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Federal agents conducted a series of immigration sweeps across Los Angeles on Friday, prompting anger and resistance from onlookers and immigrant rights groups that have braced for this type of action for months.

By Saturday, tensions were rising between state and local authorities and Trump administration officials, who said they were calling up the National Guard in response to what they said were “violent mobs” attacking “ICE Officers and Federal Law Enforcement Agents carrying out basic deportation operations in Los Angeles.”

Gov. Gavin Newsom called the plan to take over deployment from the state “purposefully inflammatory,” adding that it “will only escalate tensions.”

Newsom said he’d been in “close coordination with the city and county, and there is currently no unmet need.”

President Donald Trump on social media said the move was needed: “If Governor Gavin Newscum, of California, and Mayor Karen Bass, of Los Angeles, can’t do their jobs, which everyone knows they can’t, then the Federal Government will step in and solve the problem, RIOTS & LOOTERS, the way it should be solved!!!”

The president signed a memorandum authorizing “at least 2,000 National Guard personnel,” as well as “any other members of the regular Armed Forces as necessary to augment and support the protection of Federal functions and property in any number determined appropriate in his discretion.”

Where things stand

U.S. National Guard are deployed outside the federal prison in downtown Los Angeles, Sunday, June 8, 2025, following a immigration raid protest the night before. Jae Hong / AP )

By early Sunday, National Guard troops began stationing in downtown Los Angeles. LAist’s media partner KCAL News broadcast video of troops in camouflage tactical gear arriving at the federal building and reported they’d also driven through Paramount.

By Sunday afternoon, crowds started to gather in downtown.

Outside City Hall for planned protest at 2 p.m., Eli Lockwood of Hacienda Heights told LAist she was there to protest what said were “disgusting attacks on our communities.”

“We have to stand united against the attacks on the immigrant community because an attack on one of us is an attack on all of us,” she said.

A larger crowd assembled outside a federal detention center, where images showed National Guard troops clashing with some of the protesters. But Anna Benedict of Echo Park told LAist the demonstration had so far been largely peaceful.

“I mean, everybody here wants to be peaceful,” she said. “We’ve been standing here for quite a while, and no one is menacing the National Guard. Everybody is just standing up for their own freedom.”

The scene in downtown L.A. on Sunday afternoon. Liz Baker / NPR )

Two starkly contrasting pictures of conditions in the L.A. area continued to be offered by Trump and his allies, compared to local and state officials.

While Fox News and other conservative media used captions like “L.A. Riots” and the term “rioters” was trending on X, closer to home, authorities described isolated skirmishes and urged calm. Some national outlets seems to think Paramount, where there was some violence reported, was located within the city of Los Angeles.

Congresswoman Nanette Barragán, who represents Paramount, told LAist Sunday morning that she’d been in close contact with the sheriff’s department, which patrols the area.

“We don’t need additional assistance,” she said. “We have everything under control… the sheriff’s in Paramount got everything under control yesterday and LAPD has cleared out downtown last night without the help of National Guard.”

Here’s what the L.A. Sheriff’s Department had to say about the situation in Paramount in a statement sent to LAist at 2:30 a.m. Sunday:

“Two deputies were injured and transported to a local area hospital for non-life threatening injuries and released. We have not been informed of any specific injuries to protestors. It was confirmed there was one car burned (Hyundai).

“Several people were detained, however, at this time there has been one confirmed arrest (unknown charges).

“There was a fire at a local strip mall that was quickly extinguished. The extent of the damage is unknown at this time.

“Acts of violence witnessed were fireworks and bottles being thrown.

“We were told the National Guard is being deployed, however they are not in the area/on the ground as of yet. There is no coordinated plan(s) as of now.”

Mayor Bass told KCAL News: “My concern and we have experienced civil unrest and I remember 1992 very well and one of the worst things you can do is have an extreme presence of law enforcement and the violence actually escalates.”

Newsom’s deputy director of communications, Dianna Crofts-Pelayo, said there were about 300 California National Guard troops at three sites in Los Angeles Sunday morning.

“They were deployed on the ground after President Bone Spurs claimed they saved the day,” she added, referring Trump’s diagnosis of bone spurs in his heels that led to his military exemption in 1968 during the Vietnam War.

Bass and other local and state leaders have urged protesters to remain peaceful, saying there is no place for violence or attacks on police as people use their First Amendment rights.

Barragán said her constituents are upset: “People are angry, people are angry, they’re concerned. There’s a lot of anxiety about immigration enforcement.”

