With migrant communities already dwelling in concern amid the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, raids carried out in downtown Los Angeles final week by federal brokers apparently turned a flashpoint for days of protests in America’s second-largest metropolis.
The spate of protests, which have seen each peaceable marches and violent clashes with regulation enforcement, prompted the president to name within the navy.
The choice by President Donald Trump to deploy the Nationwide Guard and Marines over the objections of native and state leaders has additionally set off a confrontation between Trump and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and California Gov. Gavin Newsom. The president has publicly known as Bass and Newsom “incompetent” within the disaster, and the mayor and governor have countered that Trump is abusing the ability of the Oval Workplace by sending within the navy and alleging he’s “escalating” an already unstable scenario.
Protesters collect exterior of the Robert Younger Federal Constructing on June 9, 2025 in Downtown Los Angeles, California.
Jim Vondruska/Getty Photographs
The L.A. protests, which have been largely concentrated within the metropolis’s downtown space close to Edward R. Roybal Federal Constructing and U.S. Courthouse, have devolved into violent clashes with native regulation enforcement firing less-lethal projectiles, tear gasoline and flash bangs to disperse crowds. Demonstrators have responded by blocking a significant freeway, setting autos ablaze and hurling rocks, Molotov cocktails and different projectiles on the police, authorities stated.
As demonstrations proceed in Los Angeles and unfold to different cities throughout California and the nation, here’s a timeline on how the battle has unfolded:
June 6
ICE brokers perform a collection of immigration sweeps throughout Southern California. Stories of federal brokers operating after individuals in a parking zone of a Residence Depot within the Westlake neighborhood close to downtown L.A. begin circulating in the neighborhood.
Round 3 p.m. native time, a crowd begins gathering within the downtown Vogue District after ICE brokers present up at an attire manufacturing enterprise. Aerial footage taken by ABC Information’ Los Angeles station, KABC, exhibits what seems to be ICE brokers loading two white passenger autos with individuals in handcuffs. Because the autos depart the attire enterprise, protesters strive unsuccessfully to cease them, together with one particular person who was seen mendacity down within the path of one of many vehicles.
A number of hours later, a big group of protesters gathered exterior the Edward R. Roybal Federal Constructing and U.S. Courthouse downtown, calling for an finish to immigration raids within the metropolis. Video footage exhibits protesters vandalizing the constructing, heckling police and throwing bottles and different objects at officers who used shields to guard themselves. Police in riot gear are seen confronting protesters with batons and what gave the impression to be tear gasoline launchers.
A police officer in riot gear fires a nonlethal weapon towards protesters throughout an illustration following federal immigration operations in Los Angeles on June 9, 2025.
Ringo Chiu/AFP through Getty Photographs
At 10 p.m., the LAPD posts a message on social media, saying “an UNLAWFUL ASSEMBLY has been declared for the realm” across the downtown federal constructing and advises protesters and others to depart the realm.
June 7
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Division receives reviews round 10:15 a.m. of a big crowd gathering in Paramount, a small suburb of Los Angeles, amid rumors that ICE is making ready to raid a Residence Depot there. Deputies ordered the gang to disperse and fired tear gasoline and flash bang when individuals refused to depart. Across the identical time, one other protest broke out in neighboring Compton, the place reviews emerged of vandalism, together with protesters setting a automotive on hearth on the street.
Later, Mayor Bass stated that there have been no ICE raids in Paramount or anyplace else in Los Angeles County on Saturday. She stated the constructing in Paramount that protesters gathered close to was getting used as a staging space for federal sources.
Round 6 p.m., Trump signed a presidential memorandum authorizing the deployment of two,000 Nationwide Guard members to Los Angeles, saying it’s essential to “handle the lawlessness” in Los Angeles. Bass and Newsom instantly object to the president’s resolution, saying it might solely enflame tensions.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and Chief of the Los Angeles Police Division Jim McDonnell maintain a press convention on the Metropolis of Los Angeles Emergency Operations Middle, June 9, 2025.
Patrick T. Fallon/AFP through Getty Photographs
All through the night time, protesters nonetheless assembled on the downtown federal advanced have been seen throwing fireworks, rocks, glass bottles and different objects at police, who responded by firing less-lethal projectiles and flash-bangs to disperse protesters.
June 8
Nationwide Guard Troops started arriving in Los Angeles round 4 a.m., taking over a place exterior the Roybal federal constructing. The deployment marked the primary time a president has mobilized a state’s Nationwide Guard and not using a governor’s consent since President Lyndon B. Johnson did so in 1965, when he despatched Nationwide Guard troops to Alabama to guard civil rights activists marching from Selma to Montgomery.
Twenty-two Democratic governors launched a joint assertion calling Trump’s resolution to deploy the Nationwide Guard “an alarming abuse of energy.”
“Governors are the Commanders in Chief of their Nationwide Guard and the federal authorities activating them in their very own borders with out consulting or working with the state’s governor is ineffective and harmful,” the joint assertion reads.
A flash bomb explodes as California Freeway Patrol vehicles are lined up alongside the 101 freeway after officers cleared protesters from the realm, June 8, 2025 in Los Angeles.
