Downtown LA Put Under Curfew As Protests Continue
Los Angeles has imposed a downtown curfew following five days of unrest sparked by President Trump’s aggressive immigration crackdown. With over 190 arrests reported on Tuesday alone, Mayor Karen Bass declared a local emergency after 23 businesses were looted and widespread property damage occurred. “We reached a tipping point,” Bass said, adding the curfew, which covers a one-square-mile area of downtown, aims “to stop the vandalism, to stop the looting.”
The protests erupted after ICE raids on Latino communities last Friday and have continued despite the president’s deployment of 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 Marines to the area. While these forces lack arrest powers, they are now actively protecting federal agents as they carry out immigration enforcement. California Governor Gavin Newsom slammed the deployment of the troops as a “military dragnet” and accused Trump of staging a “brazen abuse of power.” A federal judge has scheduled a hearing for Thursday to review Newsom’s request to halt the deployment.
President Trump, meanwhile, has doubled down, calling the protesters “animals” and describing the situation in LA as “a full-blown assault on peace and public order.” Speaking at Fort Bragg, he vowed to use “every asset at our disposal to quell the violence.” The Pentagon estimates the military presence in LA will cost $134 million. Despite ongoing tensions, the demonstrations have remained largely peaceful outside of downtown, with other cities like New York and San Antonio also seeing protests.