The effect ” is terrorizing the community and now you send the National Guard, you know, against their own people and that is of course gonna escalate the situation and we’re trying to deescalate. And I think this administration knows what they’re doing. They’re trying to have a distraction and he’s been coming up to California.”

What led up to Trump’s action

An anti-ICE protester challenges deputies in Paramount on Saturday. Carlin Stiehl / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images )

The conflict in Paramount, a city of about 56,000 residents south of L.A., attracted national attention after protests near a Home Depot extended into Saturday. Those protests appear to have begun when ICE agents were spotted in the area.

As the situation there was still developing, L.A. County sheriff’s officials said in a statement that “as the situation escalated, the crowd of protesters became increasingly agitated, throwing objects and exhibiting violent behavior toward federal agents and deputy sheriffs.”

At that point, the LASD said it requested additional resources “countywide.” The statement did not reference the National Guard.

“We will protect your right to peacefully protest,” Sheriff Robert Luna said in an interview included in the statement, “but we will not tolerate violence or destruction of property.”

The Sheriff’s Department also clarified that they were not participating in any immigration enforcement actions, saying: “When federal authorities come under attack and request assistance, we will support them and provide aid. However, this does not mean that we are assisting with their immigration actions or operations; rather, our objective is to protect them from any violent attacks. Any assault on federal or local law enforcement is unacceptable.”

In contrast, LAPD officials released a statement at about 7:30 p.m. Saturday calling the day’s protests in the city “peaceful” and commending “all those who exercised their First Amendment rights responsibly,” adding that the department “appreciates the cooperation of organizers, participants and community partners who helped ensure public safety throughout the day.”

Later in the evening, LAPD officers ordered protesters in downtown L.A. to disperse and closed Alameda between Los Angeles Street and 2nd Street to both pedestrians and vehicles.

In a message sent on X at 10:18 p.m., LAPD headquarters warned: “Multiple people have been detained for failing to disperse after multiple warnings were issued. Remaining people in the area of the UNLAWFUL ASSEMBLY will be subject to arrest. Leave the area!!”

⚠️Traffic Advisory⚠️ Alameda remains closed to all vehicle and pedestrian traffic between 2nd St and the 101 freeway.

Multiple people have been detained for failing to disperse after multiple warnings were issued. Remaining people in the area of the UNLAWFUL ASSEMBLY will be… — LAPD Central Division (@LAPDCentral) June 8, 2025

The scene late Saturday in downtown Los Angeles near the central jail. Jordan Rynning / LAist )

What we know about the arrests and protests

Initially, ICE officials said 44 people were arrested in the raids, although some news reports placed that arrest number at more than 120 by late Saturday.

“ICE officers and agents alongside partner law enforcement agencies, executed four federal search warrants at three locations in central Los Angeles,” ICE spokesperson Yasmeen Pitts O’Keefe said in a statement .

Confrontations between what appeared to be ICE officers and people in the streets of downtown L.A. could be seen in video aired on local television and shared on social media.

At times, uniformed agents or officers could be seen physically moving people who appeared to be blocking the officers and their vehicles.

Reports shared via the social media platform X said ICE was seen in the Garment District area of L.A. Another video showed federal agents in the parking lot of a Home Depot in Westlake, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Angelica Salas, executive director of The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, known as CHIRLA, said her organization estimated there were at least 45 detentions.

Among them was Service Employees International Union California President David Huerta, according to union authorities. They said Huerta had been injured and was receiving medical attention while in custody.

“What happened to me is not about me; This is about something much bigger,” Huerta said in a statement released by the union. “This is about how we as a community stand together and resist the injustice that’s happening. Hard-working people, and members of our family and our community, are being treated like criminals. We all collectively have to object to this madness because this is not justice. This is injustice. And we all have to stand on the right side of justice.”

Several immigrant rights leaders and activists, along with some city elected officials, attended a large rally Friday evening to share their reactions to the federal operations and call for a stop to them. Later, more than 300 people marched a few blocks toward the federal detention center.

Protesters march after federal immigration authorities conducted an operation on Friday, June 6, 2025, in Los Angeles. Jae C. Hong / AP )

Reaction from city officials

L.A. Mayor Karen Bass issued a statement Friday afternoon condemning the raids.

“This morning we received reports of federal immigration enforcement actions in multiple locations in Los Angeles,” the statement read. “As a Mayor of a proud city of immigrants, who contribute to our city in so many ways, I am deeply angered by what has taken place. These tactics sow terror in our communities and disrupt basic principles of safety in our city.

“My Office is in close coordination with immigrant rights community organizations,” the mayor continued. “We will not stand for this.”

All 15 members of the City Council released a joint statement that echoed some of the same points the Bass made.

“We condemn this in no uncertain terms: Los Angeles was built by immigrants and it thrives because of immigrants,” the statement read. “We will not abide by fear tactics to support extreme political agendas that aim to stoke fear and spread discord in our city.

“To every immigrant living in our city: we see you, we stand with you, and we will fight for you,” the statement continued. “Los Angeles will continue to be a place that values and dignifies every human being, no matter who they are or where they come from.”

Listen • 0:46 Listen: Immigration sweeps in LA Agents were met with anger and resistance from onlookers and immigrant rights groups that have braced for this type of action for months.

Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell said his department was not involved in the raids.

“While the LAPD will continue to have a visible presence in all our communities to ensure public safety, we will not assist or participate in any sort of mass deportations, nor will the LAPD try to determine an individual’s immigration status,” he said.

After the sweeps, photographers captured several protesters being detained by officers. Addressing a crowd at a rally, L.A. Councilmember Eunisses Hernandez pushed back against previous statements by the Trump administration that ICE would focus their efforts on dangerous criminals.

“It’s never, ever, ever been the case,” Hernandez said. “Because when they come for one of us, they come for all of us. And we have to remember that.”

Dozens of immigration activists gathered in downtown Los Angeles to protest a series of federal immigration operations Friday, June 6, that resulted in several detentions. Frank Stoltze / LAist )

Councilmember Ysabel Jurado noted the timing of the ICE operations, stressing that they happened at a time when families and students are celebrating graduations and the LGBTQ+ community is celebrating Pride Month.

“What kind of government plans this during our most sacred moments of joy?” Jurado asked. “The footage speaks for itself. This is cruelty disguised as policy.”

Mass deportations

Since Trump was elected, immigrant rights groups in Southern California have been on edge. Trump has promised “mass deportations” of unauthorized immigrants. There have been protests that have shut down freeways and high school walkouts by students protesting the administration.

“Los Angeles immigrant communities and allies have been preparing,” Andres Kwon of the American Civil Liberties Union told LAist in February.

The ACLU is part of the L.A. Rapid Response Network, a group of immigrant rights, legal, and faith-based groups that has a hotline for people to report ICE activity and to seek help after a raid.

The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights of Los Angeles and other groups have hosted workshops that teach undocumented immigrants how to assert their constitutional rights, as well as how to prepare for worst-case scenarios. They’ve been telling people they don’t have to allow a federal agent into their home without a warrant and don’t have to reveal their immigration status.

The Los Angeles Unified School District began distributing “red cards,” also known as “Know Your Rights” cards, to help people assert their rights and defend themselves if they encounter federal immigration agents.

The effort came as the Trump administration announced it would allow ICE to conduct arrests in sensitive areas such as schools and churches, dismantling policies dating back to 2011 .

Before L.A., ICE conducted high-profile enforcement actions in Chicago and Boston. Last week, an ICE raid on a restaurant in San Diego’s South Park neighborhood resulted in multiple arrests. While the raid was taking place, crowds gathered outside the restaurant where many people protested the action, filming the officers on their cellphones and surrounding their vehicles.

Detentions under Biden

Removals of immigrants by ICE and Customs and Border Patrol in the L.A. area were on the rise before Trump came into office. But the Washington Post reported earlier this year that ICE had struggled to boost arrest numbers despite an infusion of resources.

ICE/CBP removals in the L.A. Area of Operations, which includes much of Southern California, increased by more than 180% between the 2022 and 2024 fiscal years, according to ICE data. More than 3,551 people were removed in fiscal 2024, which ended Sept. 30.

Detentions also rose, according to the data.

While national detentions remained fairly constant over the past four years, L.A. area detentions increased by 155% from 2022 to 2024, when 3,857 people were detained.

“That doesn’t surprise me,” Chris Newman, legal director and general counsel for the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, said earlier this year.

While in office, former President Joe Biden was under increasing political pressure to address illegal immigration.

“The Biden administration was focused on recent arrivals and people with criminal history,” Newman said.

From 2023 to 2024, the L.A. area had significant increases in detentions (432% increase from 217 to 1,154) and removals (547% increase from 223 to 1,443) of people who had not been convicted of crimes.

How we’re reporting on this

Jordan Rynning contributed to this report. Josie Huang, who hosts Weekend Edition on LAist 89.3, is conducting interviews. Dañiel Martinez and Jared Bennett are making calls to the public officials and monitoring news conferences. Frank Stoltze reported from the field on Friday. Fiona Ng and Megan Garvey have contributed reporting and writing, as well as editing. Dana Littlefield edited the original version of this article which initially published Friday.

