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Lawmakers are split over who bears responsibility for the chaos in Los Angeles after President Donald Trump federalized the National Guard for the first time in 60 years.
Protests rejecting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) operations erupted in downtown LA last weekend, and the Trump administration ordered National Guardsmen and Marines to the city following days of escalating anti-ICE protests and riots.
“The riots that we are seeing in LA are a direct reflection” of sanctuary city policies, Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Colo., told Fox News Digital.
Republicans have largely condemned the violence in Los Angeles as Democrats accused the Trump administration of escalating tensions. California Gov. Gavin Newsom, considered a potential 2028 presidential candidate, has led the Democrats’ rejection of the Trump administration’s action in LA.
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“We really need to have accountability for the administration that has decided to intentionally uncork this chaos,” Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., also rumored to harbor 2028 presidential ambitions, told Fox News Digital.
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“The Trump administration owns this,” Ocasio-Cortez added. “The Trump administration, Donald Trump and [White House advisor] Stephen Miller know that when you violently raid elementary schools, Home Depots and start ripping kids out of people’s arms, it’s going to create and stoke social chaos.”
“This administration is intentionally creating chaos,” she said.
Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., added fuel to Democrats’ fire on Thursday when he was forcibly removed and handcuffed by authorities after trying to confront Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem at a press conference in LA. Republicans once again condemned Padilla, while Democrats raged against the Trump administration.
Rep. Nancy Mace, R-S.C., told Fox News Digital that Democrats’ anti-ICE rhetoric is “dangerous.”
“It’s going to get somebody killed,” Mace said.
The last time a sitting U.S. president used his federal authority to deploy the National Guard without the governor’s request was during the civil rights march in Alabama from Selma to Montgomery in 1965.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., the only Palestinian American in Congress who was censured last year for her criticism of U.S. policy on the war in Gaza, said the protests are not “anti-ICE.”
“It’s not anti-ICE, it’s pro-constitutional rights, pro-due process, pro-making sure that people are following the law,” Tlaib told Fox News Digital, adding, “The immigrant communities have been saying since 2003 that ICE has been rogue, and it has not followed people’s constitutional rights.”
A federal judge on Thursday ruled that Trump must return control of the California National Guard to Newsom, but an appeals court quickly reversed that decision.
The White House said the order “puts our brave federal officials in danger.”
“The district court has no authority to usurp the President’s authority as Commander in Chief. The President exercised his lawful authority to mobilize the National Guard to protect federal buildings and personnel in Gavin Newsom’s lawless Los Angeles,” said White House spokesperson Anna Kelly.
Fox News Digital’s Jasmine Baehr contributed to this report.
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