As the National Guard rolls into Los Angeles after two days of protests over recent immigration raids, Mayor Karen Bass said she urged President Donald Trump’s border czar Tom Homan not to send in the troops.
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Bass told KNX News’ Craig Fiegener she spoke to Homan on Saturday night and expressed that L.A. can handle the protests without federal intervention.
“I’m very concerned about the potential civil unrest if there was federal intervention,” she said.
Bass said the ongoing immigration raids are "the last thing we need" as a city after the past five months of wildfire recovery.
"The administration was helpful with the wildfires in terms of the number of Army Corps of Engineers that were deployed in the area," she said. "And now to go from that to swinging the pendulum in the other direction, I just don't understand why they would want to do that."
Gov. Gavin Newsom also objected to the deployment of 2,000 California National Guard troops to L.A., writing in a fundraising email on Sunday that the president is “attempting to inflame passions and provoke a response.”
"He would like nothing more than for this provocative show of force -- and Pete Hegseth's absurd threat to deploy United States Marines on American soil -- to escalate tensions and incite violence,” he wrote.
Trump announced plans to deploy the troops on Saturday night in light of what it called “numerous incidents of violence and disorder.” Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth said he has also placed U.S. Marines at Camp Pendleton on "high alert" to be deployed if needed.
Protests broke out Saturday in response to immigration raids at several locations in L.A., including at a Home Depot in Paramount. Nonviolent protests escalated after federal agents lobbed flash-bangs and pepper balls into the crowd.
At one point, a Blackhawk helicopter landed on a Paramount street and was unloaded of what appeared to be large amounts of weapons and ammunition.
Other clashes occurred outside a federal building in downtown L.A., which ended with LAPD officers declaring an unlawful assembly and dispersing the protesters.
The L.A. Sheriff’s Department said two people were arrested on Saturday for alleged assault on a peace officer.
City News Service contributed to this report.
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