This is a developing story. We fact check everything and rely only on information from credible sources (think fire, police, government officials and reporters on the ground). Sometimes, however, we make mistakes and/or initial reports turn out to be wrong. In all cases, we strive to bring you the most accurate information in real time and will update this story as new information becomes available.

In summary Gov. Gavin Newsom and other leading California Democrats criticized President Trump’s deployment of National Guard soldiers in Los Angeles, calling it an unnecessary provocation.

Hundreds of California National Guard soldiers are deployed in downtown Los Angeles in an escalation of the Trump administration’s rolling immigration enforcement action throughout Southern California.

Their deployment comes over the objections of California leaders, including Gov. Gavin Newsom, who say that local law enforcement agencies are more than capable of keeping the peace in the city.

“The federal government is taking over the California National Guard and deploying 2,000 soldiers in Los Angeles — not because there is a shortage of law enforcement, but because they want a spectacle,” Newsom wrote on social media Saturday night.

This morning, rifle-toting National Guard soldiers patrolled a federal building downtown. They also brought heavy military vehicles. A protest is expected to take place later today, but so far the scene around the building has been calm.

The deployment followed two days of unrest after immigration sweeps downtown and in the city of Paramount. In one incident, officers arrested David Huerta, the leader of a California janitors’ union, who was protesting a raid. He remains in custody.

Trump’s order deploying the troops cited “incidents of violence and disorder” following immigration enforcement actions and the Border Patrol on social media has called attention to an incident in which someone threw rocks at their vehicles in Paramount, breaking a window.

After the raids, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement published a list of what they called “the worst of the worst” offenders caught in the immigration raids. The release also accused “California politicians and rioters” of “defending heinous illegal alien criminals.”

Officers with the Los Angeles Sheriffs Department clash with protesters in Compton on June 7, 2025. Photo by J.W. Hendricks for CalMatters

The escalation could be a turning point for a state where Democratic politicians had started the year fairly quiet on Trump’s immigration crackdowns, at least compared to his first time in office. With the state facing a multibillion-dollar budget deficit, lawmakers and Newsom were antsy about losing federal funding, and Newsom especially was depending on a relatively harmonious relationship with the federal government to secure aid for Los Angeles wildfire recovery.

But California Democrats have since struck a more defiant tone.

Last week they advanced numerous bills to discourage warrantless ICE visits to hospitals, schools and shelters. Over the weekend, they condemned the raids and sided with protesters, especially after federal agents arrested prominent union president Huerta on Friday during a clash with protesters outside an immigration raid of a garment company’s warehouse.

Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, a Salinas Democrat, called the raids “an authoritarian assault on our immigrant communities.”

“We will not allow (Los Angeles) to become a staging ground for political terror,” he wrote in a statement.

His counterpart in the state Senate, Healdsburg Democrat Mike McGuire, said the National Guard deployment “reeks of fascism.”

Bill Essayli, U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California – which includes Los Angeles – told KNBC-TV that immigration enforcement agents were under duress while conducting raids in Paramount and Compton.

“You have thousands of people forming and gathering in crowds, rioting, attacking our agents, throwing rocks, throwing eggs, throwing Molotov cocktails,” Essayli told the news station.

Marissa Nuncio, director of the Los Angeles-based Garment Worker Center, said garment workers were reeling after immigration enforcement agents detained 20 of them in a raid at Ambiance Apparel in the city’s Fashion District on Friday. The amassing of troops downtown made her members worry about a second raid.

Federal immigration authorities face off against protesters during an ICE raid at Ambience Apparel in Downtown Los Angeles on June 6, 2025. Photo by J.W. Hendricks for CalMatters

The Garment Worker Center held a know-your-rights seminar on Saturday, one day after the raid.

Attendees “wanted to know, how can we stop this,” Nuncio said. “How can we resist these attacks on our community? They wanted to know if it’s safe to go to work, to go to church, to go to the clinic.”

Garment workers are particularly vulnerable because they are often employed in illegal production facilities that pop up and then disappear overnight. They’re paid by the piece, usually 5 cents to 12 cents per piece of clothing, a controversial practice that has drawn scrutiny from the Legislature.

Their weekly take-home pay is about $300, or $5.50 per hour, paid in cash.

“We feel the best we can do is inform workers of what’s going on,” Nuncio said, “and remind them that they have power in their rights.”

CalMatters reporter Joe Garcia contributed to this story.

After federal immigration authorities arrested more than 40 people yesterday across Los Angeles, protesters gathered outside a federal detention centre demanding their release before police in riot gear tossed tear gas canisters to disperse the crowd.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers executed search warrants at multiple locations, including outside a clothing warehouse where a tense scene unfolded as a crowd tried to block agents from driving away.

