Karen Bass

Lindsey Horvath knew all the words to “Pink Pony Club.”

It was an overcast Sunday in June, the WeHo Pride parade was in full swing and the hit song about an iconic West Hollywood gay bar was blasting at full volume.

Sure, the county supervisor’s sequined, rainbow muumuu was giving her an angry rash. But that did little to dampen her spirits as she danced atop her pink pony-themed Pride float, swaying and mouthing the lyrics.

Five hours later, Horvath had traded her sequins and rainbow sneakers for a simple black dress and heels.

Now, she sat on a wooden pew for evening Mass at her 121-year-old Catholic parish in Hollywood.

But she still knew all the words, albeit this time to a traditional hymn about the holiness of the Lord. And then she knelt down in quiet prayer.

Horvath, 43, defies easy characterization.

She is the first millennial member of the county Board of Supervisors, a governing body that wields tremendous power despite remaining unknown to most Angelenos.

When elected in November 2022, she went from representing roughly 35,000 people as a West Hollywood City Council member to having more than 2 million constituents across a sweeping, 431-square-mile district that sprawls from the Ventura County line down to Santa Monica, east to Hollywood and up through much of the San Fernando Valley.

While attending the University of Notre Dame, Horvath held a leadership position with the school’s College Republicans chapter, helped create Notre Dame’s first gay-straight alliance and drew national opposition for staging “The Vagina Monologues” at the Catholic university — all while working three jobs to pay off her student loans. (She’s still paying them off.)

During her 2022 campaign for supervisor, she had the backing of some of the most progressive politicians in the city, including then-Councilmember-elect Eunisses Hernandez, as well as then-Councilmember Joe Buscaino, one of the more conservative members of the body.

As a member of the West Hollywood City Council, she helped approve what was then the highest minimum wage in the country, yet her county reelection bid was just endorsed by one of the region’s most prominent pro-business groups.

In the three years since she was elected to the county Board of Supervisors, she has effectively rewritten the structure of county government and drastically changed its approach to homelessness response.

Horvath’s Midwestern mien, unflagging politeness and warm smile belie her fierce ambition.

She has long been seen as someone who does not — to crib a phrase occasionally used about her behind closed doors — “wait her turn.” And that impatience has worked out OK for her so far.

All of which raises the question, will Horvath challenge Karen Bass in the June 2026 Los Angeles mayoral race?

Horvath speaks as supporters rally in September for her motion to pass an emergency rent relief program.

(Al Seib / For The Times)

Her name has been bandied as a potential Los Angeles mayoral candidate since early in the year, when her public profile exploded in the wake of the devastating Palisades fire and tensions between her and Bass first became public.

She has done little to tamp the speculation since, though some posit she is merely expanding her profile ahead of a run for county executive in 2028.

Still, the political rumor mill went into overdrive in early summer, as word trickled out that the erstwhile mayor of West Hollywood had moved into a two-bedroom apartment at the edge of Hollywood — firmly in the city of Los Angeles.

When asked about her mayoral intentions late last month, Horvath demurred, but made clear the door was open.

“I have no plans to run for mayor,” she said, sitting under the sun in Gloria Molina Grand Park, just outside her office in the Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration, within direct view of City Hall.

“I continue to be asked by people I deeply respect, so I continue to listen to them and consider their requests, and I’m taking that seriously,” she continued. “But I’m focused on the work of the county.”

Horvath, left, embraces Mayor Karen Bass in August at an event in Pacific Palisades.

(Myung J. Chun / Los Angeles Times)

Horvath declined to share specifics about who was pushing her to run, though she said they were “significant stakeholders” that didn’t hail from any single community.

On Monday, former schools chief Austin Beutner kicked off his campaign for mayor, becoming the first serious candidate to challenge Bass. Political watchers have speculated that Beutner’s entrée could potentially open the floodgates by offering a permission structure for others to challenge the mayor of the nation’s second-largest city.

In the immediate wake of the January firestorm, Bass’ political future appeared to be in real jeopardy, but she has since regained some of her footing and shored up support with powerful interests, such as local labor groups.

***

Horvath was 26 and had lived in West Hollywood for all of 18 months when Sal Guarriello, a 90-year-old West Hollywood council member, suddenly died.

It was spring 2009. The advertising executive and Ohio transplant was active in Democratic and feminist circles, co-founding the Hollywood chapter of the National Organization for Women and leading the West Hollywood Women’s Advisory Board. (Raised by conservatives, Horvath started college as a Republican but soon evolved into a staunch Democrat.)

Former Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti — who was then president of the Los Angeles City Council — had become a friend and mentor to Horvath through her activism. He and others urged her to throw her hat into the ring for the open seat.

More than 30 people applied, but Horvath was ultimately chosen by the remaining members of the council to join them — an outcome that was stunning, even to her.

After two years in her appointed role, she lost an election bid in 2011 but continued to make a name for herself in the tight-knit, clubby world of progressive West Hollywood politics.

Undeterred, she ran again for West Hollywood City Council in 2015 and won.

Horvath is sworn in as the new county supervisor for District 3 in December 2022.

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

Horvath remained on the council for the next seven years and twice served as mayor before turning her ambitions toward the county Hall of Administration.

She was seen as an underdog in her supervisor’s race, running against former state Sen. Bob Hertzberg, a political veteran who had a 3-to-1 fundraising advantage and first took elected office as she was entering high school.

Hertzberg had far more name recognition, but Horvath ultimately defeated him with a coalition that included local Democratic clubs and some of labor.

***

On the Board of Supervisors, Horvath has been unafraid to take chances and ruffle feathers.

Less than two years into her first term, Horvath was leading the charge to fundamentally reinvent the structure of county government, which hadn’t been meaningfully changed in more than a century.

Horvath’s bold plan to increase the size of the board from five to nine supervisors and create a new elected county executive position was approved by voters last November.

Voters will choose the county’s first elected executive in 2028. Opponents (and even some allies) have long griped that Horvath has her sights set on the very position she helped create, which will undoubtedly be one of the most powerful elected offices in the state.

“There are people who are never going to be convinced that I created this measure without seeing a seat for myself in it,” she says. “I’m not interested in convincing people of that. I’m interested in doing the work.”

As she campaigned for Measure G, critics also said Horvath and her allies were moving too fast, with too much left to figure out after the vote, including the price tag.

“Not everybody always loves you when you do things that upset the status quo. But I think history judges people not by ‘Did everybody love them in a given moment?’ … It’s were they smart and were they brave,” Garcetti said of Horvath.

“And she’s both,” he added.

Still, some of those criticisms came to bear in July, when it was revealed that county officials committed a near-unthinkable administrative screwup. When voters approved the sprawling overhaul to county government in November, the move unintentionally repealed Measure J, the county’s landmark criminal justice reform passed by voters in 2020.

Horvath said she didn’t think she and other proponents moved too fast, arguing that if they hadn’t seized the moment, they would have missed the opportunity “to bring about the change that has been stuck for far too long.”

Horvath argues that the fact that Measure J could have been unwritten in the first place is why Measure G was so needed.

***

Horvath was, briefly, everywhere during the fires.

While Mayor Bass receded into the background, Horvath was a constant presence at media briefings and on the news.

Her face was so omnipresent that a man she’d recently gone on a date with — someone who didn’t fully understand what she did for a living — spotted her on television with some confusion.

That was the last she heard from him, she said. (Dating as a public official is “very weird,” and not just because the one time she tried to use Tinder while abroad, she was seemingly banned for impersonating herself.)

She also tussled with Bass behind closed doors in late January, as revealed in text messages obtained by The Times that highlighted an increasingly fractious relationship.

