swiftly resist Ice raids? Look to LA’s deep immigrant roots

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      Nerves are frayed in Los Angeles, as the second largest city in the US is flooded with more than 2,000 federal troops tasked with protecting immigration enforcement officials after thousands of people hit the streets to protest against deportation raids.That this weekend’s immigration enforcement actions sparked a fierce response in LA will not come as a surprise to many Californians. LA’s immigrant roots, and its deep ties to neighboring Mexico, are central to the region’s identity.Long before it was part of the US, LA was Indigenous Tongva and Chumash land. It later came under Spanish and then Mexican rule. The name “California” itself comes from a Spanish novel, Las sergas de Esplandián (The Adventures of Esplandián), and appeared on maps as early as 1541. But it wasn’t until 2 August 1769, that the Spaniard Juan Crespi, a Franciscan priest accompanying the first European land expedition through California, described in his journal a “beautiful river from the north-west”. He named the river, which would later become the LA River, Nuestra Señora de los Angeles de la Porciúncula (Our Lady of the Angels of the Porciuncula). Twelve years later, in 1781, the settlement would emerge with the shortened and anglicized name of Los Angeles.After Mexico’s independence from Spain in 1821, Los Angeles – indeed the whole region– remained Mexican territory until it was ceded to the US in 1848 after the Mexican-American war. California became the 31st state in 1850, entering the Union as a free state.Today, one in three people of LA county’s more than 10 million residents are immigrants, and 1.6 million children in the region have at least one immigrant parent. They come from countries around the world. It’s common for Angelenos to have been born in Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala, the Philippines, China and Hong Kong – but also Russia, France, the UK and elsewhere.Their experiences are diverse, shaped by race, class, legal status, education, languages spoken and more. And they fill vital roles in the region’s economy. Immigrant workers make up 40% of the LA metro area’s workforce.View image in fullscreen“In Los Angeles – more than anywhere – the relationship between immigrant and non-immigrant is interdependent,” says LA city councilmember Hugo Soto-Martínez, the son of Mexican immigrants and street vendors.Soto-Martínez represents council district 13, which includes some of LA’s most diverse neighborhoods: Echo Park, Silver Lake, Koreatown, Thai Town, Historic Filipinotown and Little Armenia.“Angelenos know that it doesn’t matter where you are – if you’re eating at a restaurant, chances are your food is cooked by an immigrant,” Soto-Martínez said. “If you’re having work done on your house, it’s often an immigrant. Many nannies are immigrants. And if you go to the hospital, chances are you’re being treated by an immigrant.”View image in fullscreenLA has long celebrated its immigrant culture, and in recent years city leaders have worked to protect its immigrant population from the Trump administration’s deportation agenda. In 2023, ahead of a possible second Donald Trump term, LA declared itself a sanctuary city, barring local personnel and resources from being used in federal immigration enforcement. California, too, has passed a string of laws to protect immigrant workers – regardless of legal status – from retaliation, wage theft and other forms of exploitation.“We are a city of immigrants, and we have always embraced that,” Karen Bass, the mayor of LA, said in a press conference on Monday.With immigrants such a strong part of its culture, Friday’s arrest of 118 immigrants, and claims from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that many of them were criminals, has galled the community. The DHS’s website featured photos of 11 people arrested in the raids, with a headline that read: “ICE Captures Worst of the Worst Illegal Alien Criminals in Los Angeles Including Murderers, Sex Offenders, and Other Violent Criminals.”Jorge-Mario Cabrera, a spokesperson for the non-profit Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles (Chirla), says his organization has been in direct contact with many of the families of those arrested and has deployed legal counsel in multiple cases. So far, he says: “We’ve found no credible evidence to back homeland security’s claims. These were not targeted arrests. They weren’t based on judicial warrants. And the lie won’t survive for long.”The raids at workplaces – pushed by Tom Homan, Trump’s border czar, and Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff – come amid a broader push by the administration to hasten arrests and increase deportations. Homan warned LA is likely to see more enforcement this month. And he’s also admitted that the agency has arrested people with no criminal records.Cabrera says given the situation, Angelenos are reacting with justified anger, hurt and civic determination. People in LA with power will stand up for their immigrant friends and family members, he argued.“Angelenos are good about ensuring their voices are heard,” he says. Still, he urges peaceful protest only. “If we give the government reasons to repress us, they will use their maximum power to do so.”Advocates and city leaders also warn that people everywhere should be chilled by what’s happening in the City of Angels.“I think we’re an experiment,” said Mayor Bass. “Because if you can do this to the nation’s second largest city, maybe the administration is hoping this will be a signal to everyone everywhere to fear them. Your federal government … can come in and take over.” More