Sirens blared as protesters surrounded black SUVs and tactical vehicles.

Officers threw flash bangs into the street to disperse people as they shouted and filmed the scene with their cell phones.

One demonstrator tried to physically stop a vehicle from leaving.

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Forty-four people were arrested on immigration violations across multiple locations, said Yasmeen Pitts O’Keefe, a spokesperson for Homeland Security Investigations.

The president of SEIU California, a major labour union, was arrested and charged for impeding a federal agent while protesting, the US Attorney’s office said.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said the activity was meant to “sow terror” in the nation’s second-largest city.

Federal immigration authorities have been ramping up arrests across the country to fulfil President Donald Trump’s promise of mass deportations.

Todd Lyons, the head of US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, defended his tactics earlier this week against criticism that authorities are being too heavy-handed.

He has said ICE is averaging about 1600 arrests per day and that the agency has arrested “dangerous criminals.”

Protests recently broke out after an immigration action at a restaurant in San Diego and in Minneapolis, when federal officials in tactical gear showed up in a Latino neighbourhood for an operation they said was about a criminal case, not immigration.

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Law enforcement detain a protester at the U.S. Department of Justice Federal Bureau of Prisons after federal immigration authorities conducted an operation on Friday, June 6, 2025, in Los Angeles. (Source: Associated Press)

Protesters chant ‘set them free’

In Los Angeles, federal agents executed search warrants at three locations, O’Keefe said.

But Angelica Salas, executive director for the Coalition of Humane Immigrant Rights, or CHIRLA, said advocates were aware of activity at seven locations, including several Home Depot parking lots and a doughnut shop.

At the warehouse in the fashion district, agents had a search warrant after they and a judge found there was probable cause the employer was using fictitious documents for some of its workers, US Attorney’s Office spokesperson Ciaran McEvoy confirmed.

Dozens of protesters gathered Friday evening outside a federal detention centre in Los Angeles, where lawyers said those arrested had been taken, chanting “set them free, let them stay!”

Other protesters held signs that said “ICE out of LA!” while others led chants and shouted from megaphones. Some scrawled graffiti on the building facade.

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Officers holding protective shields stood shoulder to shoulder to block an entrance.

Some tossed tear gas canisters to disperse the crowd.

Officers wearing helmets and holding batons then forced the protesters away from the building by forming a line and walking slowly down the street.

“Our community is under attack and is being terrorised. These are workers, these are fathers, these are mothers, and this has to stop. Immigration enforcement that is terrorising our families throughout this country and picking up our people that we love must stop now,” Salas, of CHIRLA, said at an earlier press conference while surrounded by a crowd holding signs protesting Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Angelica Salas, of The Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights, speaks outside the Federal Building after federal immigration authorities conducted an operation on Friday, June 6, 2025, in Los Angeles. (Source: Associated Press)

One detainee sent to Mexico

Yliana Johansen-Mendez, chief program officer for the Immigrant Defenders Law Centre, said her organisation was aware of one man who was already deported back to Mexico after being picked up at a Home Depot on Friday morning.

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The man’s family contacted her organisation, and one of their attorneys was waiting for hours to speak to him inside the detention centre, she said.

Authorities later said he had already been removed, and the man later contacted his family to say he was back in Mexico.

Videos from bystanders and television news crews captured people being walked across a Home Depot parking lot by federal agents, as well as clashes that broke out at other detention sites.

Outside the warehouse, KTLA showed aerial footage of agents leading detainees out of a building and toward two large white vans waiting in a parking lot.

The hands of the detained people were tied behind their backs. The agents patted them down before loading them into the vans.

The agents wore vests with the agency acronyms FBI, ICE and HSI. Armed agents used yellow police tape to keep crowds on the street and sidewalk away from the operations.

Immigrant-rights advocates used megaphones to speak to the workers, reminding them of their constitutional rights and instructing them not to sign anything or say anything to federal agents, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Katia Garcia, 18, left school when she learned her father, 37-year-old Marco Garcia, may have been targeted.

Katia Garcia, a US citizen, said her father is undocumented and has been in the U.S. for 20 years. “We never thought this would happen to us,” she told the Los Angeles Times.

President Donald Trump is deploying 2000 California National Guard troops to Los Angeles over the objections of Gov. Gavin Newsom after a second day of clashes between hundreds of protesters and federal immigration authorities in riot gear.

Confrontations broke out on near a Home Depot in the heavily Latino city of Paramount, south of Los Angeles, where federal agents were staging at a Department of Homeland Security office nearby.

