What to Know
- Vice President Vance will visit Los Angeles Friday to meet with federal law enforcement authorities.
- The visit comes a day after a three-judge panel issued a decision that, for now, allowed President Trump to keep control of National Guard troops he deployed to Los Angeles
- Immigration enforcement operations reported around Southern California sparked days of protests this month in Los Angeles and other communities.
Vice President J.D. Vance on Friday will visit Los Angeles, the epicenter of the White House‘s immigration enforcement actions, to meet with federal law enforcement, his office announced.
In a statement, the White House said Vance will tour a multi-agency federal joint operations center and a federal mobile command center. He also will meet with leadership and Marines, who were activated by the Trump administration in response to immigration protests in the area, and deliver brief remarks.
Details about when the vice president will arrive in Southern California were not immediately available.
The visit comes a day after a three-judge panel issued a decision that, for now, allowed President Trump to keep control of National Guard troops he deployed to Los Angeles following protests over immigration raids. The decision halts a lower court judge’s order that found the administration acted illegally when it activated the National Guard over opposition from Gov. Newsom.
The governor typically activates the National Guard at the request of local authorities, but the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel, comprised of two Trump appointees and one Biden appointee, unanimously concluded it was likely Trump lawfully exercised his authority in federalizing command of the Guard.
The Fontana Police Department says the arrest was part of an ongoing criminal investigation when they were confronted by a crowd of people mistaking them for immigration agents. Amber Frias reports for the NBC4 News at 6 p.m. on June 19, 2025.
The panel said president don’t have unfettered power to command a state National Guard, but agreed the administration presented enough evidence to defend its rationale for doing so, citing violent acts by protesters. The ruling means control of the California National Guard will stay under federal command as the lawsuit filed earlier by California continues to unfold.
The troops were activated after unrest over immigration enforcement activity and a protest in the southern LA County community of Paramount that turned violent June 7. Guard members arrived the next morning and have primarily been stationed outside federal property, like the federal detention center in downtown Los Angeles, with local law enforcement responding to unrest in the area that led to hundreds of arrests.
A limited weeklong curfew declared for part of downtown Los Angeles was lifted earlier this week after arrests declined. The protests over immigration raids have largely been peaceful with most arrests for unlawful assembly and curfew violations. There also were arrests for assaults on police officers, vandalism and looting.
The immigration enforcement operations are part of President Trump’s mass deportation plan, a central focus of his campaign. The administration has highlighted arrests involving undocumented individuals with violent crime convictions. Those who have been caught up in the nationwide raids include asylum seekers, people who overstayed their visas and migrants awaiting their day in immigration court.
President Trump said Sunday in a social media post that he has directed federal immigration authorities to expand operations in Los Angeles and other cities.
It took two days for a three judge panel of the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco to decide the president has the power to deploy California’s National Guard without the governor’s permission. Robert Kovacik reports for the NBC4 News at 11 p.m. on June 19, 2025.
On Thursday, more immigration enforcement operations were reported in the LA area, including outside a Hollywood Home Depot, where federal agents detained several people. Federal agents also conducted an operation in San Fernando at a Home Depot on Foothill Boulevard, city officials said.
The presence of U.S. Border Patrol agents outside a Dodger Stadium gate drew a small crowd of protesters Thursday on a road leading to the hilltop stadium.
On Wednesday, at least six people were detained in an immigration enforcement operation in Pasadena at a bus stop.
California is home to 10.6 million immigrants, more than any other state, according to the Public Policy Institute of California. The Pew Research Center estimates that 1.8 million immigrants in California were undocumented in 2022, a figure that dropped from 2.8 million in 2007.
Most of the state’s immigrant population is in large coastal counties, like Los Angeles County, where about 3.5 million people — or about 35 percent of the county’s population — are immigrants, according to the 2024 State of Immigrants in Los Angeles County report from the USC Dornsife research institute. There are about 809,000 undocumented immigrants in Los Angeles County, which has a population of 9.6 million, according to the report.