California leadership blames Trump for anti-ICE riots as city descends into chaos

California Governor Gavin Newsom said directly that he blames President Donald Trump for "creat[ing] the conditions you see on your TV tonight."

"People should exercise their right to protest, that's their First Amendment right," Bass said. "But people should also exercise that right peacefully. We do not want to play into the administration's hands. We're working with officials, we're organizing resources, but what we're seeing in Los Angeles is chaos that is provoked by the administration."

Bass then repeated a falsehood that had been first spoken by activists with CHIRLA on Friday, saying that ICE agents had conducted a workplace raid at Home Depot. This was not true and outlets such as The New York Times had to go back and correct their reporting. Either no one gave Bass the correct information or she went ahead with the falsehood anyway.

"When you raid Home Depot," she said, "and workplaces, when you tear parents and children apart, and when you run armored caravans through our streets you cause fear and you cause panic. And deploying federalized troops is a dangerous escalation.

"But we need to be real about this," she went on, "this is about another agenda. It's not about public safety, there's clearly no plan and there's clearly no policy. I want the people of Los Angeles to know we stand with all Angelinos no matter where you were born." She then called people to express their "outrage" peacefully.

The policy of the Trump administration is to secure the border and deport illegal immigrants who are unlawfully in the country. In states like California, where local laws prevent law enforcement from working with federal law enforcement, ICE agents are forced to go out into the community to conduct arrests because local officers will not alert ICE to the presence of criminal illegal immigrants when they are released from custody or apprehended for other crimes.

Bass also condemned the administration for targeting Home Depot, where she said they were unlikely to encounter "felons." She did not mention the case of Kilmar Abgrego Garcia, an illegal immigrant from El Salvador who was apprehended in 2019 in a Home Depot parking lot in Maryland as part of a sting operation targeting illegal gang activity in the area, indicating that Home Depots are not unusual locations for gang or felonious activity to take place. She said that ICE was sending "a sense of chaos" in the city .

"Despite protests already being managed by @LAPDHQ," said Newsom, "President Trump is escalating the situation by threatening to deploy roughly 500 active-duty Marines to the streets of Los Angeles. Los Angeles: Remain peaceful. Don’t fall into the trap that extremists are hoping for." The LAPD had called the violent riots "peaceful protests."

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has said that Marines would be standing by should they be necessary to quell the riots. Newsom called the deployment of National Guard "unlawful." Earlier in the day, Newsom had said that the deployment of National Guard was "purposefully inflammatory and will only escalate tensions."

President Donald Trump deployed 2,000 National Guard troops to Los Angeles following Friday's riots to protect Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents who were being attacked by rioters who oppose the mission of secure American borders.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said that "fear has been created" in Los Angeles when ICE engaged in workplace enforcement on Friday. Federal law prevents illegal immigrants from working in the United States, though many illegal immigrants undertake to work using falsified social security numbers or by working under the table for cash. Bass claimed that the enforcement was "intentional chaos."

Bass claimed that the violence was just from "a few people." The LAPD, however, declared the protest to be an unlawful assembly as rioters set fire to self-driving Waymo cars. Other rioters flooded onto the freeway blocking traffic.

Former Vice President Kamala Harris, who may be launching a gubernatorial campaign in the state, also put out a statement blaming the Trump administration for trying to fix the very problem her and her boss Joe Biden's administration created.

"Los Angeles is my home," she began. "And like so many Americans, I am appalled at what we are witnessing on the streets of our city. Deploying the National Guard is a dangerous escalation meant to provoke chaos. In addition to the recent ICE raids in Southern California and across our nation, it is part of the Trump Administration's cruel, calculated agenda to spread panic and division.

"This Administration's actions are not about public safety - they're about stoking fear. Fear of a community demanding dignity and due process," Harris went on.

"Protest is a powerful tool - essential in the fight for justice. And as the LAPD, Mayor, and Governor have noted, demonstrations in defense of our immigrant neighbors have been overwhelmingly peaceful. I continue to support the millions of Americans who are standing up to protect our most fundamental rights and freedoms."

Harris served as Biden's border czar and in that capacity she was tasked with uncovering the "root causes" of migration. After a few meetings in 2021, she abandoned that job, with her office saying in June of that year that she wasn't responsible for border security. Her work led the Biden administration to prioritize LGBTQ+-identified persons for asylum in the US.

The Biden administration also eliminated the Remain in Mexico policy in which people intent on crossing into the US would wait in Mexico for their asylum hearings. The Biden administration gave them free cell phones and trips to cities across America. The Biden administration also extended temporary protected status, enacted a program where people could make appointments to turn themselves in at ports of entry before being released as parolees into the United States, and upped the refugee program to allow 125,000 persons per year.