Agents unleashed tear gas, flash-bang explosives and pepper balls, and protesters hurled rocks and cement at Border Patrol vehicles.

Protesters attempt to light a Molotov cocktail as a firework explodes during a protest in Compton, LA. (AP)

Los Angeles County Sheriffs stand during a protest in Compton. (AP)

Smoke wafted from small piles of burning refuse in the streets.

Tensions were high after a series of sweeps by immigration authorities the previous day, including in LA’s fashion district and at a Home Depot, as the weeklong tally of immigrant arrests in the city climbed past 100.

A prominent union leader was arrested while protesting and accused of impeding law enforcement.

The White House announced that Trump would deploy the Guard to “address the lawlessness that has been allowed to fester.”

It wasn’t clear when the troops would arrive.

Law enforcement investigate a car with a person inside during a protest in Compton. (AP)

Newsom, a Democrat, said in a post on the social platform X that it was “purposefully inflammatory and will only escalate tensions.”

He later said the federal government wants a spectacle and urged people not to give them one by becoming violent.

In a signal of the administration’s aggressive approach, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth threatened to deploy the US military.

“If violence continues, active-duty Marines at Camp Pendleton will also be mobilized — they are on high alert,” Hegseth said on X.

Trump’s order came after clashes in Paramount and neighbouring Compton, where a car was set on fire.

A law enforcement officer works to put out a fire during a protest in Compton, (AP)

Protests continued into the evening in Paramount, with several hundred demonstrators gathered near a doughnut shop, and authorities holding up barbed wire to keep the crowd back.

Crowds also gathered again outside federal buildings in downtown Los Angeles, including a detention centre, where local police declared an unlawful assembly and began to arrest people.

Standoff in Paramount, LA

Earlier in Paramount, immigration officers faced off with demonstrators at the entrance to a business park, across from the back of a Home Depot.

They set off fireworks and pulled shopping carts into the street, broke up cinder blocks and pelted a procession of Border Patrol vans as they departed and careened down a boulevard.

US Attorney Bill Essayli said federal agents made more arrests of people with deportation orders on Saturday, but none were at the Home Depot.

A protester throws a rock amidst tear gas from law enforcement during a demonstration after federal immigration authorities conducted operations, Saturday, June 7, 2025, in the Paramount section of Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer) (AP)

The Department of Homeland Security has a building next door and agents were staging there as they prepared to carry out operations, he said on Fox11 Los Angeles.

He didn’t say how many people were arrested on Saturday or where.

Paramount Mayor Peggy Lemons told multiple news outlets that community members showed up in response because people are fearful about activity by immigration agents.

“When you handle things the way that this appears to be handled, it’s not a surprise that chaos would follow,” Lemons said.

Some demonstrators jeered at officers while recording the events on smartphones.

“ICE out of Paramount. We see you for what you are,” a woman said through a megaphone. “You are not welcome here.”

More than a dozen people were arrested and accused of impeding immigration agents, Essayli posted on X, including the names and mug shots of some of those arrested. He didn’t say where they were protesting.

Trump calls up the Guard

Trump federalised part of California’s National Guard under what is known as Title 10 authority, which places him, not the governor, atop the chain of command, according to Newsom’s office.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement that the work the immigration authorities were doing when met with protests is “essential to halting and reversing the invasion of illegal criminals into the United States.

“In the wake of this violence, California’s feckless Democrat leaders have completely abdicated their responsibility to protect their citizens.”

Police detain a man during a protest in the Paramount section of Los Angeles, Saturday, June 7, 2025, after federal immigration authorities conducted operations. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer) (AP)

A fire burns as a protester stands across the way from Border Patrol personnel in riot gear and gas masks outside an industrial park in Paramount, Calif., on Saturday, June 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer) (AP)

The president’s move came shortly after he issued a threat on his social media network saying that if Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass did not “do their jobs,” then “the Federal Government will step in and solve the problem, RIOTS & LOOTERS, the way it should be solved!!!”

Trump signed the order shortly before he went to attend a UFC fight in New Jersey, where he sat ringside with boxer Mike Tyson.

Newsom said in his statement that local authorities “are able to access law enforcement assistance at a moment’s notice,” and “there is currently no unmet need.”

Police, protesters clash in violent upheaval in LA View Gallery

The California Highway Patrol said Newsom directed it to deploy additional officers to “maintain public safety.”

In 2020, Trump asked governors of several states to deploy their National Guard troops to Washington, DC, to quell protests after George Floyd was killed by Minneapolis police. Many agreed and sent troops.

Trump also threatened at the time to invoke the Insurrection Act for those protests — an intervention rarely seen in modern American history.

