In the US, demonstrations against the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown have intensified and spread far beyond Los Angeles, with thousands of people gathering in at least two dozen cities.
Protesters briefly blocked traffic in Los Angeles and Chicago. Similar scenes unfolded in New York, where blocks of demonstrators marched from Lower Manhattan, while in Atlanta, demonstrators had a standoff with local police. Elsewhere, protests rippled across San Francisco, Seattle, Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, and Washington, DC, with varying degrees of police presence and tension.
Dozens of arrests were reported in New York and San Francisco. These demonstrations come amid a deepening political and legal confrontation in California over the use of military forces in domestic immigration enforcement.
At an event marking the 250th anniversary of the US Army on Tuesday, President Donald Trump labelled Los Angeles protesters as “a foreign enemy.” He described their actions as an “invasion” and defended the deployment of approximately 4,000 National Guard soldiers and 700 Marines to the city
In response, California Governor Gavin Newsom immediately filed an emergency lawsuit in federal court seeking to block the deployment of military personnel for immigration enforcement.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass supported the legal challenge and announced a downtown curfew from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m., warning that police would arrest those who defy the order.
As protests swell across the country, a federal judge in California has scheduled a hearing for Thursday afternoon on the state’s request to restrict the federal government’s use of military personnel.
