California leaders reject need for National Guard, saying Trump overstepped

Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies clash with protesters in Compton, Calif., south of Los Angeles, Saturday, June 7, 2025. (Mark Abramson/The New York Times)

By Laurel Rosenhall, Charlie Savage, Jesús Jiménez and Edgar Sandoval

The Trump administration redoubled its rhetoric Monday on the decision to deploy National Guard soldiers on the streets of Los Angeles to quell immigration protests. City and state officials insisted that calm prevailed across most of the nation’s second-largest city, even after several days of demonstrations, and said that calling in the troops had needlessly escalated tensions.

California officials intend to sue President Donald Trump for bypassing Gov. Gavin Newsom and taking control of the state’s National Guard, sending 2,000 soldiers into the city Sunday. The legal challenge was expected to be filed as protests were held in more cities over federal immigration enforcement and the arrest of a union leader, who will appear in court Monday afternoon.

About 150 people have been arrested in Los Angeles since Friday, when intense protests followed an immigration enforcement raid. About 60 other demonstrators were arrested Sunday in San Francisco, where a solidarity protest turned violent. The mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass, told CNN on Monday morning that while she condemned the violence, it had been limited. “This is not citywide civil unrest taking place in Los Angeles,” she said.

Trump told reporters at the White House on Monday that the protesters in Los Angeles were “insurrectionists,” adopting a rationale that could allow him to invoke the 1807 Insurrection Act and use the active-duty U.S. military to deal with violent protests. But so far, the vast majority of protests have remained peaceful, and videos taken Sunday show that National Guard troops largely avoided clashing with demonstrators.

Here’s what else to know:

— Nationwide demonstrations: Protests were planned in more than a dozen cities nationwide, including Sacramento, where the Service Employees International Union of California will demonstrate outside the state Capitol, its leaders said. A prominent labor official was arrested in demonstrations Friday. Through early afternoon, union-led protests in New York, Chicago and elsewhere had been small and peaceful.

— Marching in solidarity: Some of the people demonstrating in downtown Los Angeles on Sunday said they were first- or second-generation immigrants showing solidarity with their neighbors or family members. During a news conference Monday morning, several family members of the detained held photos of their loved ones and said that they have not been able to communicate with them.

— Mexican flags: Latin American flags emerged as emblems in the weekend protests. Trump officials have cast flag wavers as insurrectionists and seemed to assume they are not U.S. citizens. But for many protesters who are American citizens, the flag signifies pride in their roots.

— Journalists injured: Several journalists have been injured while covering the protests in Los Angeles, including a television reporter who was struck when a law enforcement officer fired a nonlethal projectile while she was on the air. Video showed the moment that the reporter, Lauren Tomasi of 9News Australia, was hit.