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      LA protests: Los Angeles under curfew for second night with marines expected to be deployed – latest updates

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      US marines will join national guard troops on the streets of Los Angeles within two days, officials said on Wednesday, and would be authorized to detain anyone who interferes with immigration officers on raids or protesters who confront federal agents, reports Reuters.President Donald Trump ordered the deployments over the objections of California governor Gavin Newsom, causing a national debate about the use of the military on US soil and animating protests that have spread from Los Angeles to other major cities, including New York, Atlanta and Chicago.Los Angeles on Wednesday endured a sixth day of protests that have been largely peaceful but occasionally punctuated by violence, mostly contained to a few blocks of the city’s downtown area.The protests broke out last Friday in response to a series of immigration raids. Trump in turn called in the national guard on Saturday, then summoned the marines on Monday.“If I didn’t act quickly on that, Los Angeles would be burning to the ground right now,” said Trump at an event at the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.According to Reuters, the US military said on Wednesday that a battalion of 700 marines had concluded training specific to the LA mission, including de-escalation and crowd control. They would join national guard under the authority of a federal law known as Title 10 within 48 hours, not to conduct civilian policing but to protect federal officers and property, the military said.“Title 10 forces may temporarily detain an individual in specific circumstances such as to stop an assault, to prevent harm to others, or to prevent interference with federal personnel performing their duties,” the northern command said.Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement:If any rioters attack Ice law enforcement officers, military personnel have the authority to temporarily detain them until law enforcement makes the arrest.”US army Maj Gen Scott Sherman, who commands the taskforce of marines and guardsmen, told reporters the marines will not carry live ammunition in their rifles, but they will carry live rounds.More on this story in a moment, but first here is a summary of the latest developments:

      A curfew came into effect for the second consecutive night in downtown Los Angeles on Wednesday, where police used horses and munitions to disperse protesters. Police declared the gathering near city hall unlawful shortly before the curfew, and began firing and charging at protesters shortly afterwards.

      Donald Trump was booed and cheered while attending the opening night of Les Misérables at the Kennedy Center, his first appearance there since becoming president and appointing himself chair.

      All 12 members of the prestigious Fulbright program’s board resigned in protest of what they describe as unprecedented political interference by the Trump administration, which has blocked scholarships for nearly 200 American academics.

      David Hogg will not run again for a vice-chair position at the Democratic National Committee, after members voted to void and re-do his election. The move ends months of internal turmoil over Hogg’s outside activism, particularly his vow to primary “asleep-at-the-wheel” Democrats.

