By Jack Phillips and Joseph Lord
Contributing Writer
President Donald Trump announced on Sunday that he is directing top military officials and prosecutors to “liberate Los Angeles” amid ongoing riots related to Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids targeting illegal immigration in the city.
“A once great American city, Los Angeles, has been invaded and occupied by illegal aliens and criminals,” Trump said in a post on social media platform Truth Social. “Now violent, insurrectionist mobs are swarming and attacking our federal agents to try and stop our deportation operations. But these lawless riots only strengthen our resolve.”
The president said he was directing Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, and Attorney General Pam Bondi “to take all such action necessary to liberate Los Angeles from the migrant invasion, and put an end to these migrant riots.”
“Order will be restored, the Illegals will be expelled, and Los Angeles will be set free,” Trump said.
National Guard troops were also confirmed to be in Los Angeles after Trump ordered their deployment over the weekend, following days of protests and riots in the city.
The U.S. Northern Command confirmed in a post on social media platform X on Sunday morning that the California National Guard had started deploying troops in the Los Angeles area and that some members “are already on the ground.”
“Additional information will be provided as units are identified and deployed,” the military stated.
In a statement on Sunday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom asked for withdrawal of the guardsmen.
“I have formally requested the Trump Administration rescind their unlawful deployment of troops in Los Angeles County and return them to my command,” Newsom stated.
“We didn’t have a problem until Trump got involved.
“This is a serious breach of state sovereignty — inflaming tensions while pulling resources from where they’re actually needed.”
Speaking to reporters, Trump said that California officials who work against the ongoing deportations could face federal charges.
“If people stand in the way of law and order, yeah, they will face charges,” he said.
Later on Sunday, members of the National Guard faced off with demonstrators, and tear gas was eventually fired at a growing crowd near a federal complex in the city, according to video footage. The confrontation broke out in front of the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles, as a group shouted insults at members of the guard lined shoulder to shoulder behind plastic riot shields.
Members of California’s National Guard were seen staging early on Sunday at the federal complex in downtown Los Angeles that includes the Metropolitan Detention Center, one of several sites where confrontations involving hundreds of people have taken place over the past few days.
The troops included members of the 79th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, according to a social media post from the U.S. Northern Command that showed dozens of National Guard members with long guns and an armored vehicle.
The message was issued just hours after Trump wrote on Truth Social that the National Guard is doing a “great job” to quell “violence, clashes, and unrest” before he accused both Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, both Democrats, of slow-walking a response to the protests.
Earlier on Sunday, Bass wrote that “the National Guard has not been deployed in the city of Los Angeles,” although that came before the Northern Command’s post.
“These radical left protests, by instigators and often paid troublemakers, will NOT BE TOLERATED,” the president wrote. “Also, from now on, masks will not be allowed to be worn at protests.”
Over the weekend, Trump confirmed in a signed memorandum that he would deploy 2,000 National Guard troops to Los Angeles in response to the violence.
In a signal of the administration’s approach, Hegseth also warned that he could deploy active-duty Marines “if violence continues” in the area. He made the comments ahead of Trump’s announcement.
Asked about the issue, Trump also indicated that sending Marines was a possibility.
“The bar is what I think it is,“ he said. ”I mean, if we see danger to our country and to our citizens, [sending Marines] will be very, very strong in terms of law and order. It’s about law and order.”
The deployment of the National Guard also follows clashes near a Home Depot in the heavily Latino city of Paramount, south of Los Angeles. As protesters sought to block Border Patrol vehicles, with some hurling rocks and chunks of cement, federal agents used tear gas, flash-bang explosives, and pepper balls.
Protests continued into the evening in Paramount, as several hundred demonstrators gathered near a doughnut shop and authorities held up barbed wire to keep the crowd back. Clashes also took place in neighboring Compton, where a car was set on fire.
Meanwhile, crowds gathered again outside federal buildings in downtown Los Angeles, where local police declared an unlawful assembly and began to arrest people.
Officials with the Department of Homeland Security defended their immigration enforcement in the city, noting that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials arrested a 55-year-old illegal immigrant from the Philippines who had multiple criminal convictions. Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin wrote that he has convictions of assault, theft, burglary and rape.
“This criminal illegal alien is who [Newsom, Bass,] and the rioters are trying to protect over U.S. citizens,” she wrote on X.
Newsom wrote in a post on X that the federal government under Trump is trying to “take over the California National Guard and deploy 2,000 soldiers,” adding that it is “purposefully inflammatory and will only escalate tensions.”
Local authorities can “access law enforcement assistance at a moment’s notice,” the governor wrote.
“We are in close coordination with the city and county, and there is currently no unmet need.
“The Guard has been admirably serving L.A. throughout recovery. This is the wrong mission and will erode public trust.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
