As unrest persists in downtown Los Angeles, more than 20 mayors from cities across Southern California including LA Mayor Karen Bass called for President Donald Trump to stop federal immigration enforcement raids in the region.
Six days into protests that followed the raids, Bass again blamed the Trump administration for provoking the demonstrations that started peacefully but turned violent and destructive.
“A week ago, everything was peaceful in the city of Los Angeles, and in all of the representatives behind me, in their cities as well,” Bass said during a news conference Wednesday. “Things began to be difficult on Friday when raids took place.”
The motive behind the immigration enforcement operation remained unclear, Bass added.
“Maybe we are part of a national experiment to determine how far the federal government can go, reaching in and taking over power from a governor, power from a jurisdiction, and frankly, leaving our city and our citizens, our residents in fear,” Bass said.
She took issue with the locations chosen for the raids — Home Depot stores, day labor centers and garment industry sites, some of which were in close proximity to schools.
“When you run armored caravans throughout streets, you’re not trying to keep anyone safe,” Bass said. “You’re trying to cause fear and panic, and when you start deploying federalized troops on the heels of these raids, it is a drastic and chaotic escalation and completely unnecessary.”
The mayor said the Trump Administration is not targeting criminals, but everyday Angelenos trying to make a living.
Paramount Mayor Peggy Lemons said the “proud tight-knit community … has been deeply shaken by recent events. In the last few days, our residents have faced loss, uncertainty and fear for many in our city. This has been one of the most devastating moments in recent memory.”
Lemons said Paramount officials have launched efforts to support affected families. The Paramount City Council established a fund to assist immigrant households.
Huntington Park Mayor Arturo Flores said condemned what he called “fear-based tactics” targeting immigrant communities.
“Our communities are not battlegrounds — deploying military forces and conducting militarized ICE raids in immigrant neighborhoods is not about public safety,” Flores said. “It is about political theater that is rooted in fear. It threatens families, traumatizes children and corrodes the foundation trust between local government and the people that we serve.”
LA County Supervisor Hilda Solis spoke out Wednesday against raids in her district.
“My office received reports of immigration enforcement activity in Boyle Heights involving a deeply disturbing incident: two unmarked vehicles, believed to be operated by ICE agents, crashed into a civilian car with two children inside. Video footage shows agents deploying tear gas and forcefully apprehending an individual.”
Solis said her office received reports of additional raids in East Los Angeles near Salazar Park, in the city of Baldwin Park and other areas of the San Gabriel Valley, unincorporated West Puente Valley and Whittier Narrows.
“We are strong and resilient, but no one should have to live under the constant threat and of militarized raids, racial profiling, and family separation,” Solis said. “Los Angeles County will not stand by. I will not stand by. As Governor Gavin Newsom said, we cannot be complicit.”
Protests have been occurring daily in downtown LA area and other parts of the county since Friday, when Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents conducted a series of enforcement operations and took dozens of people into custody.
Trump initially federalized 2,000 California National Guard troops and ordered them to Los Angeles. Gov. Gavin Newsom, Bass and other officials condemned the move, saying it would stoke tensions and provoke further unrest.
On Monday, Trump ordered another 2,000 National Guard troops and deployed 700 U.S. Marines to help protect federal facilities and personnel. The military mobilization is expected to cost about $134 million, according to the U.S. Defense Department.
Trump has insisted that his deployment of the National Guard saved the city of Los Angeles.
“If I didn’t ‘send in the troops’ to Los Angeles the last three nights, that once beautiful and great city would be burning to the ground right now,” he posted on social media, adding that Newsom and Bass were “incompetent.”
As the aftermath of the weekend raids and ongoing protests set in, the war of words between state and local officials and the White House escalated Tuesday, with Gov. Gavin Newsom and President Donald Trump trading barbs and the House Speaker calling for Newsom to be “tarred and feathered.”
Trump repeated his assertion that his deployment of California National Guard troops to Los Angeles saved the city from “burning,” although those troops were not actively engaged in quelling protests or violence in the streets over the past four nights.
“If we didn’t send the National Guard, and last night we gave them a little additional help, Los Angeles would be burning right now,” the president said during an Oval Office press conference. “Los Angeles would be not a lot different than what you saw take place in California in Los Angeles just a little while ago,” he said, referring to the January wildfires.
He added that the city is set to host the 2028 Olympics, “and we don’t want people looking at Los Angeles like it would have been. It would have been bad.”
Trump also claimed that he called Newsom “a day ago” and told him “he’s got to do a better job.”
“He’s done a bad job, causing a lot of death, a lot of potential death,” Trump said, although no deaths have been attributed to the protests against the ICE raids.
Newsom swiftly replied on X, “There was no call. Not even a voicemail. Americans should be alarmed that a president deploying Marines onto our streets doesn’t even know who he’s talking to.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-Louisiana, also took aim at Newsom on Tuesday, declining to say whether the governor should be arrested, but saying, “He ought to be tarred and feathered, I’ll say that.”