But then-Defense Secretary Mark Esper pushed back, saying the law should be invoked “only in the most urgent and dire of situations.”

Trump did not invoke the act during his first term, and he did not do so Saturday, according to Leavitt and Newsom.

Police detain a protester blocking the garage entrance of the Los Angeles Federal Building, following multiple detentions by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, in downtown Los Angeles on Friday. (Daniel Cole/Reuters via CNN)

Arrests in Los Angeles

Protests kicked off a day earlier in Los Angeles after federal authorities arrested 44 people for violating immigration law Friday.

DHS later said recent ICE operations in Los Angeles resulted in the arrest of 118 immigrants, including five people linked to criminal organisations and people with prior criminal histories.

Los Angeles Police Department officers move to disperse a protest. (Jae C Hong/AP via CNN)

David Huerta, regional president of the Service Employees International Union, was also arrested on Friday while protesting.

The Justice Department confirmed that he was being held on Saturday at the Metropolitan Detention Centre in Los Angeles ahead of a scheduled Monday court appearance.

Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called for his immediate release, warning of a “disturbing pattern of arresting and detaining American citizens for exercising their right to free speech.”

Law enforcement stand during a protest in Compton, Calif., Saturday, June 7, 2025, after federal immigration authorities conducted operations. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope) (AP)

– With CNN, AP

Protests over federal immigration raids continued to wreak havoc on Los Angeles Saturday with agents wearing riot gear reportedly using flash-bang grenades to clear crowds — as the federal government moves to mobilize the National Guard after claiming LAPD took two hours to respond Friday.

“We’re going to bring the National Guard in tonight. We’re going to continue doing our job. We’re going to push back on these people and we’re going to enforce the law,” Tom Homan, Acting Director of US Immigration and Custom Enforcement, said on Fox News, Saturday.

19 Protesters in Paramount, California, near a burning car as feds clash with rioters. REUTERS

19 A protester places debris in a fire as Border Patrol personnel in riot gear and gas masks stand guard outside an industrial park in the Paramount section of Los Angeles, on Saturday. AP

19 A federal agent points their projectile gun at protesters during a clash near a Home Depot. ALLISON DINNER/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

The California National Guard was set to mobilize 2,000 soldiers, the Associated Press reported Saturday, with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegeseth threatening to send in active duty Marines to address what he called a “huge national security risk.”

“The @DeptofDefense is mobilizing the National Guard IMMEDIATELY to support federal law enforcement in Los Angeles. And, if violence continues, active duty Marines at Camp Pendleton will also be mobilized — they are on high alert,” Hegseth wrote on X Saturday.

“Over a dozen agitators” were arrested on Saturday for impeding federal agents during enforcement operations, Bill Essayli, the United States Attorney for the Central District of California, announced on X Saturday.

California Governor Gavin Newsom accused the federal government of “sowing chaos so they can have an excuse to escalate,” in a post on X Saturday night.

19 A protester throws a rock at police during a standoff between police and protesters following multiple detentions by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), in the Los Angeles County city of Paramount, California, U.S., June 7, 2025. REUTERS

19 A protester appears to kick a teargas canister across the Paramount, California street back at a federal agents, on Saturday. ALLISON DINNER/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

President Donald Trump threatened to exert federal controls of the devolving situation in the Golden State.

“If Governor Gavin Newscum, of California, and Mayor Karen Bass, of Los Angeles, can’t do their jobs, which everyone knows they can’t, then the Federal Government will step in and solve the problem, RIOTS & LOOTERS, the way it should be solved!!!,” the president wrote on Truth Social on Saturday.

Images and video showed a chaotic scene on Saturday as hundreds of protesters filled the streets and clashed with federal agents in riot gear attempting to impede apprehensions by Border Patrol in Paramount, California, near a Home Depot.

19 A protester waves an upside-down American flag on the streets of Downtown Los Angeles. Aurora / SplashNews.com

19 A rioter throws a firework during a standoff with police in Paramount, California on June 7, 2025. REUTERS

19 Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies detain a woman during a riot that took over the streets in California. REUTERS

19 Sheriff’s deputies hold back masked protesters during a standoff. REUTERS

The dystopian scene showed the heavily armored agents firing teargas canisters in order to disperse demonstrators who raged for hours on Saturday in a messy and tumultuous street takeover.

One violent protester in a face-covering helmet hurled rocks at the windows of cars right outside the super store — cracking some Border Patrol pick-up trucks in the windshield, according to viral video.

ICE agents driving one of those vehicles suffered injuries after rocks left a huge gash in both the windshield and the hand of one of the federal law enforcement officials, video obtained by Fox News showed.