      Los Angeles county district attorney Nathan Hochman said media and social media had grossly distorted the scale of protest violence. “There are 11 million people in this county; 4 million of which live in Los Angeles city. We estimate that there’s probably thousands of people who have engaged in legitimate protest, let’s say 4,000 people,” Hochman said.
      The US military said on Wednesday that a battalion of 700 Marines had concluded training specific to the LA mission, including de-escalation and crowd control.They would join National Guard under the authority of a federal law known as Title 10 within 48 hours, not to conduct civilian policing but to protect federal officers and property, the military said.“Title 10 forces may temporarily detain an individual in specific circumstances such as to stop an assault, to prevent harm to others, or to prevent interference with federal personnel performing their duties,” the Northern Command said.Three prominent Democratic US governors face a grilling on Thursday from a Republican-led US House of Representatives panel over immigration policy, as president Donald Trump steps up a crackdown on people living in the country illegally, Reuters reported.The governors of New York, Illinois and Minnesota are due to testify to the House Oversight Committee after days of protests in downtown Los Angeles over the Trump administration’s aggressive ramping up of arrests of migrants.Tensions escalated as Trump ordered the National Guard and Marines into California to provide additional security.Trump’s immigration crackdown has become a major political flashpoint between the White House and national Democrats. California’s Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom, seen as a contender for the party’s presidential nomination in 2028, in a Tuesday night video speech accused Trump of choosing “theatrics over public safety.”Minnesota’s Tim Walz, who ran unsuccessfully for vice-president last year; Illinois’ JB Pritzker, also seen a 2028 hopeful, and New York’s Kathy Hochul, walked a careful line in their prepared testimony for Thursday’s hearing, voicing support for immigration enforcement, if not Trump’s tactics.“If they are undocumented, we want them out of Illinois and out of our country,” Pritzker said.At the same time, Pritzker lashed out against “any violations of the law or abuses of power” and said, “Law-abiding, hard-working, tax-paying people who have been in this country for years should have a path to citizenship.”Reuters/Ipsos polls show Trump getting more support for his handling of immigration than any other policy area.As federal agents rushed to arrest immigrants across Los Angeles, they confined detainees – including families with small children – in a stuffy office basement for days without sufficient food and water, according to immigration lawyers.One family with three children were held inside a Los Angeles-area administrative building for 48 hours after being arrested on Thursday immediately after an immigration court hearing, according to lawyers from the Immigrant Defenders Law Center (ImmDef), which is providing non-profit legal services in the region.The children, the youngest of whom is three years old, were provided a bag of chips, a box of animal crackers and a mini carton of milk as their sole rations for a day. Agents told the family they did not have any water to provide during the family’s first day in detention; on the second day, all five were given a single bottle to share. The one fan in the room was pointed directly towards a guard, rather than towards the families in confinement, they told lawyers.“Because it was primarily men held in these facilities, they didn’t have separate quarters for families or for women,” said Yliana Johansen-Méndez, chief program officer at ImmDef. Clients explained that “eventually they set up a makeshift tent in an outside area to house the women and children. But clearly, there were no beds, no showers.”They have since been transferred to a “family detention” center in Dilley, Texas, a large-scale holding facility retrofitted to hold children with their parents that was reopened under the Trump administration. Lawyers, who had been largely blocked from communicating with immigrants arrested amid the ramped-up raids in LA, said family members were able to recount the ordeal only after they were moved out of state.Hilda Solis, an LA county supervisor, said on Wednesday evening she was concerned about a “deeply disturbing incident” in the city’s Boyle Heights neighborhood involving two unmarked vehicles operated by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) agents crashing in to a civilian car with two children inside and deploying teargas to apprehend an individual. She said she had also learned of an incident of Ice attempting to detain a member of the press.The nearly 5,000 US military personnel in the city now exceeds the number of US troops in both Iraq and Syria.The increasing raids come as Ice ramps up its efforts to meet a reported quota of 3,000 detentions a day set by Stephen Miller, Donald Trump’s White House deputy chief of staff. The city has seen days of protest over Trump’s immigration crackdown and the subsequent military deployment.US immigration officials carried out further “enforcement activity” in California’s agricultural heartland and the Los Angeles area as the conflict between the state and Donald Trump’s administration intensified on Wednesday.Immigrant advocacy groups reported multiple actions across the state, where an estimated 255,700 farm workers are undocumented, and said agents pursued workers through blueberry fields and staged operations at agricultural facilities.The raids have been sharply criticized by advocacy groups and local officials, who said they were “outraged and heartbroken by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) activities targeting immigrant families”.“When our workforce’s lives are in fear, the fields will go unharvested, the impact is felt not only at the local level, but it will also be felt at the national level,” said Jeannette Sanchez-Palacios, the mayor of Ventura, a coastal city just north of Los Angeles. “Everything will be affected and every American who is here and relies on the labor of these individuals will be affected.”Immigration activities have continued in the Los Angeles area as well, where officials say people have been detained outside Home Depots and in front of churches. Karen Bass, the Los Angeles mayor, said the raids have created a deep sense of fear in the region and that the White House has provoked unrest. The night-time curfew she put in place this week will stay in place as long as needed, including while there are ongoing raids and a military presence in the city, Bass said at a press conference on Wednesday.Here is a Guardian graphic showing where the curfew in Los Angeles has been imposed.US marines will join national guard troops on the streets of Los Angeles within two days, officials said on Wednesday, and would be authorized to detain anyone who interferes with immigration officers on raids or protesters who confront federal agents, reports Reuters.President Donald Trump ordered the deployments over the objections of California governor Gavin Newsom, causing a national debate about the use of the military on US soil and animating protests that have spread from Los Angeles to other major cities, including New York, Atlanta and Chicago.Los Angeles on Wednesday endured a sixth day of protests that have been largely peaceful but occasionally punctuated by violence, mostly contained to a few blocks of the city’s downtown area.The protests broke out last Friday in response to a series of immigration raids. Trump in turn called in the national guard on Saturday, then summoned the marines on Monday.“If I didn’t act quickly on that, Los Angeles would be burning to the ground right now,” said Trump at an event at the John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.According to Reuters, the US military said on Wednesday that a battalion of 700 marines had concluded training specific to the LA mission, including de-escalation and crowd control. They would join national guard under the authority of a federal law known as Title 10 within 48 hours, not to conduct civilian policing but to protect federal officers and property, the military said.“Title 10 forces may temporarily detain an individual in specific circumstances such as to stop an assault, to prevent harm to others, or to prevent interference with federal personnel performing their duties,” the northern command said.Department of Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement:If any rioters attack Ice law enforcement officers, military personnel have the authority to temporarily detain them until law enforcement makes the arrest.”US army Maj Gen Scott Sherman, who commands the taskforce of marines and guardsmen, told reporters the marines will not carry live ammunition in their rifles, but they will carry live rounds.More on this story in a moment, but first here is a summary of the latest developments:

