Protests over immigration crackdown sweep US as Trump deploys troops

By Al Mayadeen English
Source: Agencies
11 Jun 2025 21:30

Protests against President Trump's aggressive immigration crackdown are spreading nationwide despite military deployments and threats of force.

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Protesters listen to speakers as California National Guardsmen stand in line on Tuesday, June 10, 2025, in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer)

Demonstrations against President Donald Trump's hardline immigration stance continued to spread across the United States on Wednesday, despite federal troop deployments and a warning from the president that authorities would use "heavy force" to maintain order.

Los Angeles, where protests first erupted last Friday, remained tense but relatively quiet following a night under curfew. Authorities reported 25 arrests during overnight enforcement. Armored police units patrolled key downtown zones as businesses boarded up storefronts in anticipation of further unrest.

Marines, deployed under Trump's directive in addition to more than 4,000 National Guard troops, were expected to appear on city streets for the first time Wednesday.

Immigration unrest

The protests have largely remained peaceful but were triggered by a sudden increase in operations to detain undocumented migrants. Some scattered incidents of property damage, including attacks on police and the burning of self-driving vehicles, prompted law enforcement to respond with tear gas and other crowd-control measures.

Trump, who won re-election last year with promises to clamp down on illegal immigration, has seized on the unrest to strengthen his position. He ordered the California National Guard into action despite the opposition of Governor Gavin Newsom, marking the first instance in decades of a president overriding a governor's objections to a state-level military deployment.

"If our troops didn't go into Los Angeles, it would be burning to the ground right now," Trump wrote on social media Wednesday.

Governor Newsom, in a national address Tuesday evening, sharply rebuked the president's actions.

"Democracy is under assault right before our eyes," he said. "California may be first, but it clearly won't end here."

Authoritarian flashpoint

Tensions escalated further after Trump expressed support for calls to arrest Newsom, who is considered a leading Democratic contender for the 2028 presidential election.

Despite the federal response, protests have intensified. Marches took place Tuesday night in New York and Chicago, while Texas Governor Greg Abbott mobilized his state's National Guard to confront demonstrators expected in San Antonio on Wednesday. Protests were also planned in Seattle, Las Vegas, and other major cities.

Organizers are preparing for a national day of protest on Saturday under the banner of the "No Kings" movement, timed to coincide with a planned military parade in Washington, DC. The event, scheduled to mark the 250th anniversary of the US Army's founding, also falls on Trump's 79th birthday. In a speech delivered at a military base Tuesday, the president said that any disruption of the parade would be met with "very heavy force."

Crackdown controversy

The administration continues to frame the unrest as a threat to national order. On Tuesday, Trump described the protests as part of a "full-blown assault on peace, on public order and national sovereignty" driven by a "foreign enemy."

Critics reject this narrative, arguing that the crackdown is a politically motivated overreach. "Trump inflamed the situation and went well beyond his stated intent to just go after violent and serious criminals," Newsom said. "His agents are arresting dishwashers, gardeners, day laborers, and seamstresses."

In Brookhaven, a suburb of Atlanta, demonstrators waved Mexican and American flags while denouncing recent Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) tactics. "You got people that are being arrested on the street by (immigration) agents that don't wear badges, wear masks... it makes me really angry," protester Brendon Terra, 26, told AFP.