California governor to sue Trump over deployment of National Guard to protests
Gavin Newsom has repeatedly said that California authorities had the situation in Los Angeles under control.
California governor Gavin Newsom said he plans to sue US President Donald Trump in response to the administration’s extraordinary deployment of the National Guard to confront immigration protesters who took to the streets in Los Angeles.
“Commandeering a state’s National Guard without consulting the governor of that state is illegal and immoral,” Mr Newsom, a Democrat, told MSNBC on Sunday.
The streets of the sprawling city of four million people were quiet on Monday morning, but the smell of smoke hung in the air downtown, one day after crowds blocked off a major freeway and set self-driving cars on fire as police responded with tear gas, rubber bullets and flash-bang grenades.
The law enforcement presence was heavy, with police cars blocking the street in front of the federal detention facility that was a focus of the protests.
While much of the city was spared from any violence, clashes swept through several downtown blocks and a handful of other places.
It could take days to clear the debris from burned cars and to paint over the graffiti.
Mr Newsom called on Mr Trump to rescind the Guard deployment in a letter Sunday afternoon, calling it a “serious breach of state sovereignty”.
The governor, who was was in Los Angeles meeting with local law enforcement and officials, also told protesters that they were playing into Mr Trump’s plans and would face arrest for violence or property destruction.
“Trump wants chaos and he’s instigated violence,” he said. “Stay peaceful. Stay focused. Don’t give him the excuse he’s looking for.”
The deployment appeared to be the first time in decades that a state’s National Guard was activated without a request from its governor, a significant escalation against those who have sought to hinder the administration’s mass deportation efforts.
Los Angeles Police chief Jim McDonnell pushed back against claims by the Trump administration that the LAPD had failed to help federal authorities when protests broke out on Friday after a series of immigration raids.
He said his department responded as quickly as it could and had not been notified in advance of the raids.
Mr Newsom, meanwhile, has repeatedly said that California authorities had the situation under control.
He mocked Mr Trump for posting a congratulatory message to the Guard on social media before troops had even arrived in Los Angeles, and he told MSNBC that Mr Trump never floated deploying the Guard during a Friday phone call.
He called Mr Trump a “stone cold liar”.
The admonishments did not deter the administration.
“It’s a bald-faced lie for Newsom to claim there was no problem in Los Angeles before President Trump got involved,” White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson said in a statement.
National Guard troops stood shoulder to shoulder on Sunday morning in LA, carrying long guns and riot shields as protesters shouted “shame” and “go home”.
After some demonstrators closely approached the Guard members, another set of uniformed officers advanced on the group, shooting smoke-filled canisters into the street.
Minutes later, the LAPD fired rounds of crowd-control munitions to disperse the protesters, who they said were assembled unlawfully.
Much of the group then moved to block traffic on the 101 freeway until state patrol officers cleared them.
Nearby, at least four self-driving Waymo cars were set on fire, sending large plumes of black smoke into the sky and exploding intermittently.
By evening, police had shut down several blocks of downtown Los Angeles.
Flash-bang grenades echoed out every few seconds into the evening.
The arrival of the National Guard followed two days of protests that began Friday in downtown Los Angeles before spreading on Saturday to Paramount, a heavily Latino city south of the city, and neighbouring Compton.
Federal agents arrested immigrants in LA’s fashion district, in a Home Depot parking lot and at several other locations on Friday.
The next day, they were staging at a Department of Homeland Security office near another Home Depot in Paramount, which drew out protesters who suspected another raid.
Federal authorities later said there was no enforcement activity at that Home Depot.
The weeklong tally of immigrant arrests in the LA area climbed above 100, federal authorities said.
Many more were arrested while protesting, including a prominent union leader who was accused of impeding law enforcement.
The last time the National Guard was activated without a governor’s permission was in 1965, when former president Lyndon B Johnson sent troops to protect a civil rights march in Alabama, according to the Brennan Centre for Justice.
In a directive on Saturday, Mr Trump invoked a legal provision allowing him to deploy federal service members when there is “a rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States”.
He said he had authorised the deployment of 2,000 members of the National Guard.
Mr Trump told reporters on Sunday as he prepared to board Air Force One in Morristown, New Jersey, that there were “violent people” in Los Angeles “and they’re not going to get away with it”.