      A curfew came into effect for the second consecutive night in downtown Los Angeles on Wednesday, where police used horses and munitions to disperse protesters. Police declared the gathering near city hall unlawful shortly before the curfew, and began firing and charging at protesters shortly afterwards.

      Donald Trump was booed and cheered while attending the opening night of Les Misérables at the Kennedy Center, his first appearance there since becoming president and appointing himself chair.

      All 12 members of the prestigious Fulbright program’s board resigned in protest of what they describe as unprecedented political interference by the Trump administration, which has blocked scholarships for nearly 200 American academics.

      David Hogg will not run again for a vice-chair position at the Democratic National Committee, after members voted to void and re-do his election. The move ends months of internal turmoil over Hogg’s outside activism, particularly his vow to primary “asleep-at-the-wheel” Democrats.

      Los Angeles county district attorney Nathan Hochman said media and social media had grossly distorted the scale of protest violence. “There are 11 million people in this county; 4 million of which live in Los Angeles city. We estimate that there’s probably thousands of people who have engaged in legitimate protest, let’s say 4,000 people,” Hochman said. More

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      US immigration officials raid California farms as Trump ramps up conflict

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      US immigration officials carried out further “enforcement activity” in California’s agricultural heartland and the Los Angeles area as the conflict between the state and Donald Trump’s administration intensified on Wednesday.Immigrant advocacy groups reported multiple actions across the state, where an estimated 255,700 farm workers are undocumented, and said agents pursued workers through blueberry fields and staged operations at agricultural facilities.The raids have been sharply criticized by advocacy groups and local officials, who said they were “outraged and heartbroken by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) activities targeting immigrant families”.“When our workforce’s lives are in fear, the fields will go unharvested, the impact is felt not only at the local level, but it will also be felt at the national level,” said Jeannette Sanchez-Palacios, the mayor of Ventura, a coastal city just north of Los Angeles. “Everything will be affected and every American who is here and relies on the labor of these individuals will be affected.”Immigration activities have continued in the Los Angeles area as well, where officials say people have been detained outside Home Depots and in front of churches. Karen Bass, the Los Angeles mayor, said the raids have created a deep sense of fear in the region and that the White House has provoked unrest. The nighttime curfew she put in place this week will stay in place as long as needed, including while there are ongoing raids and a military presence in the city, Bass said at a press conference on Wednesday.Hilda Solis, an LA county supervisor, said Wednesday evening she was concerned about a “deeply disturbing incident” in the city’s Boyle Heights neighborhood involving two unmarked vehicles operated by Ice agents crashing in to a civilian car with two children inside and deploying teargas to apprehend an individual. She said she had also learned of an incident of Ice attempting to detain a member of the press.The nearly 5,000 US military personnel in the city now exceeds the number of US troops in both Iraq and Syria.The increasing raids come as Ice ramps up its efforts to meet a reported quota of 3,000 detentions a day set by Stephen Miller, Trump’s White House deputy chief of staff. The city has seen days of protest over Trump’s immigration crackdown and the subsequent military deployment.Los Angeles police announced they arrested more than 200 people in the city’s downtown area on Tuesday, after crowds gathered in defiance of the overnight curfew in the neighborhood. The LAPD said it had carried out more than 400 arrests and detentions of protesters since Saturday.The crackdown came after California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, filed an emergency request to block the Trump administration from using military forces to accompany Ice officers on raids throughout LA.Trump has ordered the deployment of 4,000 national guard members and 700 marines to LA after days of protests driven by anger over aggressive Ice raids that have targeted garment workers, day labourers, car wash employees and members of immigrant communities.Across the country, NBC reported that Ice was preparing to deploy tactical units to several more cities run by Democratic leaders, citing two sources familiar with the plans, who named four of the cities as Seattle, Chicago, New York and Philadelphia.On Wednesday, dozens of mayors from across the Los Angeles region banded together to demand that the Trump administration stop the stepped-up immigration raids that have spread fear across their cities.“I’m asking you, please listen to me, stop terrorizing our residents,” said Mayor Jessica Ancona of El Monte, who said she was hit by rubber bullets during a raid in her city.Speaking alongside the other mayors at a news conference, Bass said the raids spread fear at the behest of the White House.