What started as small, mostly peaceful protests against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids in Los Angeles have become nationwide demonstrations against U.S. President Donald Trump’s alleged abuse of executive power.
This week, the Trump administration deployed around 4,000 National Guards and about 700 Marines to Los Angeles without first consulting California Gov. Gavin Newsom. The White House maintains that its actions were vital to weaken the demonstrations, but local officials argue that they only fueled tensions and endangered residents.
“This brazen abuse of power by a sitting president inflamed a combustible situation, putting our people, our officers, and even our National Guard at risk,” Newsom said late Tuesday after imposing a nighttime curfew on roughly 1 square mile of Los Angeles’s downtown area. That curfew has since been lifted.
Even as protests appeared to dwindle in Los Angeles on Wednesday, anti-ICE marches have risen across the country. Authorities have recorded or anticipate protests in Atlanta; Austin, Texas; Chicago; Eugene, Oregon; Mission Viejo, California; New York City; Raleigh, North Carolina; Seattle; St. Louis; and Washington, D.C.; among others. On Wednesday, Texas Republican Greg Abbott became the first state governor to deploy the National Guard ahead of planned demonstrations in San Antonio and other parts of the state.
The Pentagon will deploy federal troops to other cities “if there are riots in places where law enforcement officers are threatened,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told Senate lawmakers on Wednesday.
Read more in today’s World Brief: Trump Braces for Expanded Anti-ICE Protests Across the U.S.
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