Police detain a man during a protest in the Paramount section of Los Angeles, on June 7, 2025, after federal immigration authorities conducted operations. Photo: CFP

 
US President Donald Trump signed a presidential memorandum on Saturday deploying 2,000 National Guardsmen to help disperse protests in Los Angeles, CNN reported Sunday. In a statement, the White House said the defense secretary could "employ any other members of the regular Armed Forces as necessary to augment and support the protection of Federal functions."

Protests in and around Los Angeles erupted on Friday after at least 44 people were arrested by federal immigration agents earlier in the day, according to multiple media reports.

In Paramount, California, tear gas and flash bangs were used to disperse protests. Four people were arrested on Saturday, Assemblymember José Luis Solache told US media.

Dozens of potentially violent demonstrators were observed by law enforcement outside the LAPD's jurisdiction Saturday evening, per CNN.

A crowd of protesters in Paramount, southeast of Los Angeles, became "increasingly agitated, throwing objects and exhibiting violent behavior toward federal agents and deputy sheriffs," the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department said in an advisory Saturday night.

Active-duty US Marines at Camp Pendleton are on "high alert" for deployment in reaction to immigration protests in Los Angeles, Defense Secretary Pete Hegesth said Saturday.

In a post on X announcing the mobilization of National Guard troops in reaction to the protests, Hegseth said the Marines could be called in too if violence continues.

California Governor Gavin Newsom said late Saturday that Hegseth is exhibiting "deranged behavior" in threatening to send active-duty Marines to Los Angeles to help quell immigration protests. "The Secretary of Defense is now threatening to deploy active-duty Marines on American soil against its own citizens," Newsom said in a post on X. "This is deranged behavior."

"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 said in post on the official White House X account, first posted before he ordered the National Guard to be deployed.

Global Times