“We started off by hearing the administration wanted to go after violent felons, gang members, drug dealers. But when you raid Home Depots and workplaces, when you tear parents and children apart, and when you run armored caravans through our streets, you’re not trying to keep anyone safe,” she said. “You’re trying to cause fear and panic.”Newsom and the California attorney general, Rob Bonta, have alleged in a pair of lawsuits filed on Monday and Tuesday that Trump’s takeover of the state’s national guard, against the governor’s wishes, was unlawful. On Tuesday, a federal judge declined to immediately rule on California’s request for a restraining order and scheduled a hearing for Thursday.In a speech, Newsom condemned Trump for “indiscriminately targeting hard-working immigrant families” and militarising the streets of LA, recounting how in recent days Ice agents had grabbed people outside a Home Depot, detained a nine-months-pregnant US citizen, sent unmarked cars to schools, and arrested gardeners and seamstresses.“That’s just weakness masquerading as strength,” the governor said. “If some of us can be snatched off the streets without a warrant based only on suspicion or skin colour, then none of us are safe. Authoritarian regimes begin by targeting people who are least able to defend themselves. But they do not stop there.”In past days, thousands of troops have been deployed to LA over the objections of Democratic officials and despite concerns from local law enforcement.skip past newsletter promotionafter newsletter promotionUS military troops in the city do not have the authority to arrest people, but they are allowed to temporarily detain individuals until law enforcement agents arrest them, Maj Gen Scott Sherman, who is leading the deployment, said on Wednesday. National guard troops on the ground in Los Angeles have already done so, he said.View image in fullscreenThe 700 US marines who will be deployed are receiving training on civil disturbances and will not have live ammunition in their rifles while in the city, Sherman said.The Los Angeles county sheriff, Robert Luna, said on Wednesday, however, that federal troops do not have the power to arrest or detain: “So if they are out in the field, they may be there, but they are working in conjunction with federal authorities. It could be Ice, border patrol, there’s a whole host of acronym federal agencies that they’re working with.” Luna also said he was unaware whether Marines were already on the ground in the city, but that local law enforcement was trying to “improve communication” with the military.Pete Hegseth, the US defence secretary, said he expected the military would remain in the city for 60 days at a cost of at least $134m.Trump defended the military deployment on his Truth Social platform on Wednesday morning, writing: “If our troops didn’t go into Los Angeles, it would be burning to the ground right now, just like so much of their housing burned to the ground. The great people of Los Angeles are very lucky that I made the decision to go in and help!!!”The deployment of the national guard and marines is strongly opposed by California Democrats, as well as by every Democratic governor in the US. Alex Padilla, a California senator, told the Associated Press on Tuesday that protests against Ice and the subsequent legal showdown between his state and the government was “absolutely a crisis of Trump’s own making”.He said: “There are a lot of people who are passionate about speaking up for fundamental rights and respecting due process, but the deployment of national guard only serves to escalate tensions and the situation. It’s exactly what Donald Trump wanted to do.”Padilla said the Los Angeles sheriff’s department had not been advised of the federalisation of the national guard. He said his office had pressed the Pentagon for a justification, and “as far as we’re told, the Department of Defence isn’t sure what the mission is here”.Meanwhile, officials in Los Angeles have sought to reassure the public that the situation in the city remains largely peaceful and calm. At a news conference on Wednesday afternoon, Nathan Hochman, the district attorney of Los Angeles county, pointed out how images of unrest on television and social media have misled many Americans about the nature and scale of the mayhem.“If you only saw the social media and the media reports of what’s going on over the last five days, you would think that Los Angeles is on the brink of war,” Hochman said.“But let me put this in perspective for you. There are 11 million people in this county; 4 million of which live in Los Angeles city. We estimate that there’s probably thousands of people who have engaged in legitimate protest, let’s say 4,000 people,” Hochman said.“That means that 99.9% of people in Los Angeles city or generally Los Angeles county have not engaged in any protest at all,” he continued. “Now, amongst the people who have engaged in protest, we estimate that there are hundreds of people, let’s say maybe up to 400, to use rough percentages, who have engaged in this type of illegal activity.”“So what does that mean?” Hochman asked. “That means that 99.99% of people who live in Los Angeles … have not committed any illegal acts in connection with this protest whatsoever.”Lauren Gambino, Sam Levin, Lois Beckett, Joseph Gedeon and agencies contributed reporting More