As US President Donald Trump intensifies crackdown on Anti-ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) demonstrations in Los Angeles, protests have erupted in two of the largest cities in the US, New York and San Francisco, with ensuing clashes and violence.
Clashes between law-enforcement forces and protesters intensified as Trump’s deployment of the National Guard in LA in response to Anti-ICE demonstrations entered its third day.
According to reports, the National Guard and Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) have closed the city’s most import highway (Highway 101 also known as Santa ANA), preventing any vehicle from entering the free way.
The protesters in response have been throwing incendiary items at the law-enforcement troops and setting fire to vehicles.
The raids began in broad daylight on Friday in a city with a large Latino population.
But opponents say Trump was deliberately stoking tensions with his deployment of California’s National Guard, a stand-by military usually controlled by the state’s governor, Gavin Newsom.
Raids ‘no solution’ to immigration
Meanwhile, Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum blasted the Trump administration over the immigration raids in Los Angeles, saying raids and violence will not fix immigration.
“We do not agree with this way of addressing the immigration issue,” Sheinbaum, who has tried to cultivate a positive relationship with Trump, said at a public event.
“The phenomenon will not be addressed with raids or violence. It will be by sitting down and working on comprehensive reform,” she added.
A significant majority of immigrants in LA are from Mexico and many protesters have been waving the Mexican flag since the demonstrations began.
Stephen Miller, Trump’s deputy chief of staff, has condemned the protests as an “insurrection”, going a step further and insinuating that Los Angeles had been taken over as protesters used foreign flags.
“Look at all the foreign flags. Los Angeles is occupied territory,” he wrote on X.
‘Trump’s actions are that of a dictator’
Meanwhile, California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, denounced Trump’s actions and wrote on X, “Inciting and provoking violence. Creating mass chaos. Militarizing cities. Arresting opponents. These are acts of a dictator, not a President.”
The protests against ICE have been spreading throughout the United States, with San Francisco being the second city where law-enforcement and protesters clashed.
In San Francisco, the peaceful protests that began on Sunday evening as a calm gathering to show solidarity with immigration protests in Los Angeles quickly turned violent when protesters and police officers began physically fighting.
Protesters hurled eggs in the officers’ direction. Others threw glass bottles that shattered on the ground just behind the officers.
The protesters chanted, “Why are you in riot gear? We don’t see a riot here.”
Tensions have also flared in New York City since Sunday as demonstrators clashed with New York City Police Department (NYPD) officers outside Federal Plaza during a protest against the US Immigration.
The demonstration have lasted for more than a day, resulting in at least 20 arrests as confrontations between law-enforcement personnel and protesters have spilled into other streets.
At one point, protesters attempted to block a white van suspected of transporting detained refugees by forming a human chain to obstruct its departure.
“We will not stand by while our neighbors are taken away,” one protester said, echoing the rallying cry of the movement.
Furthermore, the city of Glendale said on Monday it has ended an agreement with ICE to hold federal immigration detainees at its city detention center, noting in a statement that its city manager made the decision after careful evaluation.
“The city recognizes that public perception of the ICE contract, no matter how limited or carefully managed, no matter the good, has become divisive,” it said.
Glendale is about 9 miles north of downtown Los Angeles and has a population 188,000, half of which are foreign-born.
