As he manages a continuing power struggle with the federal government and supervises clashes between law enforcement officers and protesters in response to immigration raids throughout Los Angeles, California Governor Gavin Newsom resisted threats of arrest from Trump administration officials.
Despite criticism from Democratic leaders who have warned that immigration operations and the presence of federal agents in the city could intensify protests, Trump’s “border czar,” Tom Homan, issued a warning on Saturday that these actions would continue.
However, he noted that neither Newsom nor Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass had yet “crossed the line.” He threatened to arrest anyone who interfered with the immigration enforcement attempt.
“I’ll say about anybody,” Homan stated. “You cross that line, it’s a felony to knowingly harbor and conceal an illegal alien. It’s a felony to impede law enforcement doing their job.”
“He’s a tough guy. Why doesn’t he do that? He knows where to find me,” Newsom stated. “That kind of bloviating is exhausting. So, Tom, arrest me. Let’s go.”
Bass, on the other hand, brushed off Homan’s warning as superfluous and emphasized on Sunday that although she disagreed with the National Guard’s choice to send troops, she had no interest in fighting the federal government.
“He had absolutely positively no reason to even say that,” Bass stated. “I spoke to him last night. He understands that I am the mayor of the city; the last thing in the world I’m going to do is get into a brawl with the federal government. So that just made no sense. There was no reason for that comment.”
Speaking to reporters on Sunday, Trump reiterated Homan’s warning, saying that “officials who stand in the way of law and order” will “face judges.”
However, Newsom claimed on Sunday that Trump had not voiced any worries in a phone call following the commencement of protests on Friday regarding his capacity to control the escalating demonstration in Los Angeles or the possibility of federalizing National Guard personnel.
“We talked for almost 20 minutes, and he barely — this issue never came up,” Newsom stated. “We had a very decent conversation.”
Trump’s decision to approve the deployment of at least 2,000 National Guard troops in response to the protests has drawn harsh criticism from Newsom and Bass, who contend that the move will further exacerbate tensions in the city already heightened by the extensive immigration operations.
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Newsom wrote to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, asking him to revoke Trump’s federalization order for the troops in Los Angeles County “and return them to my command.”
“In dynamic and fluid situations such as the one in Los Angeles, State and local authorities are the most appropriate ones to evaluate the need for resources and safeguard life and property,” Newsom stated.
Trump’s second term has been marked by the administration’s threats to arrest elected politicians, especially in the wake of Ras Baraka’s high-profile arrest outside an ICE detention facility in New Jersey.
The Justice Department prosecuted Democratic Representative LaMonica McIver, another elected official alongside Baraka, with two counts of assaulting, resisting, and obstructing law enforcement personnel in connection with the incident, but the charges were withdrawn.
