White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has defended Donald Trump's handling of unrest and tension in Los Angeles. But LA's mayor says the White House "provoked" the unrest with a "chaotic escalation". Follow the latest below.
Wednesday 11 June 2025 21:10, UK
As we reported earlier, protests are no longer confined to Los Angeles.
These pictures show scenes overnight in Atlanta, on the other side of the country.
Major General Scott Sherman, the man charged with leading the controversial National Guard deployment, says troops cannot arrest individuals.
But they are allowed to temporarily detain people until police arrive to arrest them.
"These soldiers do not conduct law enforcement operations like arrests or search and seizure," he said.
"They are strictly used for the protection of the federal personnel as they conduct their operations and to protect them to allow them to do their federal mission."
The city is expecting 4,000 National Guard troops - the country's reserve force - plus another 700 marines.
Sherman said the marines are trained to use weapons for personal protection, but rifles will not be loaded with live ammunition.
As we reported in our 20.13 post, marines aren't going to be in LA today, but will be "soon".
A bit more from LA's mayor now, who's been speaking at a news conference (see 19.47).
Karen Bass says the emergency declaration she signed yesterday to impose a curfew on a small area of the city "does not have a time limit".
"Curfews will go on as long as they are needed," she said.
It depends, in part, on the government's response.
"If raids continue, if soldiers are marching up and down the street, I imagine the curfew will continue," she added.
She hopes the curfew shows LA residents they are "serious", and warned more may be arrested for their role in the disorder so far.
But she's also hoping there will be no further arrests tonight.
As we've been reporting this week, Donald Trump's decision to dispatch National Guard troops despite local objections has proved controversial.
But Trump has only doubled down, and now 700 US marines are undergoing training near LA.
They'll be deployed in the city soon, a military official said, though not today.
A week ago, everything was peaceful in LA, the city's mayor has just said.
Speaking at a news conference with a group of regional mayors, Karen Bass singled out the White House for "provoking" the disorder seen on the streets there since Friday.
On that day, immigration raids started in the city, which Bass said is "the cause of the problems".
"When you raid Home Depots and work places, when you run armoured caravans through streets... you're not trying to keep anyone safe, you're trying to cause panic," she said.
"I posit that maybe we are part of a national experiment to determine how far the federal government can go in reaching in and taking power from governors, local jurisdictions... and frankly leaving our residents in fear."
Donald Trump said he deployed the National Guard - unusually, without the local governor's approval - for the safety of residents.
Bass criticised that move as a "drastic and chaotic escalation", and called for immigration raids to end.
"These aren't criminals the administration is allegedly targeting... these are mothers and fathers, restaurant workers," she added.
A US citizen, who is due to give birth within days, was "hospitalised" after being detained, Bass said, as she gave examples of the dangers of the raids.
We reported last night that LA's mayor announced a curfew covering an area downtown.
That's now come into effect for a one-square-mile section in an attempt to prevent vandalism and looting.
Karen Bass emphasised the area, where people will be subject to arrest, is a small fraction of the city's nearly 500-square-mile landscape.
"This is not citywide civil unrest," she said.
ICE, the immigration agency at the heart of tensions across the US, is preparing to deploy special teams to five Democrat-run cities.
That's according to our US partner network NBC News, which reports tactical units - known as Special Response Teams (SRT) - will head to Seattle, Chicago, Philadelphia, northern Virginia and New York.
These are teams used in operations considered to be high-risk.
It's not clear if raids in those cities will begin immediately, but all SRT units in those areas have been told to be ready to deploy, NBC said.
Demonstrators have marched in major cities across the US, with anger towards ICE immigration raids not confined to southern California.
Last night, protests were held in New York, Atlanta and Chicago, with hundreds chanting anti-ICE slogans and some, at times, clashing with police.
Texas governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, said he plans to deploy the National Guard today ahead of protests in San Antonio and other parts.
He's the first governor to activate the reserve force.
Police in Austin, Texas, fired tear gas and pepper balls on Monday.
We've mapped out where demonstrations have been planned since Monday - though not all locations are shown - to give you an idea of the scale of the protests.
We've just heard from Dan O'Brien, the mayor of Culver City in Los Angeles.
He's accused Donald Trump's administration of "stoking fear and unrest", after deploying the National Guard (the country's reserve force) in response to riots in LA.
He also urged communities to stand with immigrant populations.
Many are too scared to leave their homes, he said, and some businesses have closed.
Watch below: Martha Kelner reports from LA as curfew enforced on Tuesday
For context: It's unusual for a president to deploy the National Guard in a state, particularly without the local governor's backing.
Trump cited Title 10 of the US Code - a federal law outlining the role of the armed forces - in his order to send in troops.
Title 10 is for if the US is invaded, there is a "rebellion or danger of rebellion", or the president is "unable with the regular forces to execute the laws of the United States".
Legal experts from both left and right-leaning advocacy groups have cast doubt on Trump's use of Title 10, describing it as inflammatory and reckless, especially without local support.
As expected, the White House press secretary has come out swinging against the disorder we've seen in LA.
Describing scenes as "shameful" - and again showing pictures from riots - she blamed the Democrat state governor and the LA city mayor.
"These criminals injured police," she said, referring to rioters, insisting Donald Trump will "never allow mob rule to prevail" in the US.
That's despite - as many critics have pointed out - the president pardoning insurrectionists who were part of the January 6 Capitol Hill riots back in 2021 at the end of his first presidency, during which police officers were targeted.
Here's a brief breakdown of what Karoline Leavitt said about the protests:
