(NewsNation) — Anti-ICE protests erupted coast to coast over the weekend as Immigration and Customs Enforcement ramped up its immigration raids in Los Angeles, New York City and Chicago.
President Donald Trump deployed 2,000 members of the National Guard, who arrived in Los Angeles Sunday morning.
According to NewsNation affiliate KTLA, ICE raids could last up to 30 days. Democratic Rep. Nanette Barragán said she has been told to prepare for a large presence of ICE officers in her district in California.
Los Angeles protests: Bystander describes scene as ‘war zone’
L.A. was the epicenter of the protests Saturday evening, where several people were arrested.
As ICE conducted a raid at a Home Depot in Paramount, a city with a high Latino population south of L.A., the immigrant community sounded the alarm through social media, and soon hundreds of protesters gathered.
Demonstrators clashed with officers from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office, Los Angeles Police Department and the Department of Homeland Security.
Some protesters set small fires and threw bottles and rocks toward police officers, who responded with tear gas and pepper spray. A bystander described the scene to NewsNation as a “war zone.”
The group, many carrying Mexican flags, did not disperse despite multiple warnings from law enforcement that it was an unlawful assembly and could face arrests.
Gov. Gavin Newsom called Trump’s move to deploy the National Guard “purposefully inflammatory and will only escalate tensions.”
“LA authorities are able to access law enforcement assistance at a moment’s notice. We are in close coordination with the city and county, and there is currently no unmet need,” Newsom wrote on X. “The Guard has been admirably serving LA throughout recovery. This is the wrong mission and will erode public trust.”
As a former police chief in a large metropolitan city, Detroit’s Ralph Godbee analyzed whether the decision could escalate the conflict between protesters and ICE agents.
He said the local police’s first responsibility is to preserve a person’s or group’s right to protest peacefully and to restore peace if it is not peaceful. If there is a need to escalate, he said state police will step in.
“Then, you have your federal partners, and as a very last resort, you would have the National Guard. But when the president, or any administration, take Trump out of it, makes that determination … is unfortunately it could be a tragedy waiting to happen without proper coordination,” Godbee told NewsNation’s “Morning in America with Hena Doba” Sunday morning.
Godbee said that upholding the relationship between local law enforcement and the community is important to maintain peaceful interactions in situations like this.
“When you have federal intervention, they have a different level of responsibility to the local community, so as a local police chief, I have to make decisions because, at the end of the day, when the feds pull out, you still have to police your areas, and you have to have a relationship with that community,” he said.
DHS Secretary Kristi Noem double-downed on ICE’s efforts, writing on X Saturday, “A message to the LA rioters: you will not stop us or slow us down. … If you lay a hand on a law enforcement officer, you will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
New York City protests: Quicker response than L.A.
Some 150 protesters gathered outside of a federal building at Federal Plaza in New York City Saturday, aiming to block federal authorities from conducting immigration raids.
The protests began peacefully but quickly escalated, and nearly two dozen people were arrested and detained.
Part of growing unrest over increased immigration enforcement nationwide, the NYC protest erupted the day after ICE arrested a migrant inside a federal courthouse in New York City.
Officials detained the man on Friday, immediately after his immigration case was dismissed. Department of Homeland Security said he was in the country illegally from the Dominican Republic.
Though not on camera, ICE and DHS have said the man was resisting arrest and claimed that he punched an officer.
In a bit of a dig at L.A. officials, DHS praised New York authorities for their quick response, posting to X: “Thankfully, unlike in Los Angeles, the local police department quickly responded to the riots.”
DHS also reiterated one of Noem’s previous X posts, emphasizing arrest and prosecution.
Secretary Noem’s message to rioters is clear: you will not stop us or slow us down. ICE will continue to enforce the law. And if you lay a hand on a law enforcement officer, you will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
People on social media have called for another day of protest.
Part of the street where the protest occurred is blocked off, likely in anticipation of more protests.
NewsNation reached out to NYPD for comment.
Chicago protests: ‘Replicating’ George Floyd riots
Chicago has also been dealing with its own immigration protests.
Last week, ICE detained a mother at an immigration office. Family members claimed that they received a text message instructing them to report for a check in where they were ultimately detained.
Alderman Raymond Lopez representing Chicago’s 15th Ward told NewsNation that they are still in ICE custody.
“What we are seeing now is the implementation of laws that exist for the federal government to secure our borders and work to remove those who are here undocumented…” Lopez said. “If you don’t like that, then protest that. But don’t do that in a way that impedes law enforcement and causes these altercations we’ve seen.”
Lopez compared the L.A. protests to the George Floyd protests in 2020.
“We do know that many of the professional agitators are now descending into the protests and trying to turn them into riots, trying to turn them into something else because they want to replicate what they saw during the George Floyd murder in the riots of 2020,” Lopez said. “That is not what we need right now.”
NewsNation’s Nancy Loo and NewsNation affiliate KTLA reporter Jennifer McGraw contributed to this report.
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