By Zhang Han and Zhang Changyue
Tear gas, rubber bullets, standoffs and arrests … clashes triggered by immigration raids have continued in Los Angeles on Sunday local time between protesters and law enforcement officers along with similar protests in more cities across the US, according to local media reports.
The chaos and violence are in full display in the streets, but they are external syndromes of the US’ political infight which has become so fierce between the two major parties that it has given rise to some very rare, if not unprecedented situations, a Chinese observer said.
More than 1,000 protesters clashed and faced off with National Guard troops in downtown Los Angeles on Sunday during the latest demonstrations against immigration raids that swept across California over the weekend, the Xinhua News Agency reported on Monday.
National Guard soldiers, along with agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Department of Homeland Security, repeatedly firing tear gas and smoke grenades to disperse the crowd. Some protesters and journalists were hit during the confrontation, Xinhua reported.
About 300 members of the California National Guard have been operating in Los Angeles because of the demonstrations, according to the office of Governor Gavin Newsom, who formally requested that the Trump administration rescind its “unlawful” deployment, and allow local authorities to maintain order, CNN reported.
Approximately 500 active-duty Marines are on a “prepared to deploy status” and would be sent from the combat center in Twentynine Palms, California, as unrest persists in the city, US Northern Command said Sunday evening.
A US-born Los Angeles resident who only gave the first name Kane, told the Global Times on Monday that he saw law enforcement officers threw gas canisters at crowds. They [law enforcement officers] use excessive force against both civilians and protesters, I think that the ICE immigration raids are unsupported locally, Kane said
A local resident of Chinese nationality surnamed Wang said Los Angeles has a very scattered landscape, she has only been to downtown LA twice in the past three years, meaning severe protests in downtown can hardly be felt in other parts of the city, Wang told the Global Times.
Another Chinese resident who required anonymity told the Global Times that protests concentrate on downtown area, and “the biggest impact for us is traffic blockage.”
LA police posted on social media platform X that the entire downtown Los Angeles area had been declared an unlawful assembly. As of 8 pm, 27 protesters had been arrested on Sunday; 17 of them were detained as the California Highway Patrol worked to clear the 101 Freeway, according to the LAPD. The remaining 10 arrests were made by LA police for alleged crimes including throwing a Molotov cocktail at an officer and driving a motorcycle into a line of police.
According to the New York Times, more than 150 people have been arrested in Los Angeles since Friday, officials said.
The LAPD, Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department and the California Highway Patrol have all deployed helicopters that appear to have been monitoring the ongoing protests in Downtown LA on Sunday, according to data from Flightradar24, CNN reported.
Regarding the ongoing law enforcement operations in multiple areas of the Los Angeles region, the Consulate General of China in Los Angeles reminded Chinese citizens in the area to closely monitor official announcements and media reports, enhance safety awareness and strengthen security precautions, according to an announcement the Consulate published on its official WeChat account on Monday.
As clashes in Los Angeles heat up in the past few days, immigration raids have also triggered protests in other major US cities, according to media reports.
Around 60 people were arrested on Sunday in San Francisco after protests outside the Immigration Services building turned violent, authorities said, CNN affiliate KGO reported.
Crowds of hundreds gathered Sunday in Houston and San Antonio in protest of federal authorities’ redoubled efforts to detain and deport undocumented immigrants, according to Texas Tribute on Sunday local time.
Deep divide
The ongoing chaos on streets have deep roots in US politics, which has become significantly divided and polarized, Lü Xiang, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, told Global Times on Monday.
After an order of National Guard deployment, US President Donald Trump has vowed to “liberate Los Angeles from the Migrant Invasion,” amid violent clashes between members of the National Guard and anti-immigration enforcement protesters, according to multiple media reports.
California governor Newsom meanwhile called Trump’s order of National Guard “unlawful” and “complete overreaction” designed to create a spectacle of force, the Associated Press (AP) reported Monday.
Another iconic moment of the federal government-state feud was when Newsom stated “Arrest me” in response to threats of arrest from Trump’s “border tsar” Tom Homan, according to NBC News.
US President defended the deployment as a necessary response to Newsom’s and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass’ failure to swiftly contain the unrest. “These are not protesters, they are troublemakers and insurrectionists. Remember, NO MASKS!” Trump wrote on Truth Social.
According to US media, California government will file a federal lawsuit on Monday against the Trump administration over the federalization and deployment of the National Guard in Los Angeles.
A joint statement from 22 Democratic governors Sunday condemned the deployment of the National Guard as “an alarming abuse of power.” The statement also decried threats to send Marines to the area, which Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said Saturday was a possibility.
Lü said the deployment of the National Guard without request or consent is already a rare move, while dispatching active-Marines in a domestic scenario like such is even more scarce.
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, AP said, citing the Brennan Center for Justice.
The clash marked one of the most serious confrontations yet between agents carrying out US president’s directives on mass arrests and deportations and local officials who oppose the stricter enforcement measures, according to USA Today.
