LOS ANGELES − Mayor Karen Bass issued a curfew for parts of downtown Los Angeles on Tuesday following intense days of protests over immigration enforcement raids that have left crews to clean up the wreckage and seen thousands of National Guard troops sent to the city.
In a news conference, Bass said the curfew will run from 8 p.m. Tuesday to 6 a.m. Wednesday, in a section of downtown where protests have turned into instances of vandalism and looting. Bass announced the curfew while many people in the city were out marching through the streets and protesting against the ICE raids The curfew was announced to "stop bad actors who are taking advantage of the President's chaotic escalation," Bass asserted in a social media post. "Law enforcement will arrest individuals who break the curfew, and you will be prosecuted."Four nights of volatile protests have prompted a legal and social media standoff between California leaders and the Trump administration. The conflict centers on Trump's move to deploy Marines and the National Guard in California in response to protests that have sprung up against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement sweeps.California Gov. Gavin Newsom filed a lawsuit against Trump for deploying federal troops in the city. Newsom has also accused Trump and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth of trying to use the assets to help ICE conduct raids. A judge set a hearing for the matter for Thursday.
Newsom’s efforts to block federal incursion in California come after Trump doubled the National Guard presence in Los Angeles to 4,000 and deployed 700 Marines, an escalation estimated to cost about $134 million, according to a Pentagon official. Trump remained all-in on his decisions, posting on Truth Social that "if we didn't send out the National Guard—Los Angeles would be burning right now!"Since Friday, officers have had confrontations with protesters, leading to the use of pepper spray and flash bangs as officials announced more than 150 arrests amid flare-ups of vandalism and violence. Bass on Tuesday said damage was limited to a small area downtown, but noted that the graffiti was "extensive" and required a large response as the city prepares to host the 2026 World CupWhat to know about the curfew?
The curfew issued by Bass covers a one-square-mile area of downtown Los Angeles and will last from 8 p.m. Tuesday until 6 a.m. Wednesday local time.
Bass announced the curfew while people were marching through the streets, where protests had turned into vandalism and looting earlier in the week. Police have made over 150 arrests in response to the protests, including over 100 the night before the curfew was announced.In a statement about the protests Monday night, Los Angeles police said that "as demonstrators were being disbursed, agitators and miscreants within the crowd looted businesses and vandalized property."
The mayor's office did not immediately respond to USA TODAY's questions about whether the curfew would be reissued Wednesday.
California officials have said that Trump’s move to send federal troops to the city has only exacerbated tensions and prompted more unrest. Newsom on Trump: 'Rule of law has increasingly given way to rule of Don'
Newsom delivered a fiery speech Tuesday night, sharing details about what sparked the protests in California's biggest city and what the president’s reaction says about the state of the nation.
"This situation was winding down and concentrated in just a few square blocks downtown, but that's not what Donald Trump wanted," Newsom said. "He chose escalation, he chose more force, he chose theatrics over public safety."Newsom said Trump did not consult with California law enforcement leaders and commandeered National Guard troops to Los Angeles streets "illegally and for no reason."
"This brazen abuse of power by a sitting president inflamed a combustible situation," Newsom explained.
Newsom said the protests were sparked by unprecedented immigration enforcement raids that saw federal agents "jumping out of unmarked vans" outside Home Depot to detain people. The governor added that a "U.S. citizen nine months pregnant was arrested, a four-year-old girl taken, families separated, friends quite literally disappearing."Trump has said his immigration policy is meant to root out criminals and people illegally in the country, adding that deploying federal troops to Los Angeles was necessary to protect federal buildings from vandalism and keep the peace.
"California may be first, but it clearly will not end here, other states are next, democracy is next," Newsom said. "This moment we have feared has arrived. The rule of law has increasingly given way to the rule of Don."Protesters take to the streets of Chicago, other US cities
CHICAGO — Hundreds of people gathered in the city’s iconic Loop neighborhood on Tuesday to protest ICE and the immigration enforcement raids that sparked widespread demonstrations in Los Angeles.
Marchers gathered at Daley Plaza near the federal courthouse, marched under the tracks of the El train and down Michigan Avenue.Demonstrators carried Mexican flags, signs reading “none of us are free unless all of us are free” and chanted a slogan in Spanish insulting immigration authorities.
Protesters marched through Chicago at the same time that people took to the streets in Los Angeles.
Watch the protests here.
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