Hollywood stars have spoken out against Donald Trump’s deployment of hundreds of Marines and National Guard troops as protesters react to the government’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids.

Protests escalated over the weekend in Los Angeles, where thousands took to the streets to demand an end to the crackdowns targeting immigrant communities in the city.

Eva Longoria, Jamie Lee Curtis, and director Ava DuVernay are among a cohort of celebrities criticising Trump’s handling of the situation and praising the demonstrators who are out on the streets protesting.

The director Ava DuVernay, wrote in an Instagram story, “I’m witnessing tear gas and non-lethal rounds being unleashed on peaceful protesters in DTLA.”

“People of all ages and stripes from all over the city, raising their voices. And being treated worse than January 6 terrorists.”

In May, while accepting an award at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History, the Oscar-nominated and Emmy-winning director called out Trump’s criminal behaviour in a powerful speech where she urged artists and historians to resist a “criminal” US president at a time when “truth itself is under revision”.

“[Currently], truth itself is under revision and fear feels like an animating force,” she said. “Fear of mirrors, fear of memory, fear of the full American story told in its dazzling complexity and devastating contradictions.”

This week, rapper Doechii used her acceptance speech at the BET awards to convey her outrage over the situation in LA.

“There are ruthless attacks that are creating fear and chaos in our communities in the name of law and order,” she said.

“Trump is using military forces to stop a protest. We all deserve to live in hope and not in fear. “I want y’all to consider what kind of government it appears to be when every time we exercise our democratic right to protest, the military is deployed against us. What type of government is that?”

She continued: “People are being swept up and torn from their families, and I feel it’s my responsibility as an artist to use this moment to speak up for all oppressed people: for Black people, for Latino people, for trans people, for the people in Gaza. We all deserve to live in hope and not in fear. And I hope we stand together, my brothers and my sisters, against hate and we protest against it.”

Singer Kehlani, reposted a story on her IG story that read, “Stop calling what’s happening as L.A. RIOTS. It’s RESISTANCE,” adding “And long live the resistance. Every single one of them.”

The R&B star was barred from performing at Cornell University in April for expressing pro-Palestine views.

Jamie Lee Curtis reposted an image from an account called Trump Resistance Movement, which quoted Reverend Mariann Budde who stressed during the President’s inauguration that the “vast majority of immigrants are not criminals.”

Actor and director Eva Longoria reposted a Tweet on her IG story from Governor Gavin Newsom, who condemned Secretary of Defence, Pete Hegseth, accusing him of “threatening to deploy active Marines on American soil” and saying that it was “deranged.”

Longoria added underneath the screenshot of the tweet, “un-American.”

In another post on Wednesday she said, “Costs going up. And this administration decides to spend millions of our tax dollars to scare people from schools, abduct parents from work sites, and wait outside of immigration court to punish people doing it the right way.”

Model and TV host Chrissy Teigen posted a message urging people to protest on 14 June to “protest Donald Trump’s authoritarian spectacle.”

“Trump is acting like a king by defying the courts, issuing arbitrary decrees, disregarding checks and balances,” she said, attacking his “authoritarian” use of the military.

“Trump wants a big military parade on his birthday and is using the anniversary as a pretext. How ironic that the Continental Congress originally established an Army, headed by George Washington, to fight against the very tyranny that Trump espouses.”

Singer and actor Reneé Rapp, star of Mean Girls, expressed her anger in an Instagram story, writing: “fuck ICE fuck this administration fuck all of yall who are complicit in ensuring that this happened this is a fucking disgrace.”

On Tuesday morning, Trump reiterated his decision to send national guard troops to Los Angeles, claiming “that once beautiful and great city would be burning to the ground right now” if he hadn’t. Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass accused the federal government of using her city as a “a test case for what happens when the federal government moves in and takes the authority away from the state or away from local government.”

“I don’t think our city should be used for an experiment,” she added.

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