Summary

Media caption,

Watch: 'It's important for me' - LA protesters on why they’re taking the streets

  1. Protesters are 'insurrectionists' and 'animals' - Trumppublished at 17:53 British Summer Time 10 June

    More now from US President Donald Trump, who says some people in the Los Angeles protests are "insurrectionists".

    "We have people they look in your face and they spit right in your face, they're animals, and these are paid insurrectionists, these are paid troublemakers, they're agitators, they're paid," he tells reporters in the Oval Office.

    He does not provide evidence for that claim.

    The president adds that there are "some very bad people" in custody.

    Asked whether he might invoke the Insurrection Act - an 1807 law that would allow the president to nationally deploy the military - Trump says: "If there's an insurrection, I would certainly invoke it. We'll see."

    Media caption,

    Trump says he would invoke Insurrection Act in LA

  2. LA would burn without troop deployment -Trumppublished at 17:49 British Summer Time 10 June

    We can bring you continuing comments from Trump now as he has been speaking at the White House along with some of his cabinet secretaries.

    He says if anti-immigration enforcement protests continue in cities other than LA, they too will be met with "equal or greater force."

    The National Guard will be deployed in California for as long as necessary, Trump says.

    He then repeats without evidence claims that the protesters are "paid insurrectionists", calling them "troublemakers". He also repeats earlier claims that Los Angeles would have "burned" if he hadn't sent the National Guard in.

  3. Trump blasts protesterspublished at 17:43 British Summer Time 10 June

    Trump in Oval OfficeImage source, Reuters

    Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump blasts protesters in Los Angeles, claiming they are "paid insurrectionists".

    He says deploying National Guard troops was necessary to maintain order.

    The White House has not presented any evidence that anti-ICE protesters in LA have been paid to demonstrate.

  4. How many troops are currently in LA?published at 17:23 British Summer Time 10 June

    A defence official has told the BBC's US partner CBS that approximately 2,100 members of the California National Guard are now on location in the greater Los Angeles area, operating in Los Angeles, Paramount, and Compton, California.

    There are also 700 Marines from 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines who have made it to the greater Los Angeles area, according to that official.

    Marines are "are in greater LA area - staging to see where they are needed", a spokeswoman from the US Northern Command tells the BBC.

    "You may not see them in area yet," she says, adding that the military won't divulge their location due to security.

    BBC reporters in Los Angeles have yet to see any deployed Marines on the ground.

    An additional 2,000 National Guard troops have been authorised but haven't yet arrived.

  5. More military sent to LA as controversy over Trump's response rumbles onpublished at 17:17 British Summer Time 10 June

    There are now more than 2,100 National Guard troops deployed in Los Angeles as the legal battle over the Trump's administration's response to protests against ICE raids in the city rages on.

    We're expecting to hear soon from President Trump and LA Mayor Karen Bass, which we'll be covering here live. Stick with us.

  6. Controversial military deployments in LA after days of unrestpublished at 13:12 British Summer Time 10 June

    Protestors stand in a road in Los Angeles on Monday night. Smoke is seen in the distance.Image source, Reuters
    Image caption,

    Protests continued in Los Angeles on Monday night

    It's still the early hours in Los Angeles, so let's bring you up to speed on what we know so far:

    • Trump said on Monday that his decision to send in the National Guard had stopped LA from "burning down"
    • But Newsom has objected to their deployment and accused the president of stoking the unrest
    • Demonstrators took to LA's streets on Friday after it emerged Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers were raiding areas with a large Latino population - and the protests have continued for four days
    • Police officers on Monday evening fired stun grenades and gas canisters to disperse hundreds of demonstrators outside a federal detention centre holding undocumented immigrants
    • Elsewhere yesterday, new rallies started up across the country against the immigration authorities - including in Tampa, Florida, Boston in Massachusetts and Houston, Texas

    We'll be pausing or live coverage for now, but there's a full write up of the situation on the ground in LA here.

    Or for those of you interested, our colleagues at BBC Verify have been looking into misinformation about the unrest on their dedicated live page.

  7. AI chatbots mislead users querying LA National Guard photospublished at 12:57 British Summer Time 10 June

    Shayan Sardarizadeh
    BBC Verify senior journalist

    AI chatbots are being increasingly used as fact-checking tools, with social media users asking them whether something they have seen online is true or not.

    However, incorrect answers from two chatbots are misleading users about the origin of two news photos showing National Guard troops sent to Los Angeles sleeping on bare floors.

    California Governor Gavin Newsom posted two images on Monday which he claimed showed the troops “being, external forced to sleep on the floor, piled on top of one another”, external.

    People who used ChatGPT, designed by OpenAI, to authenticate the pictures were told they dated back to Joe Biden’s withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan in August 2021 - referring to the metadata on the images, external.

    Grok, owned by xAI, gave a similar answer to multiple users enquiring about the images. It said claims the images were linked to the recent unrest in LA “lack, external credible support”, external.

    Grok's post on XImage source, X

    When we asked ChatGPT where the pictures came from it told us they were most likely captured during the “National Guard deployment to Washington DC in January 2021”.

    The reality is the two images were first published by the San Francisco Chronicle, external on Monday. The paper said it had exclusively obtained the images, which it said showed National Guard troops sleeping on the floor of “one or more” of the federal buildings in Los Angeles that they'd been sent by the Trump administration to protect.

    BBC Verify ran a reverse image search on both photos and found no earlier copy of them online before 9 June.

  8. Trump to address soldiers at North Carolina military basepublished at 12:43 British Summer Time 10 June

    Donald TrumpImage source, Getty Images

    President Donald Trump will visit the Fort Bragg military base in North Carolina later today, where he is expected to deliver remarks.

    This comes as his administration announced it would deploy 700 Marines to Los Angeles in response to street protests that started on Friday and continued over the weekend. National Guard troops have already been deployed to the city.

    Fort Bragg is home to some 50,000 active-duty soldiers.

    Trump's visit comes ahead of a major parade in Washington to celebrate the US Army's 250th anniversary on Saturday.

  9. Marines could start arriving later today - reportspublished at 12:02 British Summer Time 10 June

    California National Guard troops lined upImage source, EPA
    Image caption,

    National Guard troops have already been deployed to Los Angeles

    As we've been reporting today, US President Donald Trump has deployed 700 Marines to Los Angeles following several days of protests in the city.

    The Marines could start arriving as soon as today, a defence official told the BBC's US partner CBS News.

    They will "seamlessly integrate with National Guard troops who are "protecting federal personnel and federal property in the greater Los Angeles area", according to a statement from the US Northern Command.

    California Governor Gavin Newsom suggested on Monday that he might take legal action over the planned use of Marines, calling it "illegal" and a "blatant abuse of power".

    Like the National Guard troops, Marines are prohibited from conducting law enforcement activity, such as making arrests.

    Having the Marines deployed to protect federal buildings allows them to be used without invoking the Insurrection Act, according to US media reports citing US officials.

    The Insurrection Act of 1807 allows the president to use active-duty military personnel to perform law-enforcement duties inside the US. But it's used very rarely.

    One US official told CNN that Marines have not been mobilised within the US, like they are in California, since the 1992 riots in Los Angeles.

  10. LA council member says Trump responsible for 'escalation'published at 11:33 British Summer Time 10 June

    A Los Angeles City Council member tells BBC World Service's Newsday that US President Donald Trump's actions have been "truly despicable".

    Hugo Soto-Martinez's constituency covers the Paramount area, where immigration officials carried out raids.

    “Much of the escalation has been bought on by Trump’s tactics,” Soto-Martinez says.

    He says he doesn’t buy claims that the National Guard and Marines have been bought in to keep law enforcement officials safe.

    “We’ve had protests in the city, we know how to handle situations,” he says. “We didn’t feel overwhelmed…[Trump] is simply using this situation to bring terror and fear and division.”

    Soto-Martinez adds that the Latino community in Paramount are terrified: “This is beyond the pale, I don’t even have words for his actions.”

  11. US official says law enforcement will double efforts on Tuesdaypublished at 11:07 British Summer Time 10 June

    Kristi Noem wearing a blue shirtImage source, EPA

    US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem called Los Angeles a "city of criminals", during an interview with Fox News on Monday night.

    Noem said that immigration officials in LA have been going after "the worst of the worst", targeting those that have committed serious crimes.

    She added that law enforcement agencies will look to double their efforts on Monday.

    "We conducted more operations today than we did the day before. And tomorrow, we're going to double those efforts again," she said.

  12. Watch: US cities follow LA's protestspublished at 10:37 British Summer Time 10 June

    A number of US cities joined Los Angeles in protests on Monday.

    Protesters were filmed in cities including Boston, Houston and Philadelphia, as demonstrations entered their fourth day in LA.

  13. How did we get here?published at 10:14 British Summer Time 10 June

    Dozens of people have been arrested in Los Angeles after immigration raids in the city triggered four days of protests.

    The demonstrations began on Friday after it emerged Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers were carrying out raids in parts of LA with a large Latino population.

    The BBC's US partner CBS News reported that operations took place in the Westlake district and in Paramount, south of LA, where the population is more than 82% Hispanic.

    ICE later told CBS that 44 unauthorised immigrants were arrested in a single operation at a job site on Friday. Another 77 were also arrested in the greater LA area on the same day.

    Demonstrations followed.

    Media caption,

    On Sunday, the National Guard clashed with people protesting against immigration raids in Los Angeles

    While they started out peaceful, five self-driving vehicles were set on fire, protesters shut down a major freeway, and there were reports of looting in parts of America's second largest city.

    US President Donald Trump has since deployed 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 Marines to the city.

  14. LA has the resources to deal with protests, district attorney sayspublished at 09:55 British Summer Time 10 June

    “The political talking is not helpful at all,” Los Angeles district attorney Nathan Hochman tells BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

    “We’re dealing with a situation where we have thousands of people who are legitimately going to voice their protest over the policies the federal government is involved with,” he says, “and that’s fine".

    But, he goes on to say, there are “individuals who have gone beyond the lines of protected speech".

    He tells the BBC that LA authorities “do not need the additional forces that the National Guard and Marines present,” and believes it hasn’t reached the point where the unrest is beyond the means of local law enforcement.

    Hochman says he won't get involved in the debate between President Donald Trump and California Governor Gavin Newsom but, he says, “we believe we have the resources right now to deal with the situation.”

  15. Protests in LA have largely died down, US media reportspublished at 09:35 British Summer Time 10 June

    Protestors on the street at nightImage source, Reuters

    With it now past midnight in Los Angeles, US media has been reporting the protests have largely died down for the night.

    The Los Angeles Times says the protests had dispersed by 23:00 local time and, as we've been reporting, says Monday's protests were much calmer than those on the day before.

    Meanwhile the New York Times reports around an hour ago that, while police are still seeing some flashpoints across the city, the protests have been much more subdued.

  16. How many troops have been sent to LA?published at 09:19 British Summer Time 10 June

    The California National Guard protects the Federal Building during protests sparked by immigration raids in Los AngelesImage source, EPA

    US President Donald Trump has ordered the deployment of the National Guard - and now Marines - to Los Angeles, in response to the protests.

    Let's take a look at the numbers:

    • 4,000 National Guard troops have been mobilised since the beginning of the protests. Nearly 2,000 members are currently operating in the city, and on Monday Trump called up another 2,000 troops
    • More than 700 Marines based in California have also been mobilised, in an order from Trump announced on Monday. They could arrive as early as Tuesday evening
    • California Governor Gavin Newsom also announced on Monday that an additional 800 state and local police officers would be deployed, to help the LA Police Department's response to protestors.

    Newsom said he would take legal action against the deployment of troops, and called Trump's activation of Marines in LA a "deranged fantasy".

  17. Prospect of Marines on the streets sends shivers through communitiespublished at 09:00 British Summer Time 10 June

    Peter Bowes
    North America correspondent in Los Angeles

    It's generally been much calmer in Los Angeles compared to the weekend.

    A growing number of people were on the streets on Monday as the day went on, but we didn't see the violence or the opportunistic vandals that we saw towards the end of the day on Sunday.

    But there is still tension around the city, especially with the news that 700 active duty Marines are being deployed, possibly in the next few hours.

    It seems the role of the Marines and the National Guard troops will be to protect federal property and personnel, such as the immigration agents involved in the raids on Friday that started all this.

    This is an escalation.

    The prospect of the Marines on the streets of Los Angeles, which is a highly unusual situation, has sent shivers through many communities across this sprawling city.

  18. What is ICE?published at 08:48 British Summer Time 10 June

    Demonstrations began in Los Angeles on Friday after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids in the city.

    ICE is the federal agency that identifies people in the US illegally and carries out arrests and deportations.

    Donald Trump returned to power in January, promising mass deportations of undocumented immigrants. Since then, arrests have increased.

    Data from CBS, the BBC's US partner, shows ICE arrests during Trump's second term have now passed 100,000.

    On Monday, new rallies started up across the US against the immigration authorities - from Tampa, Florida to Boston, Massachusetts to Houston, Texas.

  19. No plans to arrest California governor, Trump's border tsar sayspublished at 08:29 British Summer Time 10 June

    US President Donald Trump's "border tsar" Tom Homan says there are no plans to arrest California Governor Gavin Newsom.

    Earlier, Homan had warned that any state official that hinders federal immigration enforcement could face obstruction of justice charges.

    Newsom responded on social media, writing "Trump’s border czar is threatening to arrest me for speaking out. Come and get me, tough guy."

    Asked on CNN on Monday night whether Newsom had done anything to warrant an arrest, Homan said "not at this time. Absolutely not."

    Border czar Tom Homan speaks to reporters outside the West Wing of the White House in WashingtonImage source, Reuters
  20. LA mayor: 'Stop the raids'published at 08:05 British Summer Time 10 June

    Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass addresses the media during a press conference at the City of Los Angeles Emergency Operation CenterImage source, EPA

    Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has urged officials to "stop the raids", in a post on X.

    As a reminder, protests kicked off in LA on Friday after it emerged Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers were carrying out raids across the city.

    "There is a real fear in Los Angeles right now. Parents, workers, grandparents, young people scared to go about their daily lives," Bass writes.

    "We are a city of immigrants. Washington is attacking our people, our neighbourhoods and our economy," she adds.