The Los Angeles community (California, United States) resisted this Sunday to bend, despite the threats of the government of more migratory raids and the repression of protests with the soldiers of the National Guard.
A crowd met this Sunday – for the third consecutive day – in the center of Los Angeles to demonstrate against the massive raids to migrants from the immigration and customs control service (ICE, in English), which has left more than 100 people arrested and the militarization of the city.
The tensions intensified after Trump ordered the deployment of 2,000 National Guard soldiers in the city, to protect the federal immigration building located in the center of Los Angeles. It is the first time since the 60s that deployed to this type of uniformed without permission from the corresponding governor.
The president’s order was executed protected in a controversial federal disposition, which ignored the governor of California, Gavin Newsom, in an unprecedented event in the last 60 years.
The protesters today faced with about two dozen soldiers and hundreds of agents of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), who accused of betraying the community with slogans of “should give them shame.”
To disperse the congregation, the LAPD declared this Sunday’s demonstration as an “illegal assembly”, which generated the dissidents of the highway 101, where they blocked the traffic for several hours to which the police responded with the use of tear gas.
Threat of more raids
These confrontations served Trump to justify the deployment of troops as something essential to restore law and order in the city; And, through his social network, he said that the protests unleashed during this weekend only strengthened their determination to continue deporting, after qualifying angels as a city “invaded and occupied by illegal and criminal immigrants.”
The tensions between the Trump administration and the California government intensified in the morning when, threatened to arrest the mayor of the Los Angeles, Karen Bass, already Newsom, “if they exceed” in their powers.
In an interview with NBC, Newsom challenged Homin to arrest him. “Come for me! That will not prevent me from defending California,” he said.
The Dilemma of the Democrats
This Sunday the dilemma faced both the governor and the mayor became: on the one hand, they must achieve the withdrawal of the National Guard troops, guarantee a safe space for protesters to express themselves peacefully and support the migrant community; On the other, they must contain the acts of vandalism caused by a minority.
Newsom formally asked the White House to withdraw from the “illegal deployment of troops in the Los Angeles County” and that they were returned to their command or will file a lawsuit tomorrow Monday.
“We did not have a problem until Trump got involved. This is a serious violation of the sovereignty of the State,” said the governor.
For his part, Bass also criticized the US executive, stating that the deployment of soldiers does not respond to public security reasons, but to a political agenda.
The two Democratic officials also urged by peaceful manifestations, the governor told the protesters: “Do not give Trump what he wants,” when referring to the acts of vandalism, while the mayor said that the city “does not need to be shattered” by a few violent.
And, although the demonstration of this Sunday passed in relative calm, a group of young people faced the city police who were forced to use the mounted force, after several patrols destroyed and at least five autonomous taxis, which were burned.
Jim McDonnell, head of the Los Angeles Police Department, said – at a press conference – that he was convinced that people who exercised acts of violence were not the same who participated peacefully in the protests during the day. “They are people who are hooded. Some call them anarchists, but they are people who are routinely,” McDonnell said.
The tension promises to continue this Monday when two demonstrations are scheduled: one against the prohibition of entry to foreigners from 12 countries and the other that requires the release of union leader David Huerta, president of the International Union of Employees of Services and Workers of the United West Services (SEIU-USWW), arrested last Friday when he responded to a migratory raid in a company in the center of Los Angeles.
