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We need a united, independent, democratically organized mass movement for peace, justice and equality in solidarity with similar movements worldwide if we are to survive the death agony of capitalism and its inevitable descent into fascism and barbarism before it destroys the world altogether!
—Bonnie Weinstein
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Russia Confirms Jailing of Antiwar Leader Boris Kagarlitsky
In a secret trial on June 5, 2024, the Russian Supreme Court’s Military Chamber confirmed a sentence of five years in a penal colony for left-wing sociologist and online journalist Boris Kagarlitsky. His crime? “Justifying terrorism” — a sham charge used to silence opponents of Putin’s war on Ukraine. The court disregarded a plea for freedom sent by thirty-seven international luminaries.
Kagarlitsky, a leading Marxist thinker in Russia’s post-Soviet period, recently addressed socialists who won’t criticize Putin:
“To my Western colleagues, who…call for an understanding of Putin and his regime, I would like to ask a very simple question. [Would] you want to live in a country where there is no free press or independent courts? In a country where the police have the right to break into your house without a warrant? …In a country which…broadcasts appeals on TV to destroy Paris, London, Warsaw, with a nuclear strike?”
Thousands of antiwar critics have been forced to flee Russia or are behind bars, swept up in Putin’s vicious crackdown on dissidents. Opposition to the war is consistently highest among the poorest workers. Recently, RusNews journalists Roman Ivanov and Maria Ponomarenko were sentenced to seven, and six years respectively, for reporting the military’s brutal assault on Ukraine.
A massive global solidarity campaign that garnered support from thousands was launched at Kagarlitsky’s arrest. Now, it has been revived. This internationalism will bolster the repressed Russian left and Ