Chaos has gripped Los Angeles, and now 2,000 National Guard troops are on the ground to restore order after days of fiery protests and destructive riots over federal immigration enforcement.
Since Friday, June 6, 2025, the City of Angels has been a battleground of civil unrest, with pro-migrant demonstrations escalating into violence, property damage, and clashes with federal agents across downtown Los Angeles, Paramount, and Compton, prompting President Trump to deploy the Guard by Sunday, June 8, 2025, Daily Mail reported.
The trouble kicked off on Friday in downtown L.A., where activists took to the streets in response to ICE raids targeting unauthorized migrants as part of President Trump’s ongoing immigration crackdown.
By Saturday, June 7, 2025, the protests spread to Paramount and Compton, turning uglier as demonstrators set cars ablaze, hurled rocks, and lobbed flaming projectiles at law enforcement.
Federal agents, including Border Patrol and Homeland Security Investigations, faced off with crowds in Paramount near a Home Depot staging area, deploying tear gas and flash-bang grenades while shutting down freeway sections after 4 p.m. that day.
Protesters didn’t back down, jeering at officers, waving Mexican flags, burning a U.S. flag, and using cement blocks and shopping carts as roadblocks—hardly the peaceful dissent some claim.
Amid the smoke and chaos on Saturday night, the Los Angeles Police Department warned via social media that non-lethal munitions were authorized, urging people to clear out before things got messier.
President Trump, calling the protests “a form of rebellion,” announced the deployment of 2,000 California National Guard troops, including the 79th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, to rein in the unrest.
By early Sunday, June 8, 2025, troops were visible in downtown L.A. near City Hall ahead of an expected demonstration, though much of the city’s 4 million residents remained untouched by the deployment so far.
Governor Gavin Newsom criticized the move as a “provocative show of force,” suggesting it would only heighten tensions, but one might wonder if ignoring the burning streets is a better plan.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem countered that the Guard’s role is to “keep peace” while allowing protest but ensuring law and order—because, turns out, actions like torching cars have consequences.
Tom Homan, Trump’s border security point man, didn’t mince words on Fox News, stating, “We’re making Los Angeles safer,” while noting federal agents arrested over a dozen agitators, including reported child sex offenders and gang members, during the raids.
The Department of Homeland Security confirmed that ICE detained 118 immigrants in recent operations in L.A., a figure that underscores the scale of the crackdown fueling this uproar.
While protesters swarmed a U.S. Marshals bus and kicked at Border Patrol vehicles on Saturday, federal agents in riot gear and gas masks stood their ground, warning crowds in English and Spanish to disperse amid clouds of tear gas.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth added fuel to the fire by noting “active duty Marines are on high alert,” a statement Newsom called “deranged behavior,” though perhaps a strong response is what’s needed when freeways are under siege.
