June 8 (UPI) — The Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department arrested one person overnight in Paramount, a city in Los Angeles County, amid ongoing protests against raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers, officials said Sunday.
The sheriff’s department confirmed the arrest by email to UPI but did not provide any further details about the arrest.
More protests have been planned in Los Angeles ahead of the arrival of National Guardsmen called up by President Donald Trump to curb the demonstrations, as Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said he might send in U.S. Marines if necessary to aid them.
“The National Guard, and Marines if need be, stand with ICE,” Hegseth said. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement to UPI late Saturday that the administration has “a zero tolerance for criminal behavior and violence,” especially violence allegedly targeted at law enforcement.
Protesters clashed with police in riot gear in Los Angeles on Saturday as outrage mounted over a series of ICE raids carried out last week across southern California.
Trump then ordered 2,000 members of the National Guard to Los Angeles, later thanking them Saturday night for their “good job” in handling the protests.
“Great job by the National Guard in Los Angeles after two days of violence, clashes and unrest,” Trump said on his Truth Social platform. “These radical left protests, by instigators and often paid troublemakers, will not be tolerated.”
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said afterward on social media that no National Guardsmen had yet arrived. “Just to be clear, the National Guard has not been deployed in the City of Los Angeles,” she said.
Trump, who pardoned mask-wearing demonstrators who rioted at the U.S. Capitol in 2021, also said protesters would not be allowed to wear masks.
Demonstrators have criticized ICE officers for also wearing masks while conducting raids. Federal law does not explicitly forbid them from wearing masks but they are required by law to clearly identify themselves with badges or patches and to state their identity in an arrest.
“Masks will not be allowed to be worn at protests. What do these people have to hide, and why?” Trump said of the protesters. “Again, thank you to the National Guard for a job well done!” The streets were quiet in Los Angeles around 7 a.m. local time, The New York Times reported.
Meanwhile, the Northern California Coalition for Just Immigration Reform said Saturday that it would be organizing a protest rally outside the California State Capitol on Monday.
“The Trump administration’s baseless deployment of the National Guard is plainly retaliation against California, a stronghold for immigrant communities, and is akin to a declaration of war on all Californians,” the ACLU’s division in southern California said in a statement.
“The only threat to safety today is the masked goon squads that the Trump administration has deployed to terrorize the communities of Los Angeles County,” the organization said.