The Daily Populous Sunday June 8th, 2025 morning edition
Authored by the-independent.com and submitted by Master_Jackfruit3591

Sign up for the daily Inside Washington email for exclusive US coverage and analysis sent to your inbox Get our free Inside Washington email Get our free Inside Washington email Email * SIGN UP I would like to be emailed about offers, events and updates from The Independent. Read our Privacy notice

President Donald Trump has said he is sending the National Guard to Los Angeles to crush the ongoing anti-ICE protests, saying he will use the federal government to crush the “RIOTERS & LOOTERS, the way it should be solved!!!”

“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 wrote.

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said that 2,000 National Guard troops will be sent to Los Angeles to arrest protesters.

open image in gallery A law enforcement officer aims his firearm close to the site of a burning vehicle in the Compton neighborhood of Los Angeles ( AFP via Getty Images )

open image in gallery People ride motorbikes next to a car burning in flames during a standoff between police and protesters following multiple detentions by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), in the Los Angeles County city of Paramount, California, U.S., June 7, 2025 ( REUTERS )

open image in gallery Smoke rises from a burning car on Atlantic Boulevard ( REUTERS )

open image in gallery Federal agents fire flash-bang smoke grenades at protestors near a Home Depot after a raid was conducted by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Paramount, California, USA, 07 June 2025 ( EPA )

The White House said it was activating the National Guard under Title 10 authority, putting the troops under federal command – not by invoking the Insurrection Act.

The decision came towards the end of a second day of street protests in the United States’s second biggest city, following a series of immigration raids by ICE agents on Friday.

On Saturday about 100 protesters faced off with law enforcement officers who fired flash-bangs and irritants. One car was set on fire, at least one other was vandalized, and some protesters were filmed throwing rocks at law enforcement.

Some protesters waved or wrapped themselves in Mexican flags.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth threatened to activate the U.S. Marine Corps if protests in L.A. persisted. On Saturday evening he tweeted: “Under President Trump, violence & destruction against federal agents & federal facilities will NOT be tolerated. It’s COMMON SENSE. The @DeptofDefense is mobilizing the National Guard IMMEDIATELY to support federal law enforcement in Los Angeles. And, if violence continues, active duty Marines at Camp Pendleton will also be mobilized — they are on high alert.”

open image in gallery California Governor Gavin Newsom said the defense secretary’s threat to deploy U.S. Marines was ‘deranged’ ( REUTERS )

California Governor Gavin Newsom called Hegseth’s tweet “deranged.”

He tweeted: “The Secretary of Defense is now threatening to deploy active-duty Marines on American soil against its own citizens. This is deranged behavior.”

He also accused the Trump administration of trying to provoke a reaction, tweeting: “The federal government is taking over the California National Guard and deploying 2,000 soldiers in Los Angeles — not because there is a shortage of law enforcement, but because they want a spectacle. Don't give them one. Never use violence. Speak out peacefully.”

Earlier on Friday, Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, signaled plans to send the National Guard to Los Angeles to combat protests against ICE that began on Friday following immigration raids in the city.

“We are making Los Angeles safer. Mayor Bass should be thanking us. She says they are going to mobilize—guess what? We are already mobilizing. We are going to bring the National Guard in tonight,” Homan told Fox News.

open image in gallery The protests started on Friday following ICE raids and continued throughout Saturday ( AFP via Getty Images )

open image in gallery A protester shoots a firework towards law enforcement officers ( REUTERS )

open image in gallery A fire burns as a protester confronts law enforcement personnel in riot gear and gas masks during a demonstration over dozens of people detained in an operation by ICE agents a day earlier in the Paramount area of Los Angeles ( AP )

open image in gallery Smoke fills the street as protesters confront law enforcement ( AP )

Earlier Senior White House adviser Stephen Miller railed against the protests, calling the demonstrations an “insurrection” against the United States. In response to a post on X showing footage of the mass demonstrations, Miller wrote "An insurrection against the laws and sovereignty of the United States.”

There were tense confrontations between police and demonstrators in LA on Friday, in response to operations by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, who arrested at least 44 people on immigration violations, before starting again on Saturday at a Home Depot in the Paramount section of the city.

Los Angeles Police Department Chief Jim McDonnell said the force had not been involved in the ICE operations.

“While the LAPD will continue to have a visible presence in all our communities to ensure public safety, we will not assist or participate in any sort of mass deportations nor will the LAPD try to determine an individual's immigration status,” McDonnell wrote in a statement.

However, Homeland Security Investigations, a branch of ICE, said that 44 people had been administratively arrested on Friday and another person was arrested for obstruction.

In another tweet, Miller wrote: “Siding with invaders over citizens. If we don’t fix this, we don’t have a country.”

