By Chris Yarzab
Los Angeles police have made numerous arrests following the imposition of a curfew in part of the United States’s second-largest city, as nationwide protests against President Donald Trump’s immigration enforcement policies escalate.
The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) announced late Tuesday that “mass arrests” were taking place as demonstrators gathered inside the designated curfew zone in downtown LA. “Multiple groups continue to congregate on 1st St between Spring and Alameda,” LAPD posted on X. “Those groups are being addressed and mass arrests are being initiated. Curfew is in effect.”
Although many protesters had dispersed later in the night, occasional clashes between demonstrators and authorities persisted. Officials have defended the curfew as a necessary measure to curb vandalism and theft reportedly instigated by individuals seeking to incite unrest.
According to Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, the curfew covers a one-square-mile (2.6-square-kilometre) section of the downtown area and will be enforced from 8 p.m. Tuesday until 6 a.m. Wednesday (03:00 GMT to 13:00 GMT Wednesday). Mayor Bass indicated that the curfew could remain in place for several days but emphasized it only affects a limited area of the city, which spans 502 square miles (1,300 square kilometres).
The emergency order was implemented on the fifth consecutive night of demonstrations opposing the Trump administration’s immigration raids in Los Angeles. These protests have since expanded to dozens of cities across the country, including New York, Chicago, and Atlanta. Trump’s controversial crackdown and deployment of National Guard troops and Marines have drawn widespread criticism from California leaders, who accuse the president of stoking unrest and overstepping his authority.
In a televised address Tuesday night, California Governor Gavin Newsom sharply criticized Trump’s use of military force, calling it a “brazen abuse of power.”
“That’s when the downward spiral began. He doubled down on his dangerous National Guard deployment by fanning the flames even harder, and the president – he did it on purpose,” Newsom said.
Newsom, who has filed a lawsuit against the federal government for deploying troops against his will, described the crackdown as a “military dragnet” targeting vulnerable workers like “dishwashers, gardeners, day labourers and seamstresses” rather than violent offenders.
“That’s just weakness – weakness masquerading as strength. Donald Trump’s government isn’t protecting our communities, they’re traumatising communities, and that seems to be the entire point,” Newsom said. “California will keep fighting.”
“If some of us can be snatched off the streets without a warrant, based only on suspicion or skin colour, then none of us are safe,” he added. “Authoritarian regimes begin by targeting people who are least able to defend themselves. But they do not stop there.”
Reporting from a vigil in downtown Los Angeles, Al Jazeera correspondent Teresa Bo said demonstrators reject the Trump administration’s claim that the raids target dangerous criminals.
“Many of the people we have spoken to here say that they are wrong – that they are working people who have come to this country to find a better life,” Bo reported.
“That’s why most of the people who are here are extremely angry, and they are demanding an end to the raids.”
Bo noted that protesters were also emphasizing the importance of nonviolence during demonstrations.
“This is something that we’ve been hearing over and over,” she said. “They say that the main reason they need to be peaceful is because violence gives Donald Trump an excuse to use the military, to use the National Guard on the streets of Los Angeles.”
Earlier on Tuesday, President Trump doubled down on his decision to deploy federal troops in response to the protests, dismissing growing criticism.
“Generations of army heroes did not shed their blood on distant shores only to watch our country be destroyed by invasion and third-world lawlessness here at home, like is happening in California,” Trump told US Army soldiers during a visit to Fort Bragg in North Carolina.
“As commander-in-chief, I will not let that happen. It’s never going to happen.”
