A wave of immigration raids in Los Angeles has ignited violent protests, escalating tensions between the Trump administration and immigrant communities. President Donald Trump has deployed 700 US Marines and 4,000 National Guard troops to quell unrest, marking a dramatic escalation in his mass deportation campaign.
The raids, concentrated in Democrat-controlled California, have provided the White House with a political foil as it pushes to accelerate arrests and deportations. Governor Gavin Newsom, a vocal Trump critic, condemned the troop deployment as a “deranged fantasy of a dictatorial President” in a post on X.
Under pressure to deliver on Trump’s hardline immigration agenda, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested 2,200 people on June 4—the highest single-day tally ever reported. NBC News revealed that hundreds detained were part of the “Alternative to Detention” program, which monitors individuals not deemed immediate threats.
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, the architect of Trump’s deportation policy, has urged ICE to increase daily arrests to 3,000—up from around 660 in Trump’s early days. “President Trump is going to keep pushing to get that number up higher each and every single day,” Miller told Fox News in May.
Yet, deportation figures for much of Trump’s first 100 days matched or fell below those under President Joe Biden’s final year. Tom Homan, the administration’s border czar, admitted dissatisfaction, stating, “We need to increase.”
The Department of Homeland Security defended the raids, citing arrests of individuals convicted of sex crimes, burglary, and drug offenses. But local advocates claim nonviolent immigrants and families were swept up.
At a Monday rally, Los Angeles City Council member Ysabel Jurado accused the administration of “state violence designed to silence, to intimidate, to disappear.” Meanwhile, protests in Paramount saw looting, arson, and clashes with police using rubber bullets and tear gas.
Maria Gutierrez, a Mexican-American protester, declared, “This is our city… this isn’t going to scare us.” However, not all locals oppose the crackdown. Juan, a formerly undocumented immigrant turned citizen, backed ICE: “A crime is a crime.”
While polls show broad support for Trump’s immigration policies, even allies like Florida State Senator Ileana Garcia criticised the tactics, writing, “This is not what we voted for.”
As protests persist, analysts say the unrest reinforces Trump’s tough-on-immigration image. Emory Law’s John Acevedo noted, “For his base, it shows he’s serious… [and] will use all means necessary.”
Los Angeles, a self-declared “sanctuary city,” has long resisted federal immigration enforcement. But with raids expanding nationwide—including in Republican-led states like Tennessee—the standoff signals a deepening national divide.
California sued the president over his deployment of the Guard troops as growing numbers of demonstrators took to the city’s streets for a fourth day. California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced the lawsuit by telling reporters that Trump had “trampled” the state’s sovereignty.