Border Patrol Chief Michael W. Banks reported that “several arrests” have been made for assault on a federal agent, according to a post on X Saturday.

Video circulating online showed an American flag on a fire in the middle of the street across from the home improvement store which was mired by demonstrators, Saturday.

19 A firework explodes after being thrown at police. REUTERS

19 Colored smoke fills the air during a clash between protesters and federal agents near a Home Depot after a raid was conducted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Paramount, California, USA, 07 June 2025. ALLISON DINNER/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

19 A protester throws a rock at police officers behind a cloud of tear gas. AP

Other protesters during the day stood in front of a federal bus to stop in from carrying off alleged illegal immigrants, video on social media showed.

In Compton, protesters standing off against ICE agents and police lit a car on fire that burned as rioters waving the Mexican flag circled it on a motorcycle, ABC7 LA reported.

Riotous protests continued into the evening with protestors running the streets patrolled by hundreds of National Guard members and police officers.

Vice President JD Vance weighed in on the violent protests.

“Insurrectionists carrying foreign flags are attacking immigration enforcement officers, while one half of America’s political leadership has decided that border enforcement is evil,” the veep wrote on X Saturday.

Violent protests began on Friday with federal agents having raided multiple workplaces in LA’s fashion district and other locations, with the conflagrations continuing at the Paramount Home Depot Saturday, according to the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California.

19 ICE agents who’ve been rounding up illegal immigrants in Los Angeles have become the subject of vile graffiti in the city’s downtown. DHS.Gov

19 Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department aim a tear gas gun at rioters in Compton, Calif. Chelsea Lauren/Shutterstock

The Trump Administration ripped lefty Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass after a violent mob swarmed US Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers conducting immigration raids in the city — while the Department of Homeland Security claimed Saturday local cops waited two hours to help push back the agitators when the trouble started Friday.

Lefty pols like Bass are “villainiz[ing] and demoniz[ing ] ICE law enforcement,” leading to the violence that saw roughly 1,000 agitators attack law enforcement officers, deface buildings, slash tires and committing other crimes, Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said.

“The violent targeting of law enforcement in Los Angeles by lawless rioters is despicable, and Mayor Bass and [California] Governor [Gavin] Newsom must call for it to end,” she added in a statement Saturday.

“The men and women of ICE put their lives on the line to protect and defend the lives of American citizens.”

19 Border Patrol agents were armed in riot gear as they were met with intense and violent resistance from LA County locals. ALLISON DINNER/EPA-EFE/Shutterstock

There’s been a 413% increase in assaults on ICE agents since President Trump took office in January, compared to the same period last year, McLaughlin said.

Images released by DHS Saturday show parts of downtown Los Angeles covered in vulgar graffiti, including “F–K ICE” and “KILL ICE” spray-painted on fences and buildings — as well as a flyer handed out by the Communist group RefuseFacism.org saying “The Trump Fascist Regime MUST GO NOW!!!”

Helmeted LAPD cops in riot gear faced off Friday evening with protesters after a day of federal immigration raids in the city. At least 44 people were arrested.

The Los Angeles Police Department did not return messages.

19 A rioter throws a rock as LA melts down into violence and chaos. AP

19 Roughly 1,000 rioters on Friday surrounded a federal law enforcement building in Los Angeles and assaulted ICE officers, slashed tires and defaced buildings, the feds said. DHS.Gov

New York Mayoral candidate and former-governor Andrew Cuomo weighed in on the ICE raids and the protests in both Los Angeles and New York on Saturday.

“The recent ICE crackdowns in Los Angeles and New York City are a deeply troubling escalation in immigration enforcement tactics that undermine community trust and the principles of due process,” Cuomo said in a statement.

“I believe in upholding the rule of law and maintaining secure borders, but these operations — marked by military-style raids, the use of flash-bang grenades, and the detention of individuals, including those attempting to document the events — cross a line into cruelty and unnecessary fear mongering,” Cuomo said in the statement.

19 Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass called rioters “despicable” in a statement Saturday. Getty Images

19 Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin blamed Bass and California Governor Gavin Newsom. AP

Hundreds of migrants, including children, were detained by ICE agents Friday, the ACLU said.

The DHS, however, said operations in LA this week have resulted in the arrest of 118 illegal migrants – including five gang members and others with past criminal charges that include drug trafficking, assault, cruelty to children and robbery, according to the DHS.

Bass condemned the ICE raids in a statement, saying these “tactics sow terror in our communities and disrupt basic principles of safety in our city… We will not stand for this.”

Neither the Department of Homeland Security nor the California National Guard responded to The Post’s request for comment.