Nationwide — Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass has imposed a curfew on a one-square-mile section of downtown L.A. in response to escalating protests against President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown. The curfew, announced Tuesday, runs from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. and may remain in effect for several days. KTLA reports that Bass made the announcement during a press conference, urging people to stay out of the affected area unless they live or work there.
“Last night alone, 23 businesses were looted,” Bass said. “Graffiti and property damage are widespread downtown. Law enforcement will arrest anyone who violates the curfew, and they will be prosecuted.” She emphasized that while the unrest is serious, it’s confined to a small area of a city that spans over 500 square miles. “This is not a city-wide crisis,” she added, pushing back against viral images suggesting otherwise.
The curfew follows five straight nights of demonstrations, sparked by aggressive ICE raids across Southern California. The Trump administration’s move to deploy hundreds of National Guard troops and Marines has provoked outrage from state and local leaders. Demonstrations have since spread to other major cities, including New York, Chicago, and Atlanta.
California Governor Gavin Newsom condemned Trump’s military escalation as a “brazen abuse of power” during a Tuesday night address. Newsom criticized the president for targeting working-class immigrants like “dishwashers, gardeners, and seamstresses,” instead of violent offenders, and accused the administration of deliberately traumatizing communities. He has filed a lawsuit attempting to block the troop deployments.
“If any of us can be seized off the street based solely on suspicion or skin color, then none of us are truly free,” Newsom warned. “Authoritarian regimes always start with the most vulnerable—but they never stop there.”
At a Los Angeles vigil, Al Jazeera’s Teresa Bo reported that protesters reject Trump’s portrayal of the raids as targeting violent criminals. “These are working people seeking a better life,” she said. Activists at the scene repeatedly called for nonviolence, stressing that any unrest would give Trump justification to further militarize the streets.