The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) arrested dozens of people on Tuesday after Mayor Karen Bass (D-Calif.) enforced a curfew in downtown Los Angeles following sweeping protests to local raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Local officials said the downtown area would be restricted from 8:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. after law enforcement took nearly 200 protestors into custody throughout the day.
Bass, in a Tuesday press release, said the curfew was put in place to “curb bad actors who do not support the immigrant community.”
“If you do not live or work in Downtown L.A., avoid the area. Law enforcement will arrest individuals who break the curfew, and you will be prosecuted,” the mayor added.
Her announcement follows the Trump administration’s deployment of Marines and National Guard soldiers to secure the area after protestors ransacked a federal building and set cars on fire in objection to the raids — part of President Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration.
Police say the total cost of the demonstrators’ destruction is likely “in the millions.”
In an effort to block additional damage, 100 National Guard soldiers were put in place to protect the federal building downtown and another 100 are stationed at a federal building in the Westwood neighborhood.
Trump, in an early Wednesday post, took a swing at California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) amid the protests — which have roiled the Golden State since the weekend.
“The INCOMPETENT Governor of California was unable to provide protection in a timely manner when our Ice Officers, GREAT Patriots they are, were attacked by an out of control mob of agitators, troublemakers, and/or insurrectionists. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!” he wrote on Truth Social.
His remark came after Newsom criticized the president for sending the troops in a post online late Tuesday.
“This brazen abuse of power by a sitting President inflamed a combustible situation putting our people, our officers, and the National Guard at risk,” he wrote on social platform X, along with a video message.
Bass and the governor have both urged the Trump administration to remove federal forces, suggesting that their presence would only increase chaos and inflame tensions.
“If we want to see our city peaceful again, I will call upon the administration to end the raids,” Bass told reporters during a Tuesday press conference.
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