NEW YORK, June 10 (Xinhua) -- The standoff between the White House and California Governor Gavin Newsom seemed to escalate on Tuesday, even as protests in downtown Los Angeles appeared to quiet overnight.
Newsom responded to the Trump administration's order to deploy 700 active-duty Marines and 2,000 additional National Guard troops by pledging to file a second lawsuit and "surging" 800 additional state and local law enforcement officers to the region.
President Donald Trump ordered the mobilization of 2,000 more California National Guard troops on Monday night, in addition to the 2,100 already activated over the weekend. Hours earlier, the Pentagon mobilized 700 active-duty Marines for deployment to the Los Angeles area. Newsom said Monday he would challenge the legality of the Marines' deployment, criticizing it on social media as a "blatant abuse of power."
Trump on Tuesday continued to defend his decision to deploy National Guard troops to Los Angeles, reviving attacks on Democratic leaders in California and invoking the wildfires that devastated the city earlier this year. "If I didn't 'SEND IN THE TROOPS' to Los Angeles the last three nights, that once beautiful and great City would be burning to the ground right now," Trump wrote on his Truth Social network.
As the federal response to the protests against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids in Los Angeles escalates, demonstrators in San Francisco, New York, Philadelphia, Austin and other cities across the United States are also rallying against immigration raids.
In San Francisco, police said they detained "multiple" people around midnight after two small groups of demonstrators splintered off from "overwhelmingly peaceful" protests and committed acts of vandalism, said The Washington Post. Thousands of people marched for miles Monday night before police declared an unlawful assembly around 10 p.m. A contingent that refused to disperse appeared to resist arrest, and were met with force by San Francisco police.
Meanwhile, people gathered near the Independence Hall in Philadelphia on Monday to protest the deployment of the National Guard in Los Angeles and the detainment of union leader David Huerta. In New York City, an anti-ICE protest was staged outside the Ted Weiss Federal Building with police officers maintaining their presence at the scene on Monday.
A protest took place at the Texas State Capitol in downtown Austin on Monday, with organizers saying this was in solidarity with the protests taking place in Los Angeles. "Activists are calling for an end to the Trump administration's crackdowns on illegal immigration," reported FOX7 about the developments.
"The protests against the Trump administration's immigration policies that started in Los Angeles have spread to at least two dozen cities, including San Francisco, Dallas, Austin and New York City," said The New York Times.
These solidarity demonstrations on Monday were largely contained and peaceful, although some skirmishes broke out between protesters and law enforcement officers as night fell, it noted.
In Dallas, about 400 protesters gathered on the edge of downtown. The demonstration began peacefully but brief skirmishes later occurred between protesters and the police, it added. ■
