LOS ANGELES—The city geared up for another day of protests Monday after anti-ICE demonstrations in downtown Los Angeles escalated over the weekend.
The California chapter of the Service Employees International Union planned for a rally before the arraignment of its president, David Huerta, who was arrested on Friday while protesting a raid by ICE agents in Los Angeles.
U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California Bilal “Bill” Essayli said that agents were executing a warrant at a work site in Los Angeles when Huerta “deliberately obstructed their access by blocking their vehicle.”
Videos captured people surrounding vans, shouting and chanting. As word spread, more people showed up, and the protests grew and lasted into the night.
President Trump deployed the National Guard on Saturday night over the objections of California Gov. Gavin Newsom , with the president saying that local leaders didn’t move quickly enough to address the clashes.
Newsom called on the Trump administration to rescind the deployment of the National Guard , saying the move was a breach of state sovereignty. In a social-media post Monday, Newsom threatened to sue Trump, saying the deployment was illegal and had inflamed tensions in the city.
Trump sent the troops “to manufacture chaos and violence,” the Democratic governor said earlier in a post on X. “Now things are destabilized and we need to send in more law enforcement just to clean up Trump’s mess.”
On Sunday, protesters gathered outside the detention facility where Huerta was detained and stood off against National Guard troops.
Law-enforcement officers fired tear gas and rubber bullets to disband the crowds.
Other pockets of demonstrations broke out. California Highway Patrol officers pushed protesters off Highway 101 using flash-bang stun grenades and tactical positioning after hundreds of people spilled onto one of the city’s main thoroughfares. On Sunday evening, demonstrators threw tree branches, scooters, fireworks and debris from a freeway overpass onto police vehicles below.
Mounted police galloped by on horses and demonstrators set at least five Waymo driverless taxis on fire, threw rocks at officers and covered the neighborhood in graffiti that said “F— ICE.”
After the sun went down, police presence in the area increased and protesters made impromptu barriers. The Los Angeles Police Department reported looting in parts of the city late Sunday.
L.A. Mayor Karen Bass called the National Guard deployment “a dangerous escalation.” While she denounced raids by immigration officials at workplaces and other settings, saying they send “a sense of fear and chaos in our city,” she encouraged citizens to protest peacefully. undefined undefined ICE defended its operations in L.A., saying it was “enforcing immigration law and removing criminal aliens” from the city. An agency spokesman criticized local officials for saying protests were peaceful and said protesters had “made it their mission to injure and maim federal law-enforcement officials.”
Demonstrations have spread to other cities. Activists called for a protest in San Francisco against ICE and in solidarity with Los Angeles on Sunday starting at 6 p.m.
San Francisco police said that at about 7 p.m., some people became violent and committed assault, vandalism and property damage. The police declared an unlawful assembly and told people to leave, but some remained in the area.
The police said they arrested about 60 people and two officers were hurt, with one sent to the hospital, during a protest near the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement office in the city’s Financial District.
“Everyone in this country has a right to make their voice heard peacefully,” San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie said in a post on X late Sunday. “But we will never tolerate violent and destructive behavior, and as crowds dwindled, a group that remained caused injuries to police officers, vandalized Muni vehicles, and broke windows of local businesses.”
Write to Marc Vartabedian at marc.vartabedian@wsj.com and Ben Fritz at ben.fritz@wsj.com
