USA Demonstrations against Trump's immigration policy spread
The protests in the USA against President Donald Trump's controversial immigration policy are spreading.
10.06.2025, 16:33
SDA
Following the demonstrations in Los Angeles with hundreds of participants, people also took to the streets in San Francisco. According to the local police, "thousands of people" protested on Monday (local time), mostly peacefully. There were only minor incidents in the evening.
In the East Coast metropolis of New York, dozens of people gathered in the lobby of Trump Tower, according to media reports. As the broadcaster CBS News reported, they chanted "Bring them back", apparently alluding to the deportation of migrants.
There were also protests in Santa Ana (California), Austin and Dallas (Texas), Atlanta (Georgia) and Louisville (Kentucky), according to US media reports. These were largely peaceful, but there were still a few clashes and dozens of arrests.
Highly unusual and controversial move
People in Los Angeles have been demonstrating against Trump's tough migration policy for days. According to the US media, the police again used tear gas and rubber bullets against the protesters on Monday.
Despite some incidents, there appeared to have been fewer clashes between police and demonstrators at the rallies overall, as the New York Times wrote. The protests were for the most part somewhat calmer than in previous days, the Los Angeles Times also reported.
Increased operations by the ICE immigration authorities had triggered the first protests at the end of last week. According to the authorities, dozens of people were arrested during the raids. Critics accuse Trump's government of deliberately stirring up fear with seemingly martial measures.
US Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, however, emphasized on Fox News that the ICE employees, with the support of the National Guard, were implementing exactly what Trump had promised. During the election campaign, the Republican had promised to launch the largest deportation program in American history.
Trump defends deployment of soldiers: LA would otherwise burn down
President Trump does not want to tolerate the protests: Most recently, the US Department of Defense had mobilized 2,000 additional National Guard soldiers for deployment in the West Coast metropolis and 700 Marines from the regular armed forces on the Republican's instructions.
Trump had already mobilized 2,000 National Guardsmen at the weekend in a highly unusual and controversial move. According to the latest military figures, there are currently around 1,700 National Guardsmen in the Los Angeles area.
This is the first time in decades that a US president has taken control of a state's National Guard without the consent of the state governor. The conflict could escalate further: US Vice President JD Vance announced a crackdown in Los Angeles on Tuesday night.
The Republican wrote on Platform X. "President Trump will not back down", he continued, and the government would not be intimidated by "lawlessness".
Meanwhile, Trump defended the deployment of soldiers at the protests this morning (local time). "If I had not sent the soldiers to Los Angeles over the past three nights, this once beautiful and great city would now be burning to the ground," he wrote on the online platform Truth Social. He compared this scenario to the burning of thousands of homes in the devastating fires in the greater Los Angeles area earlier this year.
California governor sees "abuse of power"
The Democratic governor of California, Gavin Newsom, accused Trump of "abuse of power" and spoke of the "deranged" fantasies of a "dictatorial president".
The US government was crossing a red line. California has already filed a lawsuit against Trump's decision to take control of the state's National Guard without the state's consent. Newsom announced that he would also take legal action against the deployment of regular soldiers to California.
Newsom criticized in another post on X that the first 2,000 National Guardsmen had not been given food or water. "Only about 300 are deployed - the rest are sitting around unused in federal buildings with no orders."
Mayor: LA not a test case for Trump's migration policy
The mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass, sees Trump's actions as a kind of "test case". She said at a press conference on Monday (local time) that Washington wanted to see "what happens when the federal government intervenes and takes the decision-making power away from the state or the city".
Bass added: "I don't think our city should serve as an experiment." Bass sees this as a "provocative measure". She had tried to make it clear to the White House in advance that the mobilization of the National Guard was "a deliberate attempt to create unrest and chaos in our city", she continued.
