The Pentagon planned to deploy about 700 Marines to Los Angeles on Monday to help National Guard members respond to immigration protests, three U.S. officials said, as California prepared to sue President Donald Trump over his use of the Guard troops and growing numbers of demonstrators took to the city’s streets for a fourth day.
The Marines were moving toward LA from their base at Twentynine Palms in the Southern California desert, the officials said on condition of anonymity to discuss military plans.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta announced the planned lawsuit by telling reporters that Trump had “trampled” the state’s sovereignty.
“We don’t take lightly to the president abusing his authority and unlawfully mobilizing California National Guard troops” Bonta said. He planned to seek a court order declaring Trump’s use of the Guard unlawful and asking for a restraining order to halt the deployment.
The smell of smoke hung in the air downtown Monday, one day after crowds blocked a major freeway and set self-driving cars on fire as police responded with tear gas, rubber bullets and flash-bang grenades. It could take days to clear the debris from burned cars and to clean off or paint over graffiti sprayed on City Hall and other nearby buildings.
The law enforcement presence was heavy, with police cars blocking the street in front of the federal detention facility that was a focus of the protests.
But the clashes unfolded over just a few square blocks in an immense city of some 4 million people, most of whom went about their normal business on peaceful streets.
On Monday, thousands of people flooded the streets around City Hall for a union rally ahead of a hearing for arrested labor leader David Huerta, who was freed a few hours later on a $50,000 bond. Huerta’s arrest on Friday while protesting immigration raids has become a rallying cry for people angry over the administration’s crackdown. He is the president of the Service Employees International Union California, which represents thousands of the state’s janitors, security officers and other workers.
Earlier in the day, religious leaders joined protesters outside the downtown federal detention where Huerta was held, working at times to quell outbursts of anger in the otherwise peaceful demonstration. Protesters linked hands and at times sang in front of a line of police officers, who unsuccessfully asked people to move off the road and onto the sidewalk.
Bonta accused Trump of fanning protesters’ anger with his announcement of the deployment, saying he set off Sunday’s clashes with law enforcement in downtown Los Angeles. “This was not inevitable,” he said.
Trump said Monday that the city would have been “completely obliterated” if he had not deployed the Guard.
Later, at a White House event, he added that state leaders “were afraid to do anything.”
U.S. officials said about 1,000 National Guard members were in the city under federal orders by midday Monday. The full 2,000 members authorized by the president were expected to be on the ground by the end of the day. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the details of military operations.
The arrival of the National Guard followed two days of protests that began Friday in downtown Los Angeles before spreading Saturday to Paramount, a heavily Latino city south of the city, and neighboring Compton.
Other protests were taking shape Monday afternoon in LA, and more protests were scheduled for cities across the country.
Outside a Los Angeles clothing warehouse, relatives of detained workers demanded at a news conference that their loved ones be released.
The family of Jacob Vasquez, 35, who was detained Friday at the warehouse, where he worked, said they had yet to receive any information about him.
“Jacob is a family man and the sole breadwinner of his household,” Vasquez’s brother, Gabriel, told the crowd. He asked that his last name not be used, fearing being targeted by authorities.
On Sunday, many protesters dispersed as evening fell and police declared an unlawful assembly, a precursor to officers moving in and arresting those who refuse to leave. Some of those who stayed threw objects at police from behind a makeshift barrier. Others hurled chunks of concrete, rocks, electric scooters and fireworks at California Highway Patrol officers and their vehicles. Officers ran under an overpass to take cover at one point.
The Guard was deployed specifically to protect federal buildings, including the downtown detention center where protesters concentrated.
Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell said officers were “overwhelmed” by the remaining protesters. He said they included regular agitators who show up at demonstrations to cause trouble.
Several dozen people were arrested throughout the weekend. One was detained Sunday for throwing a Molotov cocktail at police and another for ramming a motorcycle into a line of officers.
Governor says Guard not needed
Newsom urged Trump to rescind the Guard deployment in a letter Sunday, calling it a “serious breach of state sovereignty.”
The governor, who was was in Los Angeles meeting with local law enforcement and officials, also told protesters that they were playing into Trump’s plans and would face arrest for violence or property destruction.
“Trump wants chaos and he’s instigated violence,” he said. “Stay peaceful. Stay focused. Don’t give him the excuse he’s looking for.”
The deployment appeared to be the first time in decades that a state’s National Guard was activated without a request from its governor, a significant escalation against those who have sought to hinder the administration’s mass deportation efforts.
Newsom, meanwhile, has repeatedly said that California authorities had the situation under control. He mocked Trump for posting a congratulatory message to the Guard on social media before troops had even arrived in Los Angeles.
The last time the National Guard was activated without a governor’s permission was in 1965, when President Lyndon B. Johnson sent troops to protect a civil rights march in Alabama, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.
In a directive Saturday, Trump invoked a legal provision allowing him to deploy federal service members when there is “a rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States.”
