Trump made use of his prerogative and assumed control of the state security forces of the state of California
SAO PAULO, SP (Folhapress)-The 2,000 National Guard soldiers sent by the Donald Trump government began to arrive in Los Angeles on Sunday (8) to contain protests against anti-immigration operations in the city.
Trump made use of his prerogative and has taken control of California’s state security forces to mobilize soldiers in the second largest city in the country – an unprecedented measure in recent decades and considered “deliberately provocative” by the Democratic party governor Gavin Newsom.
Soldiers with helmets, automatic weapons and camouflaged vehicles were seen in the Compton neighborhood of Los Angeles, early hours of Sunday, as a precaution in the face of new demonstrations. A “massive mobilization” against migratory beats was summoned in front of the City Hall during the afternoon (18h in Brasília time).
In the last two days, federal agents have launched bombs of moral effect and tear gas against a crowd protesting the arrest of dozens of migrants in a city with a strong Latin presence.
In addition to Trump, other republican members ignored the warnings of Governador Newsom and other local democratic leaders that repression could aggravate tensions.
“I’m not at all worried,” House President Mike Johnson told ABC’s “This Week” show when asked about it. He stated that Newsom “showed disability or lack of will, which motivated the president’s intervention.”
Johnson also supported the possibility of triggering Active Marines, as well as the National Guard – a hypothesis considered on Saturday by the Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth. “We need to be prepared to do whatever is needed,” he argued.
According to the governor of California, federal authorities “want a spectacle.” “Don’t give them that. Never use violence. Tell us peacefully,” Newsom wrote at X on Saturday night, calling Hegseth’s threat.
An AFP news agency photographer recorded fires and fireworks illuminating the streets during the clashes, while a protester with a Mexico flag posed on a burning car with a slogan against ICE, US immigration service.
National Guard is a military reserve force usually triggered in emergencies such as natural disasters and, occasionally, in civil disorders – always with the approval of local authorities.
It is the first time since 1965 that a president sends this force without the request of a state governor, said Kenneth Roth, former director of the NGO Human Rights Watch, accusing Trump of “creating a show to continue his migratory beats.”
US internal security secretary Kristi Noem, whose folder is responsible for Ice, defended the president’s decision and said the National Guard is “specially trained for this kind of situation with large crowds.”
Trump has fulfilled his promise to rigorously repress the entry and permanence of irregular immigrants in the country, to which he has already compared monsters and animals.
ICE operations in other US cities have caused protests in recent months, but disorders in Los Angeles are the largest and most lasting against Trump government policies so far.