Federal agents executed search warrants at three locations, including a warehouse in the fashion district of L.A., after a judge found there was probable cause the employer was using fictitious documents for some of its workers, according to representatives for Homeland Security Investigations and the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Advocates for immigrant rights say people were detained Friday by immigration authorities outside Home Depot stores and a doughnut shop.

open image in gallery A demonstrator waving a Mexican national flag next to a car on fire in L.A.’s Compton neighborhood ( AFP via Getty Images )

open image in gallery A man helps an injured woman during a protest in the Paramount section of Los Angeles, Saturday, June 7, 2025, after federal immigration authorities conducted operations ( AP )

open image in gallery Armed law enforcement officers pictured against a backdrop of smoke ( EPA )

open image in gallery The arrests have sparked angry scenes in the streets for two days running ( AP )

open image in gallery A protester is given aid after police reportedly fired tear gas ( AP )

open image in gallery Protesters confront sheriff’s officers in the Paramount section of L.A. ( AP )

open image in gallery A protester remonstrates with law enforcement outside an industrial park in Paramount ( AP )

The Los Angeles Times reported that multiple chants of “Fuera ICE” (ICE, get out) could be heard and flash-bang grenades were set off, though it was unclear who had set them off. One protester lit an entire bag of trash on fire and left in the street just half a block away from the immigration agents on Saturday in Paramount, which is about 82 percent Latino.

Shopping carts from Home Depot and recycling bins were scattered across the boulevard by Saturday afternoon.

Fox News obtained video footage it claims was taken by ICE agents and shows them driving inside a vehicle that was pelted with rocks by protesters.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said the activity by ICE was meant to “sow terror” in the nation’s second-largest city.

She was later accused of siding with “chaos and lawlessness over law enforcement” by ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons. “Make no mistake, ICE will continue to enforce our nation’s immigration laws and arrest criminal illegal aliens,” Lyons said in a statement.

open image in gallery Senior White House adviser Stephen Miller has described the protests as an ‘insurrection’ against the United States ( Reuters )

FBI deputy director Dan Bongino posted on X that they were reviewing evidence from the protests to ensure that “perpetrators are brought to justice.”

"The Right to assemble and protest does not include a license to attack law enforcement officers, or to impede and obstruct our lawful immigration operations,” Bongino said.

His boss, Kash Patel, was mocked online after tweeting “Hit a cop, you’re going to jail.” Posters pointed out that multiple people who “hit cops” on January 6 as Trump urged them to disrupt the peaceful handover of power following his 2020 election defeat, were promptly pardoned and freed once Trump was back in office.

The Department of Homeland Security claimed in a statement that “1,000 rioters surrounded a federal law enforcement building and assaulted ICE law enforcement officers, slashed tires, defaced buildings, and taxpayer funded property.”

The DHS has not provided evidence at this time to verify that claim. The Independent has requested comment from the DHS.

DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin issued a statement in response to the protests criticizing Democrats and complaining that ICE agents are being likened to the Nazi secret police, the Gestapo.

open image in gallery A protester sits on a bike as a crate burns in the street ( EPA )

open image in gallery Protesters smashing open a car ( EPA )

“From comparisons to the modern-day Nazi Gestapo to glorifying rioters, the violent rhetoric of these sanctuary politicians is beyond the pale. This violence against ICE must end,” she said.

Homan also complained about backlash directed at ICE agents during his interview on Fox News. The border czar, when asked about Democrats who have called for ICE agents to work unmasked, said he was looking into what could be done to stop their criticism.

“We’re asking the DOJ to look at these statements and see if there is something we can do,” Homan said.

Meanwhile, Trump himself was at a UFC fight in New Jersey with his son Eric and the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio.

open image in gallery Trump arrives at the Prudential Center in Newark, New Jersey for a UFC fight between Merab Dvalishvili and Sean O'Malley. Shortly earlier he had ordered 2,000 National Guardsmen into Los Angeles ( AFP via Getty Images )

open image in gallery Trump laughs with his son Eric, left, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, center ( AFP via Getty Images )

Trump’s social media threat – “the Federal Government will step in and solve the problem, RIOTS & LOOTERS, the way it should be solved!!!” – echoed a phrase he used during the Black Lives Matter protests in 2020 after a Minneapolis police officer murdered George Floyd. The president tweeted that “when the looting starts, the shooting starts.” The phrase was originally used by a Miami police chief in 1967. Trump’s use of it was flagged by Twitter – now X – at the time for allegedly encouraging violence.

The protests come at a challenging time for the Trump administration’s hardline anti-immigration agenda. At least two deported individuals — a migrant from Venezuela and Maryland father Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was wrongfully sent to El Salvador — have been returned to the U.S. after judicial orders demanded their return.

ICE officials and a group of detainees are currently stuck in Djibouti after a judge’s order demanded the deportation of the detainees be halted. The ICE agents have reportedly turned a shipping container into a makeshift jail, and both the agents and detainees are reportedly suffering from complications tied to the air quality in the area.

Infidel8 on June 8th, 2025 at 00:30 UTC »

I feel like the ICE raids were deliberately cruel and intentionally publicized to achieve this very outcome.

thealtrightiscancer on June 7th, 2025 at 23:34 UTC »

Calling in arrests for the “insurrectionist” protesters in LA, but pardoning the Jan 6 rioters. Got it.

According-Outside338 on June 7th, 2025 at 23:28 UTC »

Alternate headline: “American Leadership Green-lights Military Action Against Its Citizens.”