The two women were at odds even before flames laid waste to a wide swath of coastal paradise.

Last November, Horvath went public with a proposal to shrink the duties of the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority, which is overseen by city and county political appointees.

Horvath called for hundreds of millions of dollars to be shifted out of the agency and into a new county department focused on homelessness — a proposal to which Bass strenuously objected.

Horvath ultimately pushed her strategy forward in April, but not without warnings from Bass about creating a “massive disruption” in the region’s fight against homelessness.

Horvath attends a news conference celebrating the Army Corps of Engineers clearing debris from the final house in the Palisades in late August.

(Jason Armond / Los Angeles Times)

Horvath’s relationships in the Palisades have also not been without some tension.

The supervisor recently pledged $10 million of her county discretionary funds to help rebuild the Palisades-Malibu YMCA, but some in the community have felt betrayed by her, according to Pacific Palisades Residents Assn. President Jessica Rogers.

“We don’t believe that she’s properly engaging her community,” Rogers said, citing the independent commission that Horvath convened in the wake of the fires. “She put a lot of time and energy into creating this report. The intentions might have been good, but she didn’t include proper community participation.”

Rogers was particularly bothered by Horvath’s proposal for a countywide rebuilding authority, since Rogers felt like Horvath hadn’t earned their trust. The rebuilding authority, which was supported by the mayor of Malibu, did not come to fruition.

“There’s a perception that [Horvath] is too aggressive,” said another community leader, who asked to speak anonymously because they hope to get things done without alienating anybody. “But there’s more of a mix to how people feel about her than you can see.”

The loudest voices, particularly in community WhatsApp groups, NextDoor and other forums, tend to be the most vitriolic, the community leader said, positing that some of the gripes about Horvath had more to do with her progressive politics than her leadership.

“People are suffering, and I will always show up for my constituents — especially when the conversations are difficult. The Blue Ribbon Commission provided independent, expert guidance on a sustainable rebuild. Its recommendations were meant to inform, not replace, community engagement,” Horvath said.

***

The chances of Horvath entering the mayoral race still remain far slimmer than the alternative, particularly because she is up for reelection in 2026 — meaning she would have to sacrifice her safe board seat for an uphill battle challenging an incumbent who still has deep wells of support in the city.

Former Los Angeles City Councilmember Mike Bonin, who long represented the Westside and now directs the Pat Brown Institute for Public Affairs at Cal State LA, said he wondered why someone would want the job of mayor while in the comparatively plush position of county supervisor.

Supervisors have more power and suffer far less scrutiny, he argued. Still, there were benefits to remaining in the mix.

“Being mentioned as a potential candidate is one of the greatest places a political figure can be. Because when you’re in the mentioning stage, it’s all about your strengths, your assets, your positive attributes,” Bonin said with a laugh. “Once you declare, it’s the reverse.”

Times staff writers David Zahniser and Rebecca Ellis contributed to this report.

Sept. 8 (UPI) — The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday overturned a lower court’s rulings blocking federal immigration officials from conducting raids in California seen by critics as unconstitutional racial profiling.

The high court voted 6-3 in favor of lifting temporary restraining orders preventing Immigration and Customs Enforcement from carrying out the raids.

“This is a win for the safety of Californians and the rule of law,” Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin of the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees ICE, said in a statement.

“DHS law enforcement will not be slowed down and will continue to arrest and remove the murderers, rapists, gang members and other criminal illegal aliens that Karen Bass continues to give safe harbor.”

Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong issued two restraining orders in July, saying roving patrols “indiscriminately” rounded up people without reasonable suspicion, a violation of the Fourth Amendment. She also said that ICE denied the individuals access to lawyers, a violation of the Fifth Amendment.

Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, writing for the majority on Monday, said it was reasonable to question people gathered in places seeking day work, landscaping, agriculture, construction and other types of jobs that don’t require paperwork and are therefore attractive to undocumented immigrants. He said reasonable suspicion cannot rely alone on ethnicity, but he called it a “relevant factor.”

“Under this court’s precedents, not to mention common sense, those circumstances taken together can constitute at least reasonable suspicion of illegal presence in the United States,” Kavanaugh wrote.

The three dissenters — Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson — agreed with civil rights activists who said that ICE’s approach of questioning people who appear to be of Hispanic origin or work in certain jobs would target many U.S. citizens and legal immigrants.

“We should not have to live in a country where the government can seize anyone who looks Latino, speaks Spanish and appears to work a low-wage job,” Sotomayor wrote in her dissent. “Rather than stand idly by while our constitutional freedoms are lost, I dissent.”

The high court’s decision was swiftly rebuked by civil rights organizations, unions and Democrats.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, who has fought against President Donald Trump‘s raids, described the action as an “attack” that not only targeted her city, but “an attack on every person in every city in this country.”

“Today’s ruling is not only dangerous — it’s un-American and threatens the fabric of personal freedom in the U.S.,” she said in a statement on X.

The federal government raids in Los Angeles began June 6, sparking protests that prompted Trump to deploy thousands of National Guardsmen to the city.

On July 2, several people who were arrested in the operation filed a class action lawsuit against the federal government, calling on the courts to end the stop and arrests and to up hold due process and rights for immigration detainees to access to legal counsel.

Janet Murguia, president and CEO of UnidosUS, a nonpartisan nonprofit Hispanic civil rights organization, lambasted the ruling as opening the door for the federal government to indiscriminately stop and arrest minorities.

“It authorizes targeting by authorities that makes all immigrants, Hispanics and other non-White Americans, suspects simply because of the color of their skin or the language they speak. In doing so, the court has put the civil rights of every person in the United States at risk, Murguia said in a statement emailed to UPI.

“The Supreme Court, without proper review of explanation, has signaled that the administration can, with impunity, use profiling-based tactics nationwide.”

After Los Angeles police officers shot at people on three consecutive days late last month, the LAPD’s civilian bosses turned to Chief Jim McDonnell for an explanation.

The Police Commission wanted to know: What more could the department be doing to keep officers from opening fire?

But in his response at the panel’s meeting last week, McDonnell seemed to bristle at the notion his officers were too trigger-happy.

“I think what we’re seeing is an uptick in the willingness of criminals within the community to assault officers head-on,” he said at the Aug. 26 meeting. “And then officers respond with what they have to do in order to control it.”

The commission has heaped praise on McDonnell for his performance since taking over the department in November. But the exchange over the recent cluster of police shootings — part of an overall increase that has seen officers open fire in 31 incidents this year, up from 20 at the same point in 2024 — marked a rare point of contention.

Commission Vice President Rasha Gerges Shields told the chief that she and her colleagues remained “troubled by the dealings of people both with edged weapons — knives, other things like that — and also those who are in the midst of a mental health crisis.”

During a radio appearance earlier this year, the chief brushed aside questions about shootings, saying officers are often put into dangerous situations where they have no choice but to open fire in order to protect themselves or the public.

“That is something that’s part of the job unfortunately,” he said. “It’s largely out of the control of the officer and the department as far as exposure to those types of threats.”

Such remarks have left some longtime observers worried that the department is backsliding to the days when department leaders tolerated pervasive and excessive use of force. McDonnell’s defense of aggressive tactics during this summer’s pro-immigration protests, critics argue, sends a dangerous message to the rank-and-file.

The LAPD sits at a “pivotal” crossroads, according to Jorja Leap, a professor at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs.

The federal consent decree that followed the Rampart gang scandal of the late 1990s pushed the LAPD into becoming a more transparent and accountable agency, whose leaders accepted community buy-in as essential to their mission, said Leap.

