“I’m asking you, please listen to me, stop terrorizing our residents,” said Brenda Olmos, vice mayor of Paramount, who said she was hit by rubber bullets over the weekend. “You need to stop these raids.”

Speaking alongside the other mayors at a news conference, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said the raids spread fear at the behest of the White House. The city’s nightly curfew will remain in effect as long as necessary. It covers a 1-square-mile (2.5-square-kilometer) section of downtown where the protests have been concentrated in the city that encompasses roughly 500 square miles (1,295 square kilometers).

“If there are raids that continue, if there are soldiers marching up and down our streets, I would imagine that the curfew will continue,” Bass said.

Those who have been caught up in the nationwide raids include asylum seekers, people who overstayed their visas and migrants awaiting their day in immigration court.

The administration has cited the protests in its decision to deploy the military.

Governor asks court to step in

California's Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, has asked a federal court to put an emergency stop to the military helping immigration agents in the nation’s second-largest city. This week, guardsmen began standing protectively around agents as they carry out arrests. A judge set a hearing for Thursday.

The Trump administration called the lawsuit a “crass political stunt endangering American lives" in its official response on Wednesday.

The military is now closer to engaging in law enforcement actions such as deportations, as Trump has promised in his crackdown. The Guard has the authority to temporarily detain people who attack officers, but any arrests must be made by law enforcement.

The president posted on the Truth Social platform that the city “would be burning to the ground” if he had not sent in the military.

Some 2,000 National Guard soldiers are in Los Angeles and are soon to be joined by 2,000 more along with about 700 Marines, Sherman said.

Adblock test (Why?)