'Multiple groups continue to congregate': LA police make 'mass arrests' as protesters defy overnight curfew

The Los Angeles Police Department said late Tuesday it had begun making “mass arrests” after protest groups continued to gather in areas under curfew.

“Multiple groups continue to congregate on 1st St between Spring and Alameda,” the LAPD wrote on X.

“Those groups are being addressed and mass arrests are being initiated,” it added.

According to The Guardian report, Mayor Karen Bass announced a 10-hour curfew in downtown Los Angeles, where protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) have persisted. The curfew, she said, would run from 8 pm to 6 am.

The LAPD said it arrested over 300 protesters in the past two days, added the report.

This crackdown followed California Governor Gavin Newsom’s emergency request to block the Trump administration from deploying military forces alongside ICE agents in raids across Los Angeles.

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In response to ongoing protests against aggressive ICE operations targeting garment workers, day laborers, car washes, and immigrant communities, Trump ordered the deployment of 4,000 National Guard members and 700 Marines to the city.

The Marines and National Guard have no arrest powers and are tasked solely with protecting federal buildings.

On Monday, Newsom and California Attorney General Rob Bonta alleged in a lawsuit that Trump’s takeover of the state National Guard, against the governor’s wishes, was unlawful.

On Tuesday, a federal judge declined to immediately rule on California’s request for a restraining order and scheduled a hearing for Thursday.

In a speech, Newsom condemned Trump for “indiscriminately targeting hard-working immigrant families” and militarising the streets of LA.

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He recounted how ICE agents recently grabbed people outside a Home Depot, detained a nine-months-pregnant US citizen, sent unmarked cars to schools, and arrested gardeners and seamstresses.

“That’s just weakness masquerading as strength,” The Guardian quoted the governor as saying.

“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. Authoritarian regimes begin by targeting people who are least able to defend themselves. But they do not stop there,” he added.

Newsom warned that Trump would not stop at California and encouraged people to stand up to the president.

“What Donald Trump wants most is your fealty, your silence, to be complicit in this moment. Do not give in to him,” he said.

Meanwhile, Trump on Tuesday gave a sharply partisan military speech, calling LA protesters “animals” and vowing to “liberate Los Angeles.”

At a Fort Bragg event marking the US Army’s 250th anniversary, he baselessly claimed the protests were led by paid “rioters bearing foreign flags” aiming to fuel a “foreign invasion,” reported The Guardian.

He also repeated a conspiracy theory about pallets of bricks left for protesters to attack police.

That night, hundreds of troops were deployed to LA despite objections from Democrats and local law enforcement.

Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said the military could stay for 60 days at a cost of at least $134 million.

Trump said troops would remain until there was “no danger” and hinted at invoking the Insurrection Act, saying, “If there’s an insurrection, I would certainly invoke it. We’ll see.”

With inputs from agencies