Mayor Accuses Trump, Noem Of Lying About Conditions In LA

LOS ANGELES, CA — On a day that U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem held an eventful news conference in West L.A. to discuss ongoing ICE operations in the Los Angeles area and declare "We are not going away," a federal judge later Thursday ordered President Donald Trump to return control of federalized California National Guard troops to Gov. Gavin Newsom but a federal appeals court panel later granted the administration's emergency motion to stay the ruling.

Thursday's dramatic events came as tensions sparked by ongoing immigration enforcement operations in the L.A. area remained heightened -- and with a dusk-to-dawn downtown curfew again in effect. The curfew appeared to be paying dividends by reducing confrontations with police -- though arrest numbers continued to mount.

RELATED: Appeals Court Stays Ruling Ordering Trump To Return Control Of CA National Guard To Newsom

Mayor Karen Bass and community leaders again took issue Thursday with suggestions by Trump and others that the entire city was under a siege of violence necessitating deployment of the military, including 4,000 federalized National Guard troops and 700 active-duty U.S. Marines.

"To characterize what is going on in our city as a city of mayhem is just an outright lie," Bass said at an afternoon news conference attended by dozens of local faith and community leaders.

The mayor pointed to comments made by Noem on Thursday morning that described the city as a "war zone."

"There's no one up here that sees Los Angeles like that," Bass said. "This is not all of Los Angeles. This is isolated to a few blocks in a city that is 500 square miles. And out of those 500 square miles, the protests - - and especially the protests that devolved into violence -- represent half a square mile."

Bass again repeated her assertion that protests in the city would stop immediately if federal immigration authorities discontinued enforcement raids.

"We want peace to come to our city," Bass said, adding that such an action "needs to begin in Washington, and we need to stop the raids."

Noem, however, said the enforcement operations were targeting violent criminals. During her news conference, photos of criminals detained during the Southland operations were shown on video screens.

Bass also said the raids were spreading fear in the community, preventing some people from going to work or school. She said some raids that occurred Thursday took place at "emergency rooms and homeless shelters."

Meanwhile, Noem's morning news conference also saw Sen. Alex Padilla, D-California, forcibly removed and subsequently forced to a hallway floor and placed in handcuffs -- an action widely condemned, including by Newsom calling it "outrageous, dictatorial and shameful" and by Bass labeling it "absolutely abhorrent and outrageous."

Noem was in the middle of her remarks at the West Los Angeles federal building when Padilla stepped forward, identified himself verbally and said he wanted to ask a question. At that point, federal officers in the room grabbed Padilla and pushed him out of a door and into a hallway. Padilla continued speaking loudly as he was removed from the room.

RELATED: Sen. Padilla Forcibly Removed From DHS Secretary Noem's Conference In LA

According to video from the scene, Padilla was led into a hallway, where three federal officers forced him to the ground on his stomach, and his hands were cuffed behind his back.

Thursday's drama ramped up even further in the evening when a federal judge ordered Trump to return control of the California National Guard to Newsom following a hearing in which the jurist expressed doubt about the president's claims that the civil unrest in downtown Los Angeles needed to be met with military force.

In a written ruling following the emergency court hearing in San Francisco, U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer wrote that Trump's actions on Saturday -- when he federalized the Guard troops and assumed control of the forces -- did not follow congressionally mandated procedure.

"His actions were illegal -- both exceeding the scope of his statutory authority and violating the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution," the judge wrote. "He must therefore return control of the California National Guard to the Governor of the State of California forthwith."

The hearing Thursday stemmed from a lawsuit brought late Monday by Newsom and state Attorney General Rob Bonta following Trump's escalation of military forces in the Los Angeles area.

Breyer said the issue is "the president exercising his authority, and the president is, of course, limited. That's the difference between a constitutional government and King George."

The judge indicated that Trump's deployment of 4,000 members of California's National Guard to the streets of Los Angeles -- over Newsom's strenuous objections -- was legally deficient. The judge also was dubious of Trump's insistence that the unrest in Los Angeles posed a "danger of rebellion."

The judge said Trump did not appear to have met a legal requirement that such orders must pass through the governor of the state involved. Breyer's ruling goes into effect at noon Friday.

Breyer declined to immediately rule on Newsom's request to block the call-up of 700 active-duty Marines to Los Angeles, saying any action from the bench seemed premature because the troops haven't arrived in the city.

The Trump administration then filed a notice of appeal to the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals -- and a three-judge appellate panel stayed Breyer's ruling and scheduled a hearing Tuesday.

The state National Guard will remain under federal control through the weekend.

Bass on Tuesday night implemented a nightly curfew in a one-square- mile section of downtown Los Angeles, lasting from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. -- a curfew that remained in effect Thursday.

The move appeared to be paying off, with fewer reports of unrest and property damage. Protesters continued to gather, but many retreated when the curfew took effect. Those who failed to do so faced arrest.

According to the Los Angeles Police Department, seven people were arrested for curfew violations Wednesday night and Thursday morning. There were 71 arrests for failure to disperse, two for assault with a deadly weapon on a police officer and one for resisting an officer.

A motorist was arrested late Wednesday for allegedly driving through a skirmish line of protesters and police officers near Beverly Boulevard and Western Avenue in Koreatown.

That driver led authorities on a high-speed freeway chase into the Inglewood area, where he was arrested after attempting to flee the vehicle on foot on a surface street.

The curfew applies to an area between the Golden State (5) and Harbor (110) freeways, and from the Santa Monica (10) Freeway to where the Arroyo Seco (110) Parkway and Golden State Freeway merge. That area includes Skid Row, Chinatown, and the Arts and Fashion districts.

There are "limited exceptions" to the curfew -- including for residents of the area, "people traveling to and from work and credentialed media representatives," the mayor said.

Bass said she expected the curfew to be in effect for "several days."

On the first night of the curfew -- Tuesday night into Wednesday morning -- 17 people were arrested for curfew violations. During the day Tuesday, the LAPD arrested 203 people for failure to disperse. Three people were arrested for possession of a firearm, one for assault with a deadly weapon and one for discharging a laser at an LAPD airship, police said.

Two officers were injured during Tuesday's unrest, according to the LAPD.

While most of the protesting has been concentrated near the federal Metropolitan Detention Center downtown and the nearby federal building and City Hall, smaller, scattered protests were held Wednesday at the DoubleTree Hotel in Whittier, the Westin Hotel in Pasadena and the Embassy Suites Hotel in Downey, where demonstrators believed federal Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were staying.

Protests have been occurring daily in the area since Friday, when ICE agents carried out a series of immigration enforcement raids, detaining dozens of people.

Prior to the curfew, the nightly protests often devolved into violence, with some demonstrators hurling objects or fireworks at police, who often responded by firing non-lethal weapons or tear gas.

Late Monday night, multiple stores in the downtown area were looted. A window was smashed at an Apple Store downtown during the unrest, with some items stolen and graffiti painted on the shop's windows.

An Adidas store was also hit by looters, along with a jewelry store, a pair of pharmacies, a shoe store and a marijuana dispensary. The affected stores were generally in an area on or near Broadway, near roughly Seventh and Eighth streets.

Bass condemned the looting, noting in a social media post that people who are vandalizing and burglarizing stores are unaffiliated with people legitimately protesting on behalf of immigrants.

In a round of broadcast media interviews Tuesday morning, Bass said police will take advantage of video footage to track down people who take part in looting and ensure they are "prosecuted to the full extent of the law."

Federal officials have remained adamant about continuing the immigration operations, with Trump set on carrying out his campaign pledge to conduct mass deportations of people in the country illegally. Noem said Thursday morning federal agents will continue their work in Los Angeles as long as needed, insisting they would not be deterred by protest.

Trump addressed the Los Angeles situation Wednesday night in comments at the Kennedy Center, where he and first lady Melania Trump attended the opening night performance of "Les Misérables."

"We are going to have law and order in our country," Trump said. "If I didn't act quickly on that, Los Angeles would be burning to the ground right now."

" ... These are radical left lunatics that you're dealing with, and they're tough, they're smart, they're probably paid many of them, as you know, they're professionals," he added. "When you see them chopping up concrete because the bricks got captured, they're chopping up concrete and they're using that as a weapon. That's pretty bad."

Also Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security released a new social media campaign based on the iconic "Uncle Sam" posters from World Wars I and II.

"Help your country locate and arrest illegal aliens," the department's post said. "To report criminal activity, call 866-DHS-2-ICE (866- 347-2423)."

City News Service