Compiled from news service reports
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass called for cleaning up Los Angeles following violent riots over the past few days in response to federal immigration enforcement operations in the area.
“The graffiti that is just blanketing a number of blocks has been extensive,” she said at a press conference on Tuesday.
“I am calling on business leaders, community leaders, faith leaders, to come together downtown in the next few days to talk about how we are going to clean up the city,” she added. “Obviously, city workers are already out there removing the graffiti, but this is so extensive it’s going to take community-wide involvement.”
Bass said that the violence and vandalism are “unacceptable.”
Local law enforcement agencies will come together as one under LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell, Bass said.
“I mentioned the sheriffs from Orange County, San Bernardino, Riverside, Santa Barbara, Ventura County, and a number of law enforcement departments around the county,” she said.
“So with them being fully deployed now, we’re establishing a unified command under LAPD and Chief McDonnell, which will accelerate our ability to respond to hot spots when people splinter off and create pockets of trouble.”
Trump Weighs Invoking Insurrection Act
President Donald Trump on Tuesday responded to questions about whether he is considering invoking the Insurrection Act in response to ongoing unrest in Los Angeles.
“If there’s an insurrection, I would certainly invoke it. We’ll see,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office before heading to North Carolina to deliver a speech at Fort Bragg.
“I could tell you there were certain areas of Los Angeles that you could have called it an insurrection,” Trump said. “It was terrible. But these are paid insurrectionists. These are paid troublemakers. They get money.”
Trump spoke about the deployment of the National Guard and Marines to quell unrest and prevent further damage, criticizing California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
The president said that if he hadn’t intervened and sent forces there, Los Angeles would be “on fire” and “burning down” right now.
He said the National Guard will remain in Los Angeles “until there’s no danger.”
Trump also said any protesters disrupting the Army parade Saturday in Washington will be met with “very big force.”
Pentagon Says 60-Day LA Troop Deployment Will Cost $134 Million
The Department of Defense has estimated it will cost approximately $134 million for National Guard and Marine troops to deploy to Los Angeles over a planned 60-day period in response to ongoing civil unrest.
Testifying at a House Appropriations Committee hearing on Tuesday, acting Pentagon comptroller Bryn Woollacott MacDonnell said the funds for the deployment would be drawn from Defense Department operations and maintenance accounts.
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, also testifying at the hearing, said the department has planned for a 60-day response period “because we want to ensure that those rioters, looters, and thugs on the other side assaulting our police officers know that we’re not going anywhere.”
Marine Corps Commandant ‘Not Concerned’ About Potential for Deadly Clash
Gen. Eric Smith, commandant of the Marine Corps, said during a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing Tuesday that he is “not concerned” about the possibility Marines could use lethal force against American citizens.
The 700 or so Marines deployed to Los Angeles, he said, are equipped with shields and batons and were deployed to support law enforcement.
“They do not have arrest authority,” Smith said. “They are there to protect federal property and federal personnel.”
Smith added that all Marines are trained in crowd control in the event they need to protect embassy buildings or provide similar duties.
Smith’s comments were made in response to a series of questions by Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., about the possibility that the Marines could be called upon to exercise lethal force against Americans.
Blumenthal, who served in the Marine Corps Reserve, said he is concerned that a deadly clash between the Marines and American protesters could stain the honor of the force and undermine American trust in the military.
Johnson Says LA Riots Confirm Need for One Big Beautiful Bill
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., told reporters on Tuesday that the riots in Los Angeles are further proof Congress should pass the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, which contains funding for ICE.
The bill “delivers much needed reinforcement” to ICE, according to Johnson, including funding to hire 10,000 new ICE agents and expand ICE detention facilities, as well as additional money for deportations — “starting with the dangerous illegal aliens.”
The bill is currently being considered in the Senate.
Border Czar Homan Says Trump Admin Has ‘No Intention’ to Arrest Newsom
White House border czar Tom Homan said on Monday that he has “no intention to arrest” Newsom after the Democratic governor dared him to arrest him as protests and riots persist in Los Angeles.
Homan told CBS News that talk about arresting Newsom has “been taken out of context” and that Newsom and Bass “haven’t crossed a line yet.”
“If you cross that line, I don’t care who they are — the governor, the mayor, whatever — and when you commit a crime against ICE officers, we will seek prosecution,” Homan added.
At one point on Sunday, Newsom was asked by an NBC News reporter about the possibility of being arrested. “Come and get me, tough guy,” he replied.
The Trump administration and Newsom have been sharply critical of one another in the handling of unrest in Los Angeles over the past several days, which was sparked by protests against ICE efforts across the city. Trump and Homan have said that Newsom hasn’t been able to quell the violence, prompting the president to deploy the National Guard and Marines.
In response, Newsom said that the troop deployments are a form of overreach and that Trump’s actions are an incitement to more violence. The state’s attorney general, Rob Bonta, filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over the deployment on Monday.
Homan has told media outlets that ICE agents were serving criminal search warrants at a Los Angeles worksite last week as part of a probe into customs fraud, tax evasion, and money laundering.
Speaking to the “Dr. Phil” show, Homan said that 41 people were arrested and that the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration, and Internal Revenue Service were also involved.
“We took a lot of bad people off the street that day,” he told NewsNation in another interview, adding that those enforcement measures were “targeted” instead of being a random sweep.
The Northern Command said in its Monday statement that the 700 or so Marines “will seamlessly integrate” with troops “who are protecting federal personnel and federal property in the greater Los Angeles area.”
Meanwhile, Monday’s demonstrations were far less raucous, with thousands peacefully attending a rally at City Hall and hundreds protesting outside a federal complex, which includes a detention center where some illegal immigrants are being held following workplace operations across the city.
Trump: Without Federal Intervention, Los Angeles ‘Would Be Burning to the Ground’
Trump said in a Tuesday post on social media platform Truth Social that without the National Guard and Marines, Los Angeles would be burning to the ground.
“If I didn’t ‘send in the troops’ to Los Angeles the last three nights, that once beautiful and great city would be burning to the ground right now,” he said.
District Attorney: Rioters Will Be Prosecuted, Punished
Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman said on Fox News that his office “will be prosecuting” those behind the violent anti-ICE protests in Los Angeles.
“They will be punished,” he said. “Law enforcement is doing its job, literally, 24 hours a day to get this situation under control.”
Hochman said that if federal agents had created perimeters, the situation would be better.
He said that “part of the problem … is that we do not have those smooth lines of communication between the federal immigration authorities and the local law enforcement officers.”
LAPD is prohibited from cooperating with ICE.
Patel: FBI Investigating Funding Behind Riots in LA
The FBI is investigating who is funding the riots in Los Angeles, said bureau director Kash Patel.
“The FBI is investigating any and all monetary connections responsible for these riots,” Patel told media outlet Just the News.
Dozens of people have been arrested amid the violent protests.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Monday night said investigators see signs that the Los Angeles protests are being funded and organized.
Asked by Fox host Sean Hannity if there’s any evidence showing that the protesters were paid, in light of reports saying that they were being provided with equipment such as face shields and bricks, Noem said, “Absolutely.”
“These are organized. These are people that are being paid to do this. You can follow how they behave, the signals they give to each other in these crowds and these protests to instigate violence,” she said. “This is an operation, and it’s professionally done. They’ve done it before, and we’re going to stop it and make sure that we prosecute every single one of them.”
Jackson Richman, Emel Akan, Ryan Morgan, Andrew Thornebrooke, Savannah Hulsey Pointer, Jack Phillips, Janice Hisle and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
