Protesters rally against immigration agents for second day in Los Angeles, World News

LOS ANGELES -Federal agents in Los Angeles faced off against demonstrators for a second day in a row on Saturday (June 7) following immigration raids a day earlier, prompting a senior White House official to call the protests a "violent insurrection."
The security agents on Saturday were in a tense confrontation with protesters in the Paramount area in southeast Los Angeles, where some demonstrators displayed Mexican flags and others covered their mouths with respiratory masks.
Live video footage showed dozens of green-uniformed security personnel with gas masks lined up on a road strewn with overturned shopping carts as small canisters exploded into gas clouds.
"Now they know that they cannot go to anywhere in this country where our people are, and try to kidnap our workers, our people -- they cannot do that without an organised and fierce resistance," said protester Ron Gochez, 44.
Kristi Noem, the head of the Department of Homeland Security, said on X: "A message to the LA rioters: you will not stop us or slow us down." Trump's border czar Tom Homan said on Fox News that the National Guard would be deployed in Los Angeles on Saturday evening.
A first round of protests kicked off on Friday night after Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents conducted enforcement operations in the city and arrested at least 44 people on alleged immigration violations.
The Department of Homeland Security said in a statement that "1,000 rioters surrounded a federal law enforcement building and assaulted Ice law enforcement officers, slashed tires, defaced buildings, and taxpayer funded property."
Reuters was unable to verify DHS's accounts. Angelica Salas, executive director of immigrants rights organisation Chirla, said lawyers had not had access to those detained on Friday, which she called "very worrying."
Stephen Miller, an immigration hardliner and the White House deputy chief of staff, wrote on X that Friday's demonstrations were "an insurrection against the laws and sovereignty of the United States." On Saturday, he described the day's protests as a "violent insurrection."
The protests pit Democratic-run Los Angeles, where census data suggests a significant portion of the population is Hispanic and foreign-born, against Trump's Republican White House, which has made cracking down on immigration a hallmark of his second term.
Trump has pledged to deport record numbers of people in the country illegally and lock down the US-Mexico border, with the White House setting a goal for Ice to arrest at least 3,000 migrants per day.
But the sweeping immigration crackdown has also caught up people legally residing in the country, including some with permanent residence, and has led to legal challenges.
In a statement on Saturday about the protests in Paramount, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Office said: "It appeared that federal law enforcement officers were in the area, and that members of the public were gathering to protest."
Salas of Chirla said protesters gathered after an Ice contingent appeared to be using parking lots near a Paramount Home Depot store as a base.
Ice, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Los Angeles Police Department did not respond to a request for comment on the protests or potential immigration sweeps on Saturday. Political divisions over Friday's sweep
Television news footage on Friday showed unmarked vehicles resembling military transport and vans loaded with uniformed federal agents streaming through Los Angeles streets as part of the immigration enforcement operation.
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Raids occurred around Home Depots, where street vendors and day laborers were picked up, as well as at a garment factory and a warehouse, Salas of Chirla said.
The Democratic mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass, in a statement condemned the immigration raids.
"I am deeply angered by what has taken place," Bass said. "These tactics sow terror in our communities and disrupt basic principles of safety in our city. We will not stand for this."
The LAPD did not take part in the immigration enforcement. It was deployed to quell civil unrest after crowds protesting the deportation raids spray-painted anti-Ice slogans on the walls of a federal court building and gathered outside a nearby jail where some of the detainees were reportedly being held.
In a statement, DHS criticised Democratic politicians including Mayor Bass, saying their anti-Ice rhetoric was contributing to violence against immigration agents.
"From comparisons to the modern-day Nazi gestapo to glorifying rioters, the violent rhetoric of these sanctuary politicians is beyond the pale. This violence against Ice must end," said DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin.

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Straits Times

an hour ago

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AsiaOne

2 hours ago

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Matters deteriorated further as Obama entered negotiations with Iran to curb its nuclear drive — a project that Israel said is aimed at creating atomic bombs and that Tehran has said is for purely civilian purposes. Netanyahu spoke to Congress in 2015 at the invitation of Republicans to denounce the prospective deal, without informing the White House. "(The accord) doesn't block Iran's path to the bomb; it paves Iran's path to the bomb," he said. Obama was widely reported to have been furious, but still, the following year Washington delivered the largest military aid package to Israel in US history — US$38 billion (S$49 billion) over 10 years. Political analysts say Netanyahu takes US support as a given, confident that backing from evangelical Christians and the small Jewish-American community will guarantee that Israel remains well-armed, however much he antagonises the White House. Convincing Trump When Hamas militants launched a surprise attack on Israel in October 2023, then-President Joe Biden flew to Israel to show his support, authorising a huge flow of weapons to help with the conflict unleashed in Gaza. [[nid:719377]] But relations between Netanyahu, a right-winger, and Biden, a Democrat, deteriorated rapidly, as Washington grew alarmed by the spiralling number of civilian deaths and the burgeoning humanitarian crisis in the Palestinian enclave. Biden held back on some heavy munitions deliveries and imposed sanctions on a number of violent Israeli settlers, so his defeat at the hands of Trump in last November's presidential election was celebrated by Netanyahu. Finally, he had a Republican in office at a crucial moment for Israel. However, things did not go smoothly, at least to start with. Like Biden before him, Trump was unhappy at the protracted conflict in Gaza and then he blindsided Netanyahu during a meeting on April 7, when he revealed that he was launching direct talks with Tehran aimed at finding a diplomatic solution to the protracted nuclear stand-off with Iran. But while Trump publicly positioned himself as a peacemaker, Netanyahu consistently pushed for military intervention. Although it is unclear if Netanyahu ever got him to say "yes" to Israel's war plans, it was at least not a "no", according to two senior US officials and a senior Israeli source. As soon as Israel launched its aerial war on Iran in the early hours of June 13, Israel pushed the United States to join in, urging Trump to be on the winning side of history, two Israeli officials said last week. "Mr President, Finish the job!" read large billboards that have popped up in Tel Aviv. The sense of relief when the US bombers struck Iran's most protected nuclear sites on Sunday was palpable. "Congratulations, President Trump. Your bold decision to target Iran's nuclear facilities with the awesome and righteous might of the United States will change history," Netanyahu said in a brief video address. "May God bless our unshakeable alliance, our unbreakable faith," he concluded. [[nid:719373]]