Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass on Wednesday declared an overnight curfew in the downtown area of the United States’ second-largest city, after several nights of unrest and vandalism.
“I have declared a local emergency and issued a curfew for downtown Los Angeles to stop the vandalism, to stop the looting,” she told reporters.
The curfew is expected to last several days, and will apply to a 2.5 square km area of downtown Los Angeles.
Earlier, President Donald Trump said Los Angeles was being invaded by a “foreign enemy”, as he addressed protests in the city in a speech at an army base.
“We will not allow an American city to be invaded and conquered by a foreign enemy,” Trump told troops at Fort Bragg in North Carolina, speaking about the protests, which were sparked by immigration raids.
“What you’re witnessing in California is a full-blown assault on peace, on public order and national sovereignty, carried out by rioters bearing foreign flags with the aim of continuing a foreign invasion of our country.”
California sued Trump and the US defence department on Tuesday, seeking to block the deployment of federal troops, then on Wednesday sought an immediate ruling on the narrow issue of their participation in police enforcement. The judge set a hearing on that question for Friday.
California attorney general Rob Bonta said the state was concerned about allowing federal troops to protect personnel, saying there was a risk that could violate an 1878 law that generally forbids the US military, including the national guard, from taking part in civilian law enforcement.
“The federal property part I understand — defending and protecting federal buildings,” Bonta said.
“But protecting personnel likely means accompanying ICE agents into communities and neighbourhoods, and protecting functions could mean protecting the ICE function of enforcing the immigration law.”
Protesters have clashed with police for four days over federal immigration raids. Source: AAP / Michael Nigro/Sipa USA
700 US marines in staging area
Hundreds of US marines arrived in the Los Angeles area on Wednesday under orders from Trump, who has also activated 4,000 national guard troops to quell protests in the city despite objections from California Governor Gavin Newsom that the deployments are politically motivated.
The city has seen five days of public protests since the Trump administration launched a series of immigration raids on Friday. State officials said Trump’s response was an extreme overreaction to mostly peaceful demonstrations.
About 700 marines were in a staging area in the Seal Beach area about 50km south of Los Angeles, awaiting deployment to specific locations, a US official said.
The marines do not have arrest authority and will protect federal property and personnel, according to military officials. There were approximately 2,100 national guard troops in greater Los Angeles on Tuesday, with more on the way, the official said.
‘This is a city of immigrants’
Bass emphasised at a press conference on Tuesday that the unrest has been limited to a few downtown blocks and she was considering a curfew for downtown Los Angeles to stem violence in the area, including looting of stores.
She drew a distinction between the majority of demonstrators protesting peacefully in support of immigrants and a smaller number of agitators she blamed for violence and looting.
She said she planned to call Trump on Wednesday.
“I want to tell him to stop the raids,” she said. “I want to tell him that this is a city of immigrants.”
Trump has justified his decision to deploy troops by describing the protests as a violent occupation, a characterisation that Newsom and Bass have said is grossly exaggerated.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, the president said LA would be “burning right now” if not for the deployments, and that national guard troops would remain until there is no danger.
Trump left open the possibility of invoking the centuries-old Insurrection Act, which would allow the military to take part directly in civilian law enforcement.
The protests since Friday have been largely peaceful, but there have been scattered clashes, with some demonstrators throwing rocks at officers, blocking a highway and setting cars ablaze. Police have responded with “less lethal” munitions such as pepper balls, as well as flash-bang grenades and tear gas.
The Los Angeles Police Department said it arrested more than 100 people on Monday, raising the regional total since Saturday to more than 180.
Trump has pledged to deport record numbers of people who are in the country illegally and to lock down the US-Mexico border, setting the border enforcement agency a daily goal of arresting at least 3,000 migrants.
