Pentagon deploys 2,700 troops as ICE raids trigger First Amendment protests

ICE conducted four major enforcement operations across Los Angeles on Jun. 6, 2025, arresting 44 people at Fashion District warehouses, Home Depot stores, and other locations, immediately triggering protests when crowds tried to block federal vehicles and demand detainee releases.

Protests escalated over five days from Jun. 6-10, 2025, spreading from Paramount to Compton to downtown LA, with demonstrators blocking Highway 101, vandalizing federal buildings, burning six Waymo autonomous vehicles, and confronting Border Patrol agents with Molotov cocktails and commercial-grade fireworks.

President Trump deployed 2,000 National Guard troops on Jun. 8 using Title 10 authority without Governor Newsom's consent, marking the first federal activation of state Guard units against governor wishes since Alabama civil rights enforcement in 1965.

Trump added 700 Marines on Jun. 10 to assist National Guard forces under Joint Task Force 51, with active-duty military from Twentynine Palms arriving to protect ICE operations while Mayor Karen Bass and Governor Newsom filed constitutional lawsuits challenging unprecedented deployment.

Senior U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer ruled Trump's federalization illegal and ordered control returned to California by midday Jun. 13, but Ninth Circuit immediately blocked the order giving Trump one week to appeal, creating constitutional crisis over state sovereignty.

Protest numbers exploded from 250 demonstrators pre-deployment to 3,000+ post-deployment, contradicting federal justifications that military presence would restore order while taxpayers paid $134 million for operations that inflamed rather than calmed tensions.

By Jun. 20, at least 851 people had been arrested across LA area since protests began, with nearly half taken into LAPD custody on charges ranging from failure to disperse and throwing objects at officers to looting, arson, and assaulting federal agents with deadly weapons.