California is starting a lawsuit against the federal government. The American state is taking this step because President Donald Trump has deployed the National Guard to the protests in Los Angeles. The city expects the protests to continue in full force on Monday.
The Californian Governor Gavin Newsom announced the indictment on X on Monday. According to Newsom, Trump is seizing on the conflict to deploy the National Guard and the president wants to lower the threshold for doing so more often. “This is not just about our state, but also about all other states,” says Newsom.
Currently, there are approximately two thousand members of the National Guard active in Los Angeles. They have been deployed against the protesters since Saturday. Hundreds of protesters have been demonstrating against the Trump administration’s immigration policy since Friday. The activists state, among other things, that the immigration services also arrest legal immigrants during house searches.
Normally, the president may only deploy the National Guard in the event of an emergency and in cooperation with a governor. Several Democratic governors previously called Trump’s decision “alarming abuse of power”. The president has been at odds with Democratic administrators for some time.
Demonstrations against Trump’s immigration policy are expected in more than twelve American cities, reports The New York Times. One of them is in the Californian capital Sacramento.
The large trade union Service Employees International Union of California is also demonstrating there. That demonstration follows the arrest of their union leader. The authorities in Los Angeles expect the heavy protests to continue there on Monday as well.
Trump not against arrest of governor
The head of U.S. border control, Tom Homan, has threatened to arrest anyone who opposes the immigration service. According to him, that threat also applies to the governor of California.
Trump was asked Monday about his thoughts on a possible arrest of Newsom. The president called it a “good idea” and said he would do it “if he was Tom (Homan, ed.)”.
The United Nations warns against “further militarization” of the unrest in Los Angeles. “We encourage the parties to work on this at the local, state and federal levels,” said a UN spokesman.
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