Eric Thayer/AP
A big group of protesters started marching in downtown Los Angeles, chanting and holding indicators studying, “Battle Trump.”
The LAPD goes on “tactical alert,” which means all personnel are to stay on obligation as town braces for an additional night of protests. Regardless of officers utilizing less-lethal munitions in an try to interrupt up the demonstrations, protesters marched onto the 101 Freeway, halting visitors on a portion of the freeway operating via downtown.
Two LAPD officers have been injured by motorcyclists making an attempt to breach a skirmish line police had established, based on officers. Video captured different demonstrators standing on an overpass throwing objects, together with not less than one scooter and bicycle, at California Freeway Patrol officers and their automobile because the CHP tried to take away protesters from the freeway.
California Nationwide Guard members stand exterior the Federal Constructing as individuals collect to protest in response to federal immigration operations in Los Angeles, on June 9, 2025.
Apu Gomes/AFP through Getty Photographs
“Tonight, we had people on the market taking pictures business grade fireworks at our officers. That may kill you,” LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell says at a information convention.
Gov. Newsom formally requested that the Trump administration rescind its “illegal deployment” of Nationwide Guard troops.
June 9
At 12:11 a.m. native time, the LAPD declared protests in all of downtown Los Angeles acts of “illegal meeting” and ordered individuals to depart the realm or threat arrest.
U.S. navy officers confirmed that 700 members of the 2nd Battalion, seventh Marines at Twentynine Palms, California, are being deployed to Los Angeles.
US Border Patrol brokers arrest a protester close to the US Citizenship and Immigration Companies (USCIS) Santa Ana Area Workplace after protesters gathered following reviews of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids in Santa Ana, California, on June 9, 2025.
Patrick T. Fallon/AFP through Getty Photographs
California Lawyer Basic Rob Bonta stated he and Newsom are suing the Trump administration, alleging the president and Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth have “trampled over” California’s sovereignty by unlawfully invoking “a regulation that is meant to stop an invasion by a international nation or [prevent] a insurrection or [in response to] native and state regulation enforcement [making] it in order that the regulation of the US can’t be executed.”
Returning to the White Home from a weekend journey to Camp David, Trump advised reporters it might be “nice” if Tom Homan, appearing head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, arrested Newsom, though Homan says he and the president had no discussions about arresting the governor.
President Donald Trump returns to the White Home, June 9, 2025 in Washington.
Win McNamee/Getty Photographs
In a social media submit, Newsom stated, “These are the acts of a dictator, not a President.”
As protests in Los Angeles entered their fourth night time, photographs from the scene confirmed tense moments as demonstrators confronted police. At one level, police stated protesters close to Temple Road and Los Angeles Road in downtown L.A. have been throwing objects at police, and an LAPD incident commander approved the usage of “much less deadly munitions” in response.
June 10
Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum slams the U.S. for “criminalizing migration,” saying Mexican immigrants are law-abiding residents and obligatory for the U.S. economic system.
On the White Home, a reporter asks Trump if he would use the Rebel Act as a response to the protests. The president responds, “If there’s an revolt, I will surely invoke it. We are going to see.”
“These are paid insurrectionists, these are paid troublemakers,” Trump stated of the protesters with out citing supporting proof.
“If we didn’t get entangled” and ship the Nationwide Guard, “proper now Los Angeles could be burning, identical to it was burning quite a few months in the past with all the homes that have been misplaced,” Trump stated, referencing the January wildfires that ravaged Los Angeles.
At a night information convention, Mayor Bass proclaims she is declaring an area emergency and imposing an 8 p.m. to six a.m. curfew within the downtown space, saying it has develop into a obligatory step to cease vandalism and the looting of companies there. She stated the curfew is being imposed in a 1-square-mile space of downtown the place the protests and violence have occurred.
Bass says 23 downtown companies have been looted on Monday, June 9, alone. LAPD Police Chief Jim McDonnell says 197 individuals have been arrested downtown on Tuesday night time alone.
“So, my message to you is that if you don’t reside or work in downtown L.A., keep away from the realm. Legislation enforcement will arrest people who break the curfew and you can be prosecuted,” Bass stated.
She says she plans to satisfy with elected leaders and regulation enforcement officers on Wednesday, June 11, to debate the continuation of the curfew, however provides it’s anticipated to final for a number of days.
In a nighttime video handle, Gov. Newsom continues to sentence President Trump’s resolution to deploy the Nationwide Guard and Marines to Los Angeles, saying Trump “selected theatrics over public security.”
“Democracy is underneath assault earlier than our eyes,” Newsom says.
Addressing the continued ICE raids in Los Angeles, Newsom says the Trump administration is pushing mass deportations and “indiscriminately focusing on hardworking immigrant households no matter their roots or threat.”
Sean Parnell, the Pentagon’s chief spokesman and a senior advisor to Protection Secretary Hegseth, shares an announcement on X, saying that on President Trump’s orders the Division of Protection is including an extra 2,100 California Nationwide Guard to federal service “to help ICE & to allow federal law-enforcement officers to securely conduct their duties. The added troops deliver the whole variety of Nationwide Guard members mobilized to go to L.A. to greater than 4,000.
ABC Information’ Chris Looft contributed to this report.