Out of the reforms that followed came its signature outreach program, the Community Safety Partnership, which eschews arrests in favor of bringing officers together with residents to solve problems at some of the city’s most troubled housing projects.

Leap said support for the program has in recent years started to wane, despite research showing the approach has helped drive down crime. “The LAPD has now evolved into an inward-facing organization,” she said.

McDonnell was not available for an interview this week, an LAPD spokeswoman said.

Others faulted the chief for his response to the Trump administration’s immigration raids in Southern California, taking issue with the local police presence at federal operations and the aggressive actions of LAPD officers toward protesters and journalists during demonstrations in June.

Fernando Guerra, a political science professor at Loyola Marymount University, said McDonnell seems unwilling to acknowledge how the sight of riot-gear-clad officers holding off protesters created the impression that police were “protecting the feds and the buildings more than the residents of L.A. who pay for LAPD.”

McDonnell has repeatedly defended his department’s response, telling reporters earlier this year that officers were forced to step in to quell “direct response to immediate, credible threats.”

He also issued an internal memo voicing his support to officers in the Latino-majority department and acknowledging the mixed feelings that some may have about the immigration raids.

After his public swearing-in in November, McDonnell acknowledged how much had changed with the department since he left in 2010, while saying that “my perspective is much broader and wider, realizing that we are not going to be successful unless we work very closely with the community.”

At the time, his appointment was viewed with surprise in local political circles, where some questioned why a progressive mayor with a community organizing background like Karen Bass would hitch her fortunes to a law-and-order chief. Others argued that McDonnell was an appealing choice: A respected LAPD veteran who also served as the chief in Long Beach and later as Los Angeles County sheriff.

After numerous scandals in recent years, McDonnell’s selection for the job was widely seen as offering stability while the city prepared for the massive security challenges of the upcoming World Cup and Olympic Games.

With an earnest, restrained manner, McDonnell has won over some inside the department who were put off by his predecessor Michel Moore’s micromanaging leadership style. After his much-publicized union battles during his tenure as sheriff, McDonnell has courted the powerful Los Angeles Police Protective League by putting new focus on police hiring and promising to overhaul the department’s controversial disciplinary system.

By some measures, McDonnell has also delivered results for Bass. Violent crime numbers continue to drop, with homicides on pace for 50-year lows.

But the two leaders have taken starkly different positions on the White House’s indiscriminate raids and deployment of National Guard troops.

McDonnell took heat during a City Council hearing in June when he described federal law enforcement officers participating in immigration operations as “our partners.”

Andrés Dae Keun Kwon, policy counsel and senior organizer for the American Civil Liberties Union, said that McDonnell’s record on immigration was one of the reasons the ACLU opposed his selection as chief. Since then, Kwon said, the chief seems out of touch with the message of Bass and other local leaders rallying around the city’s immigrants.

“Given that we’re three months into this Trump regime siege of Los Angeles you’d think that the leader of this police department” would be more responsive to the community’s needs, Kwon said.

In a statement, Clara Karger, a spokeswoman for Bass, said that “each leader has a different role to play in protecting Angelenos and all agree that these indiscriminate raids are having devastating consequences for our city,” she said.

McDonnell’s relationship with the Police Commission has been cordial, but several department insiders — who requested anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose private discussions — said that behind the scenes some commissioners have started to second-guess the chief’s handling of disciplinary cases.

The tensions were evident at the recent meeting when the issue of officer shootings led to a public dressing-down of the chief.

Echoing the frustrations of LAPD critics who flood the commission’s meetings on a weekly basis, board members questioned how it was possible that officers needed to fire their weapons on back-to-back-to-back days last month.

Commissioner Fabian Garcia called the three shootings “a lot.”

He and his colleagues told McDonnell they expected the LAPD to present a report on the shootings at a future meeting.

McDonnell responded, “Great, thank you,” before launching into his regular crime and staffing updates.

Aug. 5 (UPI) — President Donald Trump will lead a new high-level task force that will direct federal resources toward preparing for the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.

Trump on Tuesday announced the creation of the task force that will include Cabinet secretaries and other senior administration officials he said will mobilize “the entire federal government to ensure the games are safe, seamless and historically successful.”

The task force, created by an executive order, will coordinate the federal government’s security, transportation and “entry/exit” functions for the games that are expected to draw millions of people over the course of roughly two weeks to Los Angeles in July 2028. Trump and Vice President JD Vance will serve as the respective chair and vice chair of the task force with a forthcoming executive director who will oversee its day-to-day operations.

“I think it’s going to be amazing,” said Trump. “America is a nation of champions, and in July 2028 we’ll show the world what America does best, and that’s when we’re winning like we have never won before.”

Speaking at the press event, Casey Wasserman, chairman of the 2028 L.A. Olympics organizing committee, said the Games will attract more than 150 heads of state and will host approximately 11,000 Olympic and 4,500 Paralympic athletes in 800 competitions at 49 venues. He said the Games will be the equivalent of putting on seven Super Bowls a day for 30 days and thanked Trump for his support.

It’s not clear how the task force will interface with local authorities in Los Angeles, where the city’s Democratic leaders have clashed with the Trump administration over its aggressive approach to immigration and the president’s deployment of National Guard troops to the city to quell violent protests.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has called the Trump administration’s deployment of U.S. troops to MacArthur Park “un-American” and supported the city’s move to join a lawsuit seeking to halt immigration raids.

Bass said in a post on X Saturday that the city will be ready for the Olympics and will not let the Trump administration “divide us.”

Trump took a swipe at Bass during Tuesday’s press conference, saying he would use the National Guard or the military to keep the event safe.

“Because, obviously, you have a mayor that is not very competent,” he said.

Trump earlier signed an executive order intended to keep transgender athletes out of women’s sports. He said there will be a “strong form of testing” to prevent transgender athletes from participating in the Olympics and suggested his administration may pursue charges.

July 16 (UPI) — The Trump administration has recalled 2,000 National Guard troops from Los Angeles, where they were deployed by President Donald Trump last month to quell anti-raid protests and to protect immigration law enforcement arresting migrants.

“Thanks to our troops who stepped up to answer the call, the lawlessness in Los Angeles is subsiding,” chief Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said in a statement, The Hill and ABC News reported.

“As such, the secretary has ordered the release of 2,000 California National Guardsmen (79th IBCT) from the federal protection.”

Trump, who campaigned on mass deportations while using derogatory rhetoric and misinformation, has been conducting a crackdown on immigration since returning to the White House.

On June 6, Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents began conducting raids in Los Angeles, sparking protests in the city.

In response, Trump deployed some 2,000 California National Guardsmen, later increasing the number to more than 4,000, as well as hundreds of U.S. Marines, attracting the anger of local politicians.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat and a Trump critic, filed a lawsuit accusing the president of violating the Constitution by taking over the California National Guard, “which has needlessly escalated chaos and violence in the Los Angeles region,” his office said in a statement.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, a Democrat, celebrated the Pentagon move on Tuesday as being a result of the city’s protest against the deployment.

“This happened because the people of Los Angeles stood united and stood strong. We organized peaceful protests, we came together at rallies, we took the Trump administration to court — all of this led to today’s retreat,” she said in a statement.

“My message today to Angelenos is clear — I will never stop fighting for this city. We will not stop making our voices heard until this ends, not just here in LA, but throughout our country.”

July 12 (UPI) — A federal judge in California issued two restraining orders blocking federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from conducting random detentions of people in Los Angeles and denying access to legal advice.

