LA protests live updates: Trump mobilizes 4,000 National Guard and 700 Marines to crack down on anti-ICE unrest

White House border czar Tom Homan defended the administration’s controversial decisions to send U.S. Marines and members of California’s National Guard to assist with the response to the Los Angeles protests.

"I think President Trump did exactly the right thing,” Homan said, adding that Marines were necessary because “last night was pretty out of control...this is getting to be a significant public safety issue here.”

He also responded to public remarks from California Governor Gavin Newsom, who dared federal officials to arrest him, after previous comments from Homan about arresting officials who impeded immigration enforcement.

When asked if Newsom had broken any laws, Homan said, “Not at this time. Absolutely not."

California Lieutenant Governor Eleni Kounalakis echoed sentiments from fellow Democrats and blamed much of the chaos in Los Angeles on Donald Trump.

"Donald Trump is the one who has absolutely created the escalation in this situation,” she told CNN, comparing the White House’s moves like sending in the National Guard to putting “gasoline on a flame."

She expressed particular concern over the Defense Department’s “unprecedented” decision to send Marines to protect federal assets amid the ongoing protests.

“They are the best trained fighting force that we have in the United States,” she said, adding, “This is not what they do...There is no need for the Marines to come in.”

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass put the blame squarely at Donald Trump’s feet for the widespread protests and occasional violent clashes that took place over the weekend across the city.

Bass said the administration left behind past promises to seek the worst of the worst in favor of provocative raids against average Angelenos.

“Nothing warranted these raids,” Bass said during a news conference Monday night. “We were told that raids would be to look for violent criminals, people who had warrants. I don’t know how you go from a drug dealer to a Home Depot, to people’s work places where they’re just trying to make a living.”

Here’s a timeline of how this weekend’s demonstrations and raids unfolded.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass is accusing the White House of trying to use L.A. as a “test case” to see how far it can expand its powers over state and local governments.

“I don’t think our city should be used for an experiment,” Bass said during a Monday night press conference, accusing the administration of attempt to see “what happens when the federal government moves in and takes the authority.”

She said the city was peaceful until the federal government got involved.

“This was chaos that started in Washington, D.C,” she said.

The mayor also criticized immigration officials for aggressive raids across Los Angeles, arguing they left migrants in detention without access to legal counsel or contact with their families.

She described one family member of a detained man searching frantically around the city for her missing husband.

“She’s running around the area trying to find her husband, not knowing if he’s here, has been taken to another city, or has been deported out of the country,” Bass said.

The Democrat also slammed White House officials like Stephen Miller who have described the protests as a migrant invasion.

“This is a despicable description of our city,” she said, adding, “We are a city of immigrants and we always have embraced that.”

California Governor Gavin Newsom, the most outspoken state official challenging the Trump administration’s response to the L.A. protests, is condemning the White House’s decision to send hundreds of Marines into the fray.

“U.S. Marines have served honorably across multiple wars in defense of democracy,” Newsom wrote on X on Monday evening. “They are heroes. They shouldn't be deployed on American soil facing their own countrymen to fulfill the deranged fantasy of a dictatorial President. This is un-American.”

He has also sued over the administration’s separate decision to federalize California’s National Guard to respond to the demonstrations.

Los Angeles police are on “tactical alert,” meaning longer deployments and more focused operations to respond to protests, according to LAPD Chief Jim McDonnell, speaking at a press conference on Monday evening.

During the address, McDonnell also raised alarms over reports that the Trump administration is sending hundreds of Marines to aid in the protest response.

“We’re also aware of reports the president intends or has deployed U.S. Marines to Los Angeles,” he said, warning that sending the troops without direct coordination “creates logistical challenges and risks infusion during critical incidents.”

The chief also vowed “many more” arrests and warned, “There is no tolerance for criminal activity under guise of protest.”

After hours of relative calm throughout Monday, tensions are rising between police and protesters.

Demonstrators have begun throwing objects like water bottles at police around a federal complex near downtown Los Angeles, while officers have fired crowd-control munitions into the throng, KTLA reports.

As we follow the unfolding nature of the Los Angeles protests, one element we are keeping track of is how the White House is describing the situation.

Increasingly, top figures have called the protests an invasion or an insurrection, the type of emergency that would theoretically warrant invoking the Insurrection Act.

The law allows the president to utilize federal military troops or federalize National Guard troops in order to suppress uncontrollable protests or other civil disturbance situations.

Federal troops are already on the ground in the L.A., but invoking the rarely used 1807 law could authorize federal troops or National Guard units to enforce domestic policies like making arrests, a power normally barred under the Posse Comitatus Act. It would mark an extreme escalation in the Trump administration’s use of emergency powers to counter the protests.

The administration has already used similar “invasion” language about members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua in the U.S. to highly controversial results.

The White House declared the group a terror organization invading the country, then invoked the Alien Enemies Act, a wartime law allowing summary deportations.

It then sent hundreds of men to a notorious Salvadoran prison before they could challenge their removals, and their families now say they’re being held there incommunicado.

When protesters took to the streets of Los Angeles to oppose the policies of Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials, many did so with a Mexican flag in their hands.

Demonstrations erupted after Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said they had arrested 118 immigrants during operations in Los Angeles. Ever since, demonstrators have taken to the streets in Los Angeles, Compton and Paramount to protest the raids.

Millions of residents in Los Angeles have Mexican ancestry. The city is also home to upwards of 900,000 undocumented people. As a result, residents there have felt compelled to challenge policies that they believe are harming their community.

On Sunday morning, Elizabeth Torres, 36, stood outside a detention center in downtown Los Angeles and protested Trump’s actions. She, too, had the green, white and red flag with her.

Michelle Del Rey has the story.