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Texas Governor to Deploy National Guard as Anti-ICE Protests Spread

Move comes ahead of a planned protest in San Antonio

People staging a rally in Austin, Texas. Photo: Brandon Bell/Getty Images

People staging a rally in Austin, Texas. Photo: Brandon Bell/Getty Images

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said he would deploy the National Guard across parts of the state as anti-ICE protests that have gripped Los Angeles since Friday spread across the country.

“Peaceful protest is legal. Harming a person or property is illegal & will lead to arrest. @TexasGuard will use every tool & strategy to help law enforcement maintain order,” Abbott wrote in a post on X.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott speaking.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott Photo: Alex Brandon/Associated Press

The move came ahead of a planned protest in San Antonio expected Wednesday, two days after protesters in Austin were met with tear gas and pepper spray projectiles near the state capitol.

After days of unrest in Los Angeles over President Trump’s immigration policies, protests spread to San Francisco, with thousands of people taking to the streets and hundreds of arrests.

Local organizers in several other cities including New York, Las Vegas, Seattle and Minneapolis said they were planning protests for Wednesday.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass imposed a curfew for parts of the city on Tuesday evening, which she expects to last several days. Running from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. local time, it covers roughly a square mile of downtown.

Los Angeles Police Department Chief Jim McDonnell said arrests have risen in the city each day since Saturday, peaking at nearly 200 on Tuesday. He described it as “a concerning escalation” involving “unlawful and dangerous behavior.”

Bass, who has strongly criticized Trump’s decision to deploy National Guardsmen and Marines in the city, said the curfew was a necessary measure to protect lives and safeguard property following “several consecutive days of growing unrest.”

After the curfew went into effect, the LAPD said on X that groups had continued to congregate in the curfew zone and that “mass arrests are being initiated.”

President Trump derided the protesters in a speech on Tuesday. Speaking in front of uniformed soldiers at Fort Bragg, the president called those involved in the protests “animals” and “professional agitators.”

California Gov. Gavin Newsom has clashed with Trump over the deployment of federal troops in the state, which he has said are unconstitutional and authoritarian.

 

Law-enforcement officers in riot gear clashing with protesters.
Law enforcement clashing with demonstrators in Compton in Los Angeles County during the weekend. Photo: ringo chiu/Agence France-Presse/Getty Images

 

Trump has taken several swipes at Newsom, a Democrat, describing him as incompetent and calling for his arrest.

“If our troops didn’t go into Los Angeles, it would be burning to the ground right now, just like so much of their housing burned to the ground,” he wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform Wednesday.

Abbott, a Republican, has broadly backed Trump’s immigration and border-security policies.

Write to Gareth Vipers at gareth.vipers@wsj.com

Author: Gareth Vipers

Source: WSJ:

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