California Gov. Gavin Newsom formally requested that the Trump administration pull National Guard troops out of Los Angeles, said he will file a lawsuit, and dared Trump’s border czar to arrest him.
In a tense moment on Sunday, Newsom also called on the Trump administration’s border czar, Tom Homan, to arrest him in the midst of riots and protests in Los Angeles after Homan suggested that “anybody” could face charges for knowingly harboring an illegal immigrant.
Homan has previously warned that local officials could face federal charges if they attempt to impede Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from detaining illegal immigrants. At least two judges—one in Minneapolis and one in New Mexico—have been arrested on federal charges in response to allegations they are harboring or concealing an illegal alien.
“Why doesn’t he do that? He knows where to find me,” Newsom said.
A visibly angry Newsom then made reference to illegal immigrants who are being detained in California.
“Let your hands off these poor people,” he said. “They’re just trying to live their lives, man. Trying to live their lives, paying their taxes. Been here for 10 years. The fear, the horror.”
Hours later, Homan made an appearance on Fox News during a Monday morning interview and was asked to respond to Newsom’s comments.
“What we discussed was, for those protesters that cross the line, I’ve said it many times, you can protest, you get your First Amendment rights,” Homan told Fox News. “But when you cross that line, you put hands on an ICE officer, or you destroy property, I’d say that you’re impeding law enforcement or you’re knowingly harboring or concealing an illegal alien. That’s a crime. And the Trump administration is not going to tolerate it. You cross that line, we’re gonna seek prosecution through the Department of Justice.”
With regard to talk of Homan arresting Newsom, the border czar clarified that he was answering a hypothetical question by a reporter.
“The reporter asked me, ‘Well, could Gov. Newsom or Mayor Bass be arrested?’ I said, ‘Well, no one’s above the law. If they cross the line or commit a crime, absolutely they can.’ So there was no discussion about arresting Newsom,” he said.
Homan also sought to clarify what the riots are about.
“I keep hearing ‘ICE raids, ICE raids.’ What happened, how this riot started, is that ICE was serving a series of criminal warrants at a business being investigated for money laundering, … fraud, and serious violations [including] sending money to criminal cartels in Colombia and Mexico, and funding criminal cartel activities in the United States,” he said.
Amid the unrest, Trump invoked a legal provision allowing him to deploy federal service members when there is “a rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States.” U.S. military officials later confirmed that National Guard members arrived in the city over the weekend, and Trump said in a memorandum Saturday that he had authorized 2,000 members to deploy if needed.
The Guard was deployed specifically to protect federal buildings, including the downtown detention center where protesters concentrated.
Newsom was critical of the decision, saying that it was the first time in decades that a state’s National Guard was activated without a request from its governor.
Both Homan and Trump have said, however, that Newsom was slow-walking his state’s response to the violence in Los Angeles.
Newsom “waited two days of that city burning and people getting hurt, officers getting assaulted, before he made any declaration of an unlawful assembly,” Homan told Fox News. “He’s late to the game. President Trump isn’t late to the game.”
In a post on Monday morning, Trump wrote that a crackdown is needed and that people concealing their identities with masks should be arrested.
“Looking really bad in L.A. BRING IN THE TROOPS!!!” he wrote on Truth Social just after midnight.
“ARREST THE PEOPLE IN FACE MASKS, NOW!” he wrote, adding in another post: “Don’t let these thugs get away with this.”
Several dozen people were arrested throughout the weekend of the protest. One was detained Sunday for throwing a Molotov cocktail at police, and another for ramming a motorcycle into a line of officers.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
