As legal fight over Guard deployment plays out, Noem vows to continue
Trump's immigration crackdown
[June 13, 2025]
By KRYSTA FAURIA, OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ and JOHN SEEWER
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem pledged to
carry on with the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown despite
waves of unrest across the U.S.
Hours after her comment Thursday, a judge directed the president to
return control to California over National Guard troops he deployed
after protests erupted over the immigration crackdown, but an appeals
court quickly put the brakes on that and temporarily blocked the order
that was to go into effect on Friday. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals scheduled a hearing on the matter for Tuesday.
The federal judge's temporary restraining order said the Guard
deployment was illegal and both violated the Tenth Amendment and
exceeded President Donald Trump's statutory authority. The order applied
only to the National Guard troops and not Marines who were also deployed
to the LA protests. The judge said he would not rule on the Marines
because they were not out on the streets yet.
Gov. Gavin Newsom who had asked the judge for an emergency stop to
troops helping carry out immigration raids, had praised the order before
it was blocked saying “today was really about a test of democracy, and
today we passed the test" and had said he would be redeploying Guard
soldiers to “what they were doing before Donald Trump commandeered
them.”
White House spokesperson Anna Kelly said the president acted within his
powers and that the federal judge's order “puts our brave federal
officials in danger. The district court has no authority to usurp the
President’s authority as Commander in Chief."
The developments unfolded as protests continued in cities nationwide and
the country braced for major demonstrations against Trump over the
weekend.
‘This is only going to continue,’ DHS chief says of raids
Noem said the immigration raids that fueled the protests would move
forward and agents have thousands of targets.
“This is only going to continue until we have peace on the streets of
Los Angeles,” she said during a news conference that was interrupted by
shouting from U.S. Sen. Alex Padilla, a California Democrat who was
forcibly removed from the event.
Newsom has warned that the military intervention is part of a broader
effort by Trump to overturn norms at the heart of the nation’s
democracy. He also said sending Guard troops on the raids has further
inflamed tensions in LA.
So far the protests have been centered mostly in downtown near City Hall
and a federal detention center where some immigrants are being held.
Much of the sprawling city has been spared from the protests.
On the third night of an 8 p.m. curfew, Los Angeles police arrested
several demonstrators who refused orders to leave a street downtown.
Earlier in the night, officers with the Department of Homeland Security
deployed flash bangs to disperse a crowd that had gathered near the
jail, sending protesters sprinting away.
Those incidents were outliers. As with the past two nights, the
hourslong demonstrations remained peaceful and upbeat, drawing a few
hundred attendees who marched through downtown chanting, dancing and
poking fun at the Trump administration’s characterization of the city as
a “war zone.”
Elsewhere, demonstrations have picked up across the U.S., emerging in
more than a dozen major cities. Some have led to clashes with police and
hundreds have been arrested.
Noem calls action in LA a blueprint
The immigration agents conducting the raids in LA are “putting together
a model and a blueprint” for other communities, Noem said.
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Police confront a protesters outside City Hall during protests over
federal immigration enforcement raids on Wednesday, June 11, 2025,
in Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Ethan Swope)
She pledged that federal authorities “are not going away” even
though, she said, officers have been hit with rocks and bricks and
assaulted. She said people with criminal records who are in the
country illegally and violent protesters will “face consequences.”
“Just because you think you’re here as a citizen, or because you’re
a member of a certain group or you’re not a citizen, it doesn’t mean
that you’re going to be protected and not face consequences from the
laws that this country stands for," she said.
Noem criticized the Padilla's interruption, calling it
"inappropriate.” A statement from her agency said the two met after
the news conference for about 15 minutes, but it also chided him for
“disrespectful political theater.”
Padilla said later that he was demanding answers about the
“increasingly extreme immigration enforcement actions” and only
wanted to ask Noem a question. He said he was handcuffed but not
arrested.
“If this is how this administration responds to a senator with a
question, I can only imagine what they are doing to farmworkers, to
cooks, to day laborers throughout the Los Angeles community,” he
said.
Military involvement escalates in LA
The administration has said it is willing to send troops to other
cities to assist with immigration enforcement and controlling
disturbances — in line with what Trump promised during last year’s
campaign.
Some 2,000 Guard soldiers were in the nation's second-largest city
and were soon to be joined by 2,000 more, along with about 700
Marines, said Maj. Gen. Scott Sherman, who is in charge of the
operation.
About 500 of the Guard troops deployed to the Los Angeles protests
have been trained to accompany agents on immigration operations,
Sherman said Wednesday. The Guard has the authority to temporarily
detain people who attack officers, but any arrests must be made by
law enforcement.
States face questions on deploying troops
With more demonstrations expected over the weekend, and the
possibility that Trump could send troops to other states for
immigration enforcement, governors are weighing what to do.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, has put 5,000 National Guard
members on standby in cities where demonstrations are planned. In
other Republican-controlled states, governors have not said when or
how they may deploy troops.
A group of Democratic governors earlier signed a statement this week
calling Trump’s deployments “an alarming abuse of power.”
Hundreds arrested in LA protests
There have been about 470 arrests since Saturday, the vast majority
of which were for failing to leave the area at the request of law
enforcement, according to the police department.
There have been a handful of more serious charges, including for
assault against officers and for possession of a Molotov cocktail
and a gun. Nine officers have been hurt, mostly with minor injuries.
___
Rodriguez reported from San Francisco and Seewer from Toledo, Ohio.
Associated Press writers Julie Watson in San Diego, Jesse Bedayn in
Denver, and Jim Vertuno in Austin, Texas, and Hallie Golden in
Seattle contributed.
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