President Donald Trump has said he is sending the National Guard to Los Angeles to crush the ongoing anti-ICE protests, saying he will use the federal government to crush the “RIOTERS & LOOTERS, the way it should be solved!!!”

“If Governor Gavin Newscum, of California, and Mayor Karen Bass, of Los Angeles, can’t do their jobs, which everyone knows they can’t, then the Federal Government will step in and solve the problem, RIOTS & LOOTERS, the way it should be solved!!!” Trump wrote.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that 2,000 National Guard troops will be sent to Los Angeles to arrest protesters.

The White House said it was activating the National Guard under Title 10 authority, putting the troops under federal command – not by invoking the Insurrection Act.

The decision came towards the end of a second day of street protests in the United States’s second biggest city, following a series of immigration raids by ICE agents on Friday.

On Saturday about 100 protesters faced off with law enforcement officers who fired flash-bangs and irritants. One car was set on fire, at least one other was vandalized, and some protesters were filmed throwing rocks at law enforcement.

Some protesters waved or wrapped themselves in Mexican flags.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth threatened to activate the U.S. Marine Corps if protests in L.A. persisted. On Saturday evening he tweeted: “Under President Trump, violence & destruction against federal agents & federal facilities will NOT be tolerated. It’s COMMON SENSE. The @DeptofDefense is mobilizing the National Guard IMMEDIATELY to support federal law enforcement in Los Angeles. And, if violence continues, active duty Marines at Camp Pendleton will also be mobilized — they are on high alert.”

Earlier on Friday, Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, signaled plans to send the National Guard to Los Angeles to combat protests against ICE that began on Friday following immigration raids in the city.

“We are making Los Angeles safer. Mayor Bass should be thanking us. She says they are going to mobilize—guess what? We are already mobilizing. We are going to bring the National Guard in tonight,” Homan told Fox News.

California Governor Gavin Newsom responded, calling Homan’s threat “purposefully inflammatory.”

“That move is purposefully inflammatory and will only escalate tensions,” he said in a statement. “LA authorities are able to access law enforcement assistance at a moment’s notice.”

His comments come after Senior White House adviser Stephen Miller railed against the protests, calling the demonstrations an “insurrection” against the United States. In response to a post on X showing footage of the mass demonstrations, Miller wrote "An insurrection against the laws and sovereignty of the United States.”

There were tense confrontations between police and demonstrators in LA on Friday, in response to operations by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, who arrested at least 44 people on immigration violations, before starting again on Saturday at a Home Depot in the Paramount section of the city.

Los Angeles Police Department Chief Jim McDonnell said the force had not been involved in the ICE operations.

“While the LAPD will continue to have a visible presence in all our communities to ensure public safety, we will not assist or participate in any sort of mass deportations nor will the LAPD try to determine an individual's immigration status,” McDonnell wrote in a statement.

However, Homeland Security Investigations, a branch of ICE, said that 44 people had been administratively arrested on Friday and another person was arrested for obstruction.

In another tweet, Miller wrote: “Siding with invaders over citizens. If we don’t fix this, we don’t have a country.”

Federal agents executed search warrants at three locations, including a warehouse in the fashion district of L.A., after a judge found there was probable cause the employer was using fictitious documents for some of its workers, according to representatives for Homeland Security Investigations and the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Advocates for immigrant rights say people were detained Friday by immigration authorities outside Home Depot stores and a doughnut shop.

The Los Angeles Times reported that multiple chants of “Fuera ICE” (ICE, get out) could be heard and flash-bang grenades were set off, though it was unclear who had set them off. One protester lit an entire bag of trash on fire and left in the street just half a block away from the immigration agents on Saturday in Paramount, which is about 82 percent Latino.

Shopping carts from Home Depot and recycling bins were scattered across the boulevard by Saturday afternoon.

Fox News obtained video footage it claims was taken by ICE agents and shows them driving inside a vehicle that was pelted with rocks by protesters.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said the activity by ICE was meant to “sow terror” in the nation’s second-largest city.

She was later accused of siding with “chaos and lawlessness over law enforcement” by ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons. “Make no mistake, ICE will continue to enforce our nation’s immigration laws and arrest criminal illegal aliens,” Lyons said in a statement.

Despite no arrests being made by the LAPD, FBI deputy director Dan Bongino posted on X that they were reviewing evidence from the protests to ensure that “perpetrators are brought to justice.”

"The Right to assemble and protest does not include a license to attack law enforcement officers, or to impede and obstruct our lawful immigration operations,” Bongino said.

The Department of Homeland Security claimed in a statement that “1,000 rioters surrounded a federal law enforcement building and assaulted ICE law enforcement officers, slashed tires, defaced buildings, and taxpayer funded property.”

The DHS has not provided evidence at this time to verify that claim. The Independent has requested comment from the DHS.

DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin issued a statement in response to the protests criticizing Democrats and complaining that ICE agents are being likened to the Nazi gestapo.

“From comparisons to the modern-day Nazi gestapo to glorifying rioters, the violent rhetoric of these sanctuary politicians is beyond the pale. This violence against ICE must end,” she said.

Homan also complained about backlash directed at ICE agents during his interview on Fox News. The border czar, when asked about Democrats who have called for ICE agents to work unmasked, said he was looking into what could be done to stop their criticism.

“We’re asking the DOJ to look at these statements and see if there is something we can do,” Homan said.

Meanwhile, Trump himself was at a UFC fight in New Jersey with his son Eric and the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio.

Trump’s social media threat – “the Federal Government will step in and solve the problem, RIOTS & LOOTERS, the way it should be solved!!!” – echoed a phrase he used during the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020 after a Minneapolis police officer murdered George Floyd. The president tweeted that “when the looting starts, the shooting starts.” The phrase was originally used by a Miami police chief in 1967. Trump’s use of it was flagged by Twitter – now X – at the time for allegedly encouraging violence.

The protests come at a challenging time for the Trump administration’s hardline anti-immigration agenda. At least two deported individuals — a migrant from Venezuela and Maryland father Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was wrongfully sent to El Salvador — have been returned to the U.S. after judicial orders demanded their return.

ICE officials and a group of detainees are currently stuck in Djibouti after a judge’s order demanded the deportation of the detainees be halted. The ICE agents have reportedly turned a shipping container into a makeshift jail, and both the agents and detainees are reportedly suffering from complications tied to the air quality in the area.

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