U.S. authorities cracked down hard on a demonstration in Los Angeles on Saturday against the detention of immigrants. Officers used tear gas, among other things, to quell the protests. Trump also deployed two thousand soldiers.
On Friday and Saturday, hundreds of demonstrators took to the streets in Los Angeles to protest the controversial detention of 44 immigrants. The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) had arrested the immigrants earlier that day for allegedly violating immigration rules.
On Friday, protesters threw pieces of concrete at officers. Police responded with tear gas, pepper spray, and grenades. Tensions also ran high again on Saturday. U.S. President Donald Trump deployed two thousand soldiers from the National Guard in the evening to quell the protests, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced via X.
The Guard consists of rapidly deployable reservists and is part of the U.S. Army. According to Hegseth, the Pentagon is even prepared to mobilize active-duty Marines “if the violence continues.”
According to news agency Reuters, video footage showed dozens of law enforcement officers in green uniforms with gas masks on. They stood on a road littered with overturned shopping carts. Small gas canisters exploded in an attempt to disperse the demonstrators.
The arrests of immigrants by ICE are part of the Republican Trump’s strict anti-immigration policy. Taking a hard line against immigrants without the proper documents was one of his main campaign promises.
Los Angeles has many Democrats, including the city’s mayor, Karen Bass. “Los Angeles will always be a proud city of immigrants and we will defend immigrant communities,” she wrote on X on Friday. She also condemned the violence of the protesters on Saturday.