“Look, he’s standing in the way of the administration and the carrying out of federal law,” Johnson said. “He is applauding the bad guys and standing in the way of the good guys. He is a participant, an accomplice in our federal law enforcement agents being not just disrespected but assaulted. This is a serious problem.”
Newsom responded on X, “Good to know we’re skipping the arrest and going straight to the 1700s style forms of punishment. A fitting threat given the @GOP want to bring our country back to the 18th Century.”
On Sunday, ICE Acting Director Tom Homan suggested Newsom and other officials could face arrest if they impede federal enforcement operations. ICE retreated from that hardline stance, however, saying Homan was not threatening to arrest Newsom.
But on Monday, Trump told reporters he would support Homan arresting the governor.
“I think it’s great,” Trump said. “Gavin likes the publicity. … He’s done a terrible job. I like Gavin Newsom, he’s a nice guy, but he’s grossly incompetent, everybody knows.”
On MSNBC over the weekend, Newsom retorted:
“Come after me, arrest me. Let’s just get it over with, tough guy, you know? I don’t give a damn. But I care about my community. I care about this community. … These guys need to grow up. They need to stop, and we need to push back. And I’m sorry, to be so clear, but that kind of bloviating is exhausting. So, Tom, arrest me. Let’s go.”
In an interview with CBS Evening News, Homan said, “Well, that whole thing’s been taken out of context. They haven’t crossed a line yet, but like any other U.S. citizen if you cross that line I don’t care who they are. The governor, the mayor, whatever — when you commit a crime against ICE officers, we will seek prosecution. …
“There’s no intention to arrest the governor right now,” Homan said. “I don’t know if he crossed that line.”
On Monday night, White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller called out Newsom on the governor’s assertion that LA “didn’t have a problem” until Trump got involved and deployed the military.
“Your state is a criminal sanctuary for millions of illegal alien invaders, cartel killers, foreign terrorists, transnational gangs and insurrectionist mobs,” Miller posted on social media. “Huge swaths of the city where I was born now resemble failed third world nations. A ruptured, balkanized society of strangers. When our courageous ICE officers, fighting to rescue your communities, came under violent organized attack you and the L.A. mayor left them, unforgivably, to fend for themselves. When the rioters swarmed, you handed over your streets, willingly. You still refuse to arrest and prosecute the arsonists, seditionists and insurrectionists. This Administration is fighting to save the city and the citizens you have left to struggle and suffer.”
Newsom countered with a Tuesday morning post, “The only people defending insurrectionists are you and (Trump). Or are we pretending like you didn’t pardon 1,500 of them?” Newsom was referring to the Jan. 6 Capitol rioters who Trump pardoned earlier this year.
Members of the Southern California Democratic congressional delegation on Tuesday accused federal authorities illegally conducting raids that led to the days of protests.
Rep. Norma Torres, D-Ontario and a former LA-area 911 dispatcher, accused U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents of “indiscriminately” carrying out “violent raids in California and illegally detaining people without warrants.”
She and other congressional representatives called for an end to the immigration activity in the area. They also accused ICE officials of denying members of Congress their legal right to inspect immigration enforcement facilities in the Los Angeles area.
“The conditions that we have been told these migrants are being held under are nothing more than inhumane,” Torres said.
“This is no longer about immigration policy, it is about human dignity and the rule of law,” she said. “We are witnessing ICE ignoring federal laws designed to protect families. We are also seeing people going missing, families being torn apart and even American citizens being detained.”
Rep. Jimmy Gomez, D-Los Angeles, said he was also denied access to an immigration facility, and he condemned the deployment of the National Guard to the city, saying such a move can’t be made unless requested by the governor.
Rep. Mike Levin, D-San Juan Capistrano, issued a statement calling the Marine deployment “an astounding overreach of authoritarian power.”
Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco was critical of the governor, who is termed out of office this year.
“This is Governor Newsom’s lawless California,” Bianco posted on Facebook. “His pro-criminal government is failing Californians. We deserve better.”
Bianco, who is running for governor, urged Newsom to “put his phone down … and be quiet because he is doing nothing but fueling this process,” the sheriff told the New York Post.
“He needs to stay out of the way of law enforcement,” Bianco said. “He knows nothing about this. He knows absolutely nothing about the enforcement of law. He despises the enforcement of law, and he has encouraged this.”
Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Temecula, has called for a congressional investigation after public reports that the LAPD took more than two hours to respond after protests materialized and demonstrators tried to prevent federal agents from carrying out their enforcement operation.
“We need to know if the political leadership of the city of Los Angeles, the state of California or anyone else instructed the LAPD to stand down and not respond to the emergency requests of our ICE agents who were under attack by rioters determined to block them, burn them, or even kill them as they bravely carried out their sworn duties,” Issa said in a statement.
“Enough is enough,” he added. “Congress can’t look away as our cities burn, our federal agents are assaulted and the laws of our country go unenforced.”
Updated June 12, 2025, 8:59 a.m.
