By Euronews with AP
Published on •Updated
ADVERTISEMENTA curfew is in place for a second night in downtown Los Angeles after a full week of clashes between protesters and authorities sparked by immigration raids in the city.
Police detained more than 20 people on the first night of the curfew, mostly for violating the lockdown.
A demonstration in Los Angeles’ civic centre just before the start of the second night of the city’s curfew briefly turned chaotic when police in riot gear — many on horseback — charged at a group as police used projectiles to break up hundreds of demonstrators.
The city’s nightly lockdown will remain in effect as long as necessary, according to Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass.
“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.
More than 400 people have been arrested by Los Angeles police since Saturday, the vast majority for violating the restriction on movement in the area. Prosecutors have charged three others for possession of a gun, a Molotov cocktail and assault against a police officer.
As the overnight curfew began, Bass wrote on X that it was designed to «stop bad actors who are taking advantage of the president’s chaotic escalation».
She earlier blamed the demonstrations on Trump’s immigration raids, claiming that the move had «provoked residents». «A week ago, everything was peaceful,» she told a news conference on Wednesday.
Los Angeles was «part of a national experiment to determine how far the federal government can go in taking over power from a local government, from a local jurisdiction,» she suggested.
More troops to come?
Dozens of mayors from across the Los Angeles area banded together to demand that the Trump administration stop the immigration raids.
Trump however, showed no sign of heeding their pleas. A total of 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 Marines have been deployed by the US president to squash the unrest, despite objection from California’s Democratic governor Gavin Newsom.
Around 500 of the National Guard troops deployed in LA were trained to accompany agents on immigration raids, Major General Scott Sherman said Wednesday.
“We are expecting a ramp-up,” Sherman said.
Newsom has asked a federal court to put an emergency stop on the military helping immigration agents in LA.
The Trump administration called the lawsuit a “crass political stunt endangering American lives» in its official response on Wednesday. The city “would be burning to the ground” if he had not sent in the military, Trump said.
The military is now closer to engaging in law enforcement actions such as deportations. The Guard has the authority to detain people who attack officers temporarily, but any arrests must be made by law enforcement.
Demonstrations spread
On Wednesday, demonstrations spread to other cities including Dallas and Austin in Texas and Chicago, where thousands rallied and more arrests were made — including 86 in New York.
In eastern Washington’s Spokane, officials declared a state of emergency and a curfew in certain areas after more than 30 were arrested following anti-ICE protests in the city.
Large groups of protesters gathered in the city’s streets on Wednesday, carrying signs and blocking roads outside an ICE facility.
“As the crowd grew, as the crowd resisted several orders to disperse, I issued the curfew with ample time to let people leave the area,” Spokane’s Mayor Lisa Brown said. There was «tremendous fear» amongst immigrant and refugee communities in the city, she added.
In Texas, police in Austin used chemical irritants to disperse several hundred demonstrators on Monday. Republican Governor Greg Abbott’s office said Texas National Guard troops were “on standby» in areas where demonstrations are planned.
A 66-year-old woman in Chicago was injured when she was struck by a car during downtown protests Tuesday evening, police said.
Sherman noted that protests across the nation were being discussed. “I’m focused right here in LA, what’s going on right here. But you know, I think we’re, we’re very concerned.”
Activists in cities across the US say they will hold even larger demonstrations in the coming days, with “No Kings” events scheduled across the country on Saturday to coincide with Trump’s planned military parade in Washington.