The ruling this week by U.S. District Court for the Central District of California Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong was in response to a lawsuit filed by a collection of plaintiffs, including two individual American citizens.

“The individuals and organizations who have brought this lawsuit argue that this organization had two key features, both of which were unconstitutional: ‘roving patrols’ indiscriminately rounding up numerous individuals without reasonable suspicion and, having done so, denying these individuals access to lawyers who could help them navigate the legal process they found themselves in,” Frimpong wrote in the 52-page ruling.

“On this, the federal government agrees: Roving patrols without reasonable suspicion violate the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution and denying access to lawyers violates the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.”

“What the federal government would have this Court believe — in the face of a mountain of evidence presented in this case — is that none of this is actually happening.”

The lawsuit was filed earlier in the month and names Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, FBI Director Kash Patel and several other federal officials as defendants.

The suit comes as ICE officers and agents from other federal agencies, including the FBI and DEA, continue immigration raids in the Los Angeles area at the direction of President Donald Trump.

The raids have entered their second month as Trump continues his promised crack down on immigration.

Demonstrators this week clashed with federal agents in Ventura County outside a cannabis growing operation.

Earlier in the week, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass indicated the city would join the lawsuit to block the Trump administration’s immigration raids, but the municipality is not named as a plaintiff in the suit filed in District Court.

In her ruling, Frimpong pointed to several instances where people were questioned indiscriminately by federal agents and in some cases detained without lawyers for lengthy periods of time.

The two restraining orders remain in place for 10 days. The plaintiffs are seeking a more permanent preliminary injunction.

July 10 (UPI) — Twenty-seven workers were rescued after they became trapped inside a Los Angeles tunnel that collapsed Wednesday night, officials said.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass reported that all workers who were trapped “are now out and accounted for.”

“I just spoke with many of the workers who were trapped,” she said on X. “Thank you to all of our brave first responders who acted immediately. You are L.A.’s true heroes.”

The Los Angeles Fire Department had sent out a media advisory shortly before 8 p.m. PDT stating that as many as 15 tunnel workers were reported “isolated” by a collapsed industry tunnel in Los Angeles’ Wilmington area. The number of trapped workers was later increased to 27. An additional four workers rushed in to rescue them.

“Thirty-one persons, all believed to be tunnel workers, have been safely removed from the tunnel alive without visible injury,” the LAFD said in an update. “None are missing.”

The tunnel had a diameter of 18 feet and was being constructed for municipal wastewater management.

The collapse occurred about 5 to 6 miles south of the entry point, with preliminary LAFD reports stating the trapped workers were able “to scramble with some effort” over up to 15 feet of loose soil to meet co-workers on the other side of the collapse.

LAFD said the workers were then “shuttled” several at a time via a tunnel vehicle to the entry point.

Interim fire chief Ronnie Villanueva told reporters during a press conference that “tonight, we were lucky.”

“We were very luck this time.”

Bass said she raced to site after hearing of the tunnel collapse and was expecting to be confronted by a tragedy.

“Instead, what we found was victory,” she said.

“We’re all blessed today in Los Angeles. No one injured, everyone safe and I’m feeling very, very good that this is a great outcome in what started as a very scary evening.”

The tunnel is part of the nearly $630-million Los Angeles’ Clearwater Project aimed at protecting local waters by investing in new infrastructure, including the construction of a 7-mile, 18-foot diameter tunnel to transport clean water from the A.K. Warren Water Resource Facility to existing ocean outfalls in the Palos Verdes Peninsula. The project received a $441 million investment from the Environmental Protection Agency in 2022.

“We must never forget these large infrastructure projects require workers that take great risks,” Rep. Nanette Barragan, who represents the area, said during the press conference.

More than 100 LAFD responders were assigned to the rescue mission, it said.

The cause of the collapse will be investigated, officials said.

July 8 (UPI) — Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has criticized the federal government as “un-American” over its deployment of U.S. troops to MacArthur Park as part of President Donald Trump‘s crackdown on immigration.

U.S. troops and armed federal immigration agents were seen Monday, including military vehicles, descending upon MacArthur Park. Bass posted footage of the operation, showing heavily armed law enforcement and mounted personnel walking in formation across a soccer field.

The Department of Defense said in a statement that the soldiers were on the ground “to ensure the safety of federal agents.”

“We will protect federal law enforcement and assist by establishing a security perimeter.”

The results and nature of the operation were unknown.

Bass lambasted the Trump administration during a press conference later Monday for deploying troops to the park, which she said displaced children attending a summer camp there. She said the operation was part of Trump’s “political agenda of provoking fear and terror.”

“Frankly, it is outrageous and un-American that we have federal armed vehicles in our parks when nothing is going on in the parks. It’s outrageous and un-American that the federal government seized our state’s National Guard. It’s outrageous and un-American that we have U.S. Marines who are trained to kill foreign soldiers overseas deployed in our American city.

Trump seized and then deployed some 2,000 California National Guardsmen to Los Angeles in response to protests erupting June 6 in response to Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids. Since then, more than 4,000 Guardsmen and hundreds of U.S. Marines have been deployed in the city to aid federal immigration operations.

The New York real estate mogul returned to the White House in January after employing often derogatory rhetoric and misinformation about migrants during his campaign in support of his plans to conduct mass deportations.

Amid his second term, Trump has tried to make good on his campaign promises, but has attracted criticism for attacking the due process rights of migrants as well as facing litigation.

Bass chastised Trump’s immigration policy of deploying U.S. troops in American cities for trying to instill fear and stoke chaos.

“Home Depot one day, a car was the next, armed vehicles and what looked like mounted military units in a park the next day,” she said. “What happened to the criminals, the drug dealers, the violent individuals? Who were in the park today were children. It was their summer camp.”

During a press conference Monday on the six-month anniversary marking the Los Angeles fires, California Gov. Gavin Newsom described what had happened at MacArthur Park earlier in the day as a “disgrace” and “theater.”

“That’s the message from the polluted heart of the president of the United States. That’s the message of the polluted heart of Stephen Miller,” he said, referring to Trump’s White House deputy chief of staff for policy and homeland security advisor.

“Those National Guards men and women that were out there protecting people are not being used as political pawns, out there on horseback, running through soccer fields in the middle of the day, timed around announcements and events like this, saying everything you and I need to know about the state of mind of the president of the United States and this administration.”

June 21 (UPI) — Vice President JD Vance got the name of Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., wrong while criticizing him, along with California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, over immigration raids in that city.

Vance referred to Padilla as “Jose” during a news conference in Los Angeles this week.

A former senator, Vance also took aim at his ex-colleague’s forced removal from a Department of Homeland Security news conference earlier in the month, calling it “theater.”

The senior California Senator was handcuffed and removed from the room after trying to speak to Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem but later said the detention was not done to grab attention.

Padilla on Saturday responded to Vance’s comments.

“The Vice President knows my name. But that’s not the point. He should be focused on removing the thousands of unnecessary troops from the streets of Los Angeles, not petty slights,” he said during an interview with MSNBC and posted on X.

“Look, sadly, it’s just an indicator of how petty and unserious this administration is,” he continued. “He’s the vice president of the United States. You think he’d take the situation in Los Angeles more seriously.”

Vance spent five hours in Los Angeles, first speaking publicly to update the situation around the continued arrest and detention efforts of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, arguing Bass, Padilla and Newsom continue to hinder those attempts.

President Donald Trump has ordered in thousands of California National Guard Troops and hundreds of U.S. Marines to assist federal agents. Officials began carrying out major immigration raids in Los Angeles on June 6.

Newsom and other officials have argued the move to bring in the military is illegal. This week, the a three-judge panel with the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled unanimously that the troop deployment was “likely legal.”

Trump, who has pushed for major deportation operations since his presidential campaign, later called it a “Big win,” on Truth Social.

“What happened here was a tragedy. You had people who were doing the simple job of enforcing the law, and you had rioters, egged on by the governor and the mayor, making it harder for them to do their job,” Vance told reporters at the news conference.

“It was necessary to send in the National Guard to stop that process to bring some order back to this great city.”

He later met privately with military personnel before attending the six-figure Republican National Committee’s annual summer retreat in Beverly Hills.

June 17 (UPI) — Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson is warning President Donald Trump to “respect the Constitution” after the president ordered Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents to ramp up deportation efforts in Democratic-led sanctuary cities, including Chicago and Los Angeles.

In response, Johnson and city officials announced Tuesday they will relaunch a “Know Your Rights” ad campaign to educate Chicago residents.

“Even if the federal government doesn’t know or care about the Constitution, Chicagoans deserve to know their constitutional rights,” Johnson told reporters at a City Hall news conference.

The ads, which will educate residents about their rights if they are stopped or detained by ICE agents, will be displayed on more than 400 screens across the Chicago Transit Authority system.

The ads direct transit riders to the campaign website with a more in-depth resource guide, which is translated in multiple languages. The guide instructs residents how to react if stopped, but warned the information “should not be construed as legal advice.”

“We can’t tell people not to be afraid,” said Beatriz Ponce de León, Chicago’s deputy mayor of immigrant, migrant and refugee rights. “Folks are seeing what is happening here and in other cities. But what we can do is give people information. The best that people can do is be prepared.”

Earlier this month, Trump deployed National Guard troops to Los Angeles to help protect ICE agents and federal buildings after protests in the downtown area turned violent. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and California Gov. Gavin Newsom objected to the president’s actions, calling the deployment unjustified.

Other sanctuary cities, including Chicago, are now bracing for a similar crackdown. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker has joined Johnson in opposing the president’s actions, while Trump denounced state leadership.

“I look at Chicago. You’ve got a really bad governor and a bad mayor. But the governor is probably the worst in history,” Trump said.

Pritzker responded by saying, “I think you can see that this has not gone well for him politically, and he’s all about the politics.”

Acting director of ICE, Tom Homan, told CNN in January that Chicago’s efforts to educated undocumented immigrants have made deportation efforts “very difficult.”

“For instance, Chicago is very well educated,” Homan said. “They call it ‘know your rights.’ I call it how to escape arrest … how to hide from ICE.”

June 15 (UPI) — Mayor Karen Bass said Sunday that Los Angeles does not need National Guard troops to bolster city police amid protests against raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, despite the gatherings turning violent in recent days.

“We don’t want them here,” Bass said on CNN’s State of the Union. “They don’t need to be here. Our local law enforcement have complete control of this situation.”

President Donald Trump deployed thousands of U.S. National Guard soldiers to Los Angeles to assist ICE with immigration raids of locations that were suspected of employing or harboring undocumented migrants.

Last week, U.S. District Court Judge Charles Breyer ruled that Trump must return control of the situation to the Los Angeles Police Department, and that Trump’s deployment of the troops was unconstitutional.

But hours later, a federal appeals court panel lifted Breyer’s order, allowing the soldiers to continue to assist in the immigration raids.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has also been critical of Trump’s troop deployment and said the president overstepped his bounds without first seeking input from state or local officials.

Newsom called Trump a “stone cold liar” in response to the president’s comments that he consulted the California governor before deploying the soldiers.

Immigration raids continue. However, Trump has appeared to be moderating on targeting some workplaces, including some farms, meatpacking plants, hotels and restaurants.

Amid the backdrop of the raids and protests, thousands of people rallied in the streets Saturday to protest Trump’s policies that his critics have called authoritarian. The “No Kings” rallies took place in cities across the country at the same time that the U.S. paraded high0end military equipment through the streets of Washington in an event that was estimated to cost as much as $45 million. Saturday was also Trump’s 79th birthday.

June 13 (UPI) — The California National Guard will remain on the streets of downtown Los Angeles on Friday after an appeals court put an order from a federal judge to remove the soldiers on hold only hours after it was decreed.

The fifth night of a curfew in one square mile of downtown Los Angeles began Friday night. Mayor Karen Bass first imposed the curfew for most people beginning Tuesday night after protests against immigration enforcement operations became violent, including property damage.

President Donald Trump federalized thousands of National Guard over the objections of California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Newsom filed suit against the order, saying it was illegal.

“The court has received the government’s emergency motion for stay pending appeal,” the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit wrote late Thursday after the Trump administration requested a delay.

“The request for an administrative stay is granted,” the circuit judges continued in a single-page, six-sentence order that stops a temporary restraining order that had President Donald Trump relinquishing control of the state’s National Guard away from California Gov. Gavin Newsom.

Trump posted to his Truth Social account Friday: “The appeals court ruled last night that I can use the National Guard to keep our cities, in this case Los Angeles, safe. If I didn’t send the military into Los Angeles, that city would be burning to the ground right now. We saved L.A. Thank you for the decision!!!”

Trump had been stopped, albeit briefly, from the deployment of those troops in the state’s largest city other than protecting federal buildings.

Newsom had filed suit against Trump, who federalized 4,000 members of the Guard and sent them to Los Angeles to stand against demonstrators protesting raids by Immigration and Custom Enforcement agents that began last week.

Newsom, the rightful commander-in-chief of the California National Guard when it is under state control, was not informed or involved with Trump’s action, and filed that suit to strike it down.

U,S. District Judge Charles R. Breyer ruled on the initial filing Thursday, and issued a temporary restraining order that stated Trump’s deployment of the Guard to police the city’s streets likely violated the 10th Amendment to the Constitution, which bars federal overreach.

“It is well-established that the police power is one of the quintessential powers reserved to the states by the Tenth Amendment,” Breyer wrote in his ruling.

Breyer, appointed by President Bill Clinton, further added that the “citizens of Los Angeles face a greater harm from the continued unlawful militarization of their city, which not only inflames tensions with protesters, threatening increased hostilities and loss of life, but deprives the state for two months of its own use of thousands of National Guard members to fight fires, combat the fentanyl trade and perform other critical functions.”

The Trump administration appealed to the Ninth Circuit, which put a hold on Breyer’s order until at least Tuesday at noon, and allows the White House to keep the Guard on active patrol in Los Angeles.

Newsom has not publicly commented as of yet on the Ninth Circuit’s stay of Breyer’s order, but California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office issued a statement that called the administrative stay “unnecessary and unwarranted in light of the district court’s extensive reasoning.”

After the district judge’s decision, Newsom posted on X: “The court has ruled. @RealDonaldTrump you must relinquish your authority of the National Guard back to me and back to California.”

June 12 (UPI) — A federal judge on Thursday might rule on whether or not the Trump administration lawfully deployed National Guard and Marine Corps troops to Los Angeles.

U.S. District Court for Northern California Judge Charles Breyer is hearing arguments for and against the federal government deploying troops to quell violence amid Immigration and Customs Enforcement activities in Los Angeles.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday sought the federal court’s intervention to stop the deployments and remove the troops from Los Angeles.

Breyer denied Newsom’s motion for a temporary restraining order and scheduled Thursday’s hearing regarding the governor’s motion for a preliminary injunction to stop the troop deployments.

More than 4,000 National Guardsmen and about 700 Marines have been deployed to Los Angeles to prevent violence while protecting federal buildings and ICE agents as they enforce unpopular and controversial federal immigration laws.

Newsom did not call up the National Guard and said the Trump administration did not ask him to do so.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass on Tuesday announced an ongoing curfew from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. PDT in a downtown area that is bordered by interstates 5, 10 and 110.

The Los Angeles Police Department on Wednesday arrested 71 people for failure to disperse, seven for violating the curfew, two for assaulting a police officer with a deadly weapon and one for resisting arrest.

Also on Thursday, Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., was removed from a late-morning news conference by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem.

Padilla interrupted the news conference and demanded that Noem answer questions, but event security removed him.

Noem said Padilla’s interruption was “inappropriate” and said she would speak with him after concluding the news conference.

Meanwhile, protests continue with several scheduled in California and 28 in total in locales across the nation, NBC News reported.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott on Thursday announced he called up 5,000 National Guardsmen and deployed 2,000 Texas Public Safety troopers to maintain peace and arrest those engaged in criminal acts as anti-ICE protests are expected to continue at least through the weekend.

“Anyone engaging in acts of violence or damaging property will be arrested and held accountable to the full extent of the law,” Abbott said in a news release.

“Don’t mess with Texas — and don’t mess with Texas law enforcement,” he added.

June 11 (UPI) — The second night of curfew took place in downtown Los Angeles on Wednesday, as local law enforcement, backed by several thousand members of the National Guard, attempted to restrain violent protests and prevent vandalism.

Meanwhile, a group of protesters were in a standoff with law enforcement officers outside a federal courthouse in Santa Ana, about 32 miles south of Los Angeles, in Orange County. Military-style vehicles and National Guards troops blocked a portion of a street in front of the Ronald Reagan Federal Building and Courthouse and in front of a federal building a couple blocks away.

And protests also are occurring in other major U.S. cities,, including New York, Chicago and Washington, D.C.

The downtown Los Angeles curfew will remain in effect between 8 a.m. and 6 a.m., according to the Los Angeles Police Department’s Central Division. Ramps onto and off the 101 freeway also will continue to be closed, police said.

The curfew zone covers about 1 square mile and affects about 100,000 of Los Angeles’ 10 million residents.

Limited exceptions include law enforcement, emergency and medical personnel, residents, people traveling to and from work and credentialed news media representatives.

The White House confirmed Wednesday that 330 people were taken into custody by federal authorities since immigration sweeps by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement began last week in Los Angeles.

Mayor Karen Bass said the number of people arrested from Tuesday night to Wednesday morning was “minor.”

About 225 were made, including 203 for failure to disperse. One person was arrested after an assault of a police officer with a weapon.

“If there are raids that continue, if there are soldiers marching up and down our street, I would imagine that the curfew will continue,” the mayor said.

During a news conference, Bass said she is trying to set up a call with President Donald Trump for him “to understand the significance of what is happening here.”

Court case

The Trump administration is asking a federal judge to reject California’s emergency court order request to limit how federal officials can use Marines and members of the state’s National Guard in and around Los Angeles.

The Guardsmen “are not performing law enforcement or any other functions,” Army Maj. General Niave F. Knell said in a declaration submitted to federal court Wednesday.

Justice Department lawyers responded to San Francisco-based U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer on Wednesday seeking briefs.

The 32-page filing notes that it is entirely within Trump’s authority as commander-in-chief, and is not reviewable by the court.

Federal law generally bars the military from enforcing domestic laws, but Trump invoked a provision to protect federal property and personnel when there is a “rebellion” or “danger of rebellion.”

The brief suggests that Gov. Gavin Newsom broke the law by failing to pass on Trump’s order to activate the guard. They said he might be “unwilling” to put a stop to the violence.

The judge, who was appointed by President Bill Clinton, initially rejected an immediate order and has scheduled a hearing for Thursday.

“The federal government is now turning the military against American citizens,” Newsom said in a news release Tuesday announcing the lawsuit. “Sending trained warfighters onto the streets is unprecedented and threatens the very core of our democracy.

“Donald Trump is behaving like a tyrant, not a President. We ask the court to immediately block these unlawful actions.”

The attempted order was filed as part of the governor’s lawsuit against Trump, Hegseth and the Department of Defense, “charging violations of the U.S. Constitution and the President’s Title 10 authority, not only because the takeover occurred without the consent or input of the Governor, as federal law requires, but also because it was unwarranted.”

According to the lawsuit: “ICE officers took actions that inflamed tensions — including the arrest and detainment of children, community advocates, and people without criminal history — and conducted military-style operations that sparked panic in the community.”

Community members then began protesting to express opposition to “these violent tactics, arrests of innocent people, and the President’s heavy-handed immigration agenda.”

Protests continued for two more days, “and although some violent and illegal incidents were reported — leading to justified arrests by state and local authorities — these protests were largely nonviolent and involved citizens exercising their First Amendment right to protest. The protests did not necessitate federal intervention, and local and state law enforcement have been able to control of the situation, as in other recent instances of unrest.

Federal response

Approximately 2,000 Guardsmen from the 79th Infantry Brigade Combat Team are helping protect ICE Officers, Customs and Border Protection Officers and FBI Special Agents. Another 2,000 have been called up.

Army Maj. Gen. Scott M. Sherman, who is overseeing the National Guard, said about 500 of the National Guard troops have been trained to accompany agents on immigration operations.

National Guard troops have temporarily detained civilians in the Los Angeles protests, but they quickly were turned them over to law enforcement, Sherman said.

Attorney General Pam Bondi said the administration “is not scared to go further” in expanding its legal authority to deploy troops in the city.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also has deployed 700 Marines near Los Angeles. Sherman said the Marines are still training outside Los Angeles.

“Marines get a two-day set training for civil unrest, very extensive. It’s all about civil disturbance and how to control crowds and protection of facilities,” Sherman said during a news briefing Wednesday.

Hegseth told senators at a hearing Wednesday that Trump’s order to federalize the National Guard in California could be applied in other states.

“Thankfully, in most of those states, you’d have a governor that recognizes the need for it, supports it and mobilizes it, him or herself,” he said. “In California, unfortunately, the governor wants to play politics with it.”

Trump said in an interview with the New York Post’s Pod Force One, said: “I’m able to do things now that I wouldn’t have been able to do because the previous president and presidency was so bad that anybody looks good.

“As an example, I can be stronger on an attack on Los Angeles,” Trump said. “I think bringing in the National Guard four years ago, or eight years ago, would have been more difficult.”

Newsom on Wednesday said: “President Trump has unnecessarily redirected 4,800 activated guards and Marines to Los Angeles – that’s more soldiers than are currently stationed in Iraq and Syria combined.”

Situation on the streets

Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna said his agency is investigating whether there’s “conspiracy” or organization behind crimes committed during protests.

“There is some evidence we’ve seen that I don’t want to share at this time,” Luna said at a Wednesday news conference with Los Angeles County District Attorney Nathan Hochman.

He said authorities are focused on arresting individuals in causing unrest at the protests.

Hochman said his office will review additional criminal cases brought by law enforcement in addition to the five he announced Wednesday.

Two people were charged with assault on a peace officer after they allegedly drove motorcycles into a line of officers. One officer was hurt and several others were knocked down, Hochman said.

“For any individual who is engaged in criminal conduct but did not get immediately arrested, let me provide some bad news for you,” Hochman warned. “There is a tremendous amount of video out there through social media, and otherwise. We will know who you are, who engaged in this conduct. We will track you down, we will arrest you, we will prosecute you, and we will punish you. So for people who’ve already engaged in this, in this illegal activity, we’re coming for you.”

Leticia Rhi Buckley, who lives and works just under a mile from the Los Angeles Federal Building, told CNN that the Trump administration’s narrative that Los Angeles is under siege is false. She said the vast majority of what she’s witnessed has been peaceful.

“I live less than a mile from here. I drive home and about five blocks down, there’s nothing. It’s like nothing is happening,” she said. “Living in downtown for 15 years, it’s gotten louder when the Dodgers won the World Series, or when the Lakers won.”

Bass, the Los Angeles mayor, said “the portrayal is that all of our cities are in chaos. Rioting is happening everywhere, and it is a lie,” she said, adding it is not an insurrection as Trump suggests.

“Given that I was there on January 6th and saw that insurrection take place, the idea that this, what is happening here is an insurrection is just false and I think it is deliberately false,” Bass, appearing with 30 other mayors in the region, said. “I don’t think they’re confused.”

Bill Essayli, the U.S. attorney for the Central District of California, said authorities are collecting video, photos and body camera footage to identify anyone who committed acts of violence.

ICE agents conducted raids Wednesday morning in Downey, Calif., Councilman Mario Trijulli said. The city of more than 110,000 people located south of Los Angeles.

Fearful immigrants

Nannies are worried they could be profiled and detained by ICE agents while working, one of them told CNN.

“I’m a citizen of the United States, but my color, my skin color, makes me wonder…will they see me different?” Elsy Melara said. “I’m honestly not afraid to the point myself, but I’m afraid that if they don’t believe me, or if they choose not to believe me, what would happen to the kid?”

She said she knows two nannies are in ICE detention after they were handcuffed in a public park.

LA’s garment industry is on edge.

Federal agents were seen going into the manufacturer Ambience Apparel in Downtown Los Angeles on Monday.

“We’re hearing from our membership about a lot of fear and stress. People’s mental health is really being impacted,” Bo Metz, founder of LA-based manufacturer Bomme Studio, told Vogue Business. “People are afraid to leave their homes. Some people are opting to not go to work and others have no choice. We also need to continue to put food on the table and keep a roof over our heads. Workers are really feeling that pressure right now.”

More than one-third of the more than 300,000 workers producing clothing and shoes in the U.S. are immigrants, according to an analysis by Fwd.us, an immigration reform organization. That includes an estimated 30,000 undocumented.

June 9 (UPI) — President Donald Trump escalated a war of words with California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday, as the administration authorized the deployment of 700 Marines to Los Angeles to quell anti-ICE immigration protests that turned violent over the weekend.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced the deployment to help defend federal agents amid protests over immigration raids.

“We have an obligation to defend federal law enforcement officers — even if Gavin Newsom will not,” Hegseth said Monday.

“Due to increased threats to federal law enforcement officers and federal buildings, approximately 700 active-duty U.S. Marines from Camp Pendleton are being deployed to Los Angeles to restore order,” Hegseth added in a post on X.

On Monday night, Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell warned anyone involved in violence or vandalism during the demonstrations will be arrested. McDonnell said officers were forced to fire flash-bang grenades Monday at hundreds of protesters as they tried to push the crowd back from the city’s Little Tokyo section.

“There is no tolerance for criminal activity under the guise of protest,” McDonnell told reporters and warned “there will be many more subsequent arrests.” Approximately 70 people were arrested over the weekend.

Meanwhile, Trump and Newsom ramped up their rhetoric as the president publicly endorsed calls to arrest the governor. The war of words escalated after the Trump administration deployed 2,000 National Guardsmen over the weekend to protect buildings and residents, a move Newsom called inflammatory for “peaceful” protests, as the administration called the demonstrations “chaos.”

“While Los Angeles burns — officers ambushed, city in chaos — Kamala Harris, Gavin Newsom and Maxine Waters call the riots and insurrection ‘peaceful,'” The White House wrote Monday in a post on X, showing video of burning cars and protesters closing Highway 101. “They side with mobs. President Trump stands for law and order.”

In response to a reporter question Monday, Trump was asked whether he supported Newsom’s taunt to “border czar” Tom Homan to “come and arrest him.”

“I would do it if I were Tom,” Trump said Monday. “I think it’s great. Gavin likes the publicity, but I think it would be a great thing,” Trump said, as he called Newsom a “nice guy,” but “grossly incompetent.”

Newsom responded on social media saying, “The president of the United States just called for the arrest of a sitting governor. This is a day I hoped I would never see in America.”

“I don’t care if you’re a Democrat or a Republican this is a line we cannot cross as a nation — this is an unmistakable step toward authoritarianism,” Newsom wrote in a post on X.

By Monday evening, Newsom said he would send 800 more state and local officers to Los Angeles.

“Chaos is exactly what Trump wanted, and now California is left to clean up the mess,” Newsom wrote in a new post on X. “We’re working with local partners to surge over 800 additional state and local law enforcement officers to ensure the safety of our L.A. communities.”

Newsom and California Attorney General Rob Bonta also announced Monday that they have filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over its activation of the state’s National Guard without getting state and local approval first.

“California’s governor and I are suing to put a stop to President Trump’s unlawful, unprecedented order calling federalized National Guard forces into Los Angeles,” Bonta said. “The president is trying to manufacture chaos and crisis on the ground for his own political ends. This is an abuse of power — and not one we take lightly.”

During Friday’s raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, demonstrators flooded the streets and freeways to protest their actions. The fire department said it responded to “multiple vehicle fires“ during the unrest. Waymo autonomous electric vehicles were among those targeted, according to Los Angeles Fire Department public information officer Erik Scott.

“Due to the design of EV battery systems, it’s often difficult to apply the water directly to the burning cells, especially in a chaotic environment, and in some cases, allowing the fire to burn is the safest tactic,” Scott said.

Over the weekend, demonstrators spilled out onto the 101 freeway that runs through downtown L.A. Approximately 70 people were arrested after being ordered to leave the downtown area. Some were also seen throwing objects at officers.

“I just met with L.A. immigrant rights community leaders as we respond to this chaotic escalation by the administration,” L.A. Mayor Karen Bass wrote Monday evening in a post on X.

“Let me be absolutely clear — as a united city, we are demanding the end to these lawless attacks on our communities. Los Angeles will always stand with everyone who calls our city home.”

Democratic Sen. John Fetterman of Pennsylvania disagreed, and said the protests are not peaceful.

“I unapologetically stand for free speech, peaceful demonstrations and immigration — but this is not that. This is anarchy and true chaos,” Fetterman wrote Monday night in a post on X.

“My party loses the moral high ground when we refuse to condemn setting cars on fire, destroying buildings and assaulting law enforcement.”

June 9 (UPI) — President Donald Trump publicly endorsed the arrest of California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday during a war of words, as the administration authorized the deployment of 700 Marines to Los Angeles to quell anti-ICE immigration protests that turned violent over the weekend.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced the deployment to help defend federal agents amid protests over immigration raids.

“We have an obligation to defend federal law enforcement officers — even if Gavin Newsom will not,” Hegseth said Monday.

“Due to increased threats to federal law enforcement officers and federal buildings, approximately 700 active-duty U.S. Marines from Camp Pendleton are being deployed to Los Angeles to restore order,” Hegseth added in a post on X.

Meanwhile, Trump and Newsom ramped up their rhetoric after the Trump administration called in 2,000 National Guardsmen over the weekend to protect buildings and residents, a move Newsom called inflammatory for the “peaceful” protests as the administration called it “chaos.”

“While Los Angeles burns — officers ambushed, city in chaos — Kamala Harris, Gavin Newsom and Maxine Waters call the riots and insurrection ‘peaceful,'” The White House wrote Monday in a post on X, showing video of burning cars and protesters closing Highway 101. “They side with mobs. President Trump stands for law and order.”

In response to a reporter question Monday, Trump was asked whether he supported Newsom’s taunt to “border czar” Tom Homan to “come and arrest him.”

“I would do it if I were Tom,” Trump said Monday. “I think it’s great. Gavin likes the publicity, but I think it would be a great thing,” Trump said, as he called Newsom a “nice guy,” but “grossly incompetent.”

Newsom responded on social media saying, “The president of the United States just called for the arrest of a sitting governor. This is a day I hoped I would never see in America.”

“I don’t care if you’re a Democrat or a Republican this is a line we cannot cross as a nation — this is an unmistakable step toward authoritarianism,” Newsom wrote in a post on X.

By Monday evening, Newsom said he would send 800 more state and local officers to Los Angeles.

“Chaos is exactly what Trump wanted, and now California is left to clean up the mess,” Newsom wrote in a new post on X. “We’re working with local partners to surge over 800 additional state and local law enforcement officers to ensure the safety of our L.A. communities.”

Newsom and California Attorney General Rob Bonta also announced Monday that they have filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration over its activation of the state’s National Guard without getting state and local approval first.

“California’s governor and I are suing to put a stop to President Trump’s unlawful, unprecedented order calling federalized National Guard forces into Los Angeles,” Bonta said. “The president is trying to manufacture chaos and crisis on the ground for his own political ends. This is an abuse of power — and not one we take lightly.”

During Friday’s raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, demonstrators flooded the streets and freeways to protest their actions. The fire department said it responded to “multiple vehicle fires“ during the unrest. Waymo autonomous electric vehicles were among those targeted, according to Los Angeles Fire Department public information officer Erik Scott.

“Due to the design of EV battery systems, it’s often difficult to apply the water directly to the burning cells, especially in a chaotic environment, and in some cases, allowing the fire to burn is the safest tactic,” Scott said.

Over the weekend, demonstrators spilled out onto the 101 freeway that runs through downtown L.A. Approximately 70 people have been arrested after being ordered to leave the downtown area. Some were also seen throwing objects at officers.

“I just met with L.A. immigrant rights community leaders as we respond to this chaotic escalation by the administration,” L.A. Mayor Karen Bass wrote Monday evening in a post on X.

“Let me be absolutely clear — as a united city, we are demanding the end to these lawless attacks on our communities. Los Angeles will always stand with everyone who calls our city home.”

June 8 (UPI) — The Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department arrested one person overnight in Paramount, a city in Los Angeles County, amid ongoing protests against raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, officials said Sunday.

The sheriff’s department confirmed the arrest by email to UPI but did not provide any further details about the arrest.

More protests have been planned in Los Angeles ahead of the arrival of National Guardsmen called up by President Donald Trump to curb the demonstrations, as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said he might send in U.S. Marines if necessary to aid them.

“The National Guard, and Marines if need be, stand with ICE,” Hegseth said. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement to UPI late Saturday that the administration has “a zero tolerance for criminal behavior and violence,” especially violence allegedly targeted at law enforcement.

Protesters clashed with police in riot gear in Los Angeles on Saturday as outrage mounted over a series of ICE raids carried out last week across southern California.

Trump then ordered 2,000 members of the National Guard to Los Angeles, later thanking them Saturday night for their “good job” in handling the protests.

“Great job by the National Guard in Los Angeles after two days of violence, clashes and unrest,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform. “These radical left protests, by instigators and often paid troublemakers, will not be tolerated.”

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said afterward on social media that no National Guardsmen had yet arrived. “Just to be clear, the National Guard has not been deployed in the City of Los Angeles,” she said.

Trump, who pardoned mask-wearing demonstrators who rioted at the U.S. Capitol in 2021, also said protesters would not be allowed to wear masks.

Demonstrators have criticized ICE officers for also wearing masks while conducting raids. Federal law does not explicitly forbid them from wearing masks but they are required by law to clearly identify themselves with badges or patches and to state their identity in an arrest.

“Masks will not be allowed to be worn at protests. What do these people have to hide, and why?” Trump said of the protesters. “Again, thank you to the National Guard for a job well done!” The streets were quiet in Los Angeles around 7 a.m. local time, The New York Times reported.

Meanwhile, the Northern California Coalition for Just Immigration Reform said Saturday that it would be organizing a protest rally outside the California State Capitol on Monday.

“The Trump administration’s baseless deployment of the National Guard is plainly retaliation against California, a stronghold for immigrant communities, and is akin to a declaration of war on all Californians,” the ACLU’s division in southern California said in a statement.

“The only threat to safety today is the masked goon squads that the Trump administration has deployed to terrorize the communities of Los Angeles County,” the organization said.

June 7 (UPI) — President Donald Trump on Saturday ordered 2,000 National Guardsmen to Los Angeles to quell protester violence while Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers conduct local raids.

ICE agents used riot gear as they clashed with protestors during a series of raids in Los Angeles, where they detained dozens of people.

“In recent days, violent mobs have attacked ICE officers and federal law enforcement agents carrying out basic deportation operations in Los Angeles,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement shared with UPI.

“These operations are essential to halting and reversing the invasion of illegal criminals into the United States,” Leavitt said.

“In the wake of this violence, California’s feckless Democrat leaders have completely abdicated their responsibility to protect their citizens,” she added.

President Trump signed a memorandum deploying 2,000 National Guardsmen to Los Angeles to end the violence.

“The Trump administration has a zero tolerance policy for criminal behavior and violence, especially when that violence is aimed at law enforcement officers trying to do their jobs,” Leavitt said.

“These criminals will be arrested and swiftly brought to justice,” she continued.

“The Commander-in-Chief will ensure the laws of the United States are executed fully and completely.”

Separate raids by ICE agents earlier this week at a Home Depot and two separate clothing outlet stores drew crowds of protestors on Friday.

In some instances, the federal agents carried shields, military-style rifles and shotguns while conducting the raids.

The department later confirmed it was executing four federal search warrants at the three locations.

“Approximately 44 people were administratively arrested and one arrest for obstruction,” a Department of Homeland Security spokesperson told KTLA TV.

“The investigation remains ongoing, updates will follow as appropriate.”

Service Employees International Union leader David Huerta was among those detained.

The SEIU local president was charged with obstruction of justice.

“Federal agents were executing a lawful judicial warrant at a LA worksite this morning when David Huerta deliberately obstructed their access by blocking their vehicle. He was arrested for interfering with federal officers and will face arraignment in federal court on Monday,” U.S. Attorney for the Central District of California Bill Essayli wrote on X.

“Let me be clear: I don’t care who you are — if you impede federal agents, you will be arrested and prosecuted. No one has the right to assault, obstruct, or interfere with federal authorities carrying out their duties,” he wrote.

People can be heard on video yelling at the crowds in Spanish, and telling them not to sign paperwork or speak to federal officials.

By Friday evening, the Los Angeles Police Department declared unlawful assembly near the Civic Center in the northern part of the city’s downtown core, issuing a city-wide alert that forced all officers to remain on-duty.

LAPD officers were later forced to use tear gas and flash-bang grenades to disperse crowds in the city. At one point, protesters were reportedly throwing large pieces of concrete during the unrest

The alert was cancelled around midnight Friday.

“As mayor of a proud city of immigrants, who contribute to our city in so many ways, I am deeply angered by what has taken place,” Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass wrote on X.

“These tactics sow terror in our communities and disrupt basic principles of safety in our city. My office is in close coordination with immigrant rights community organizations. We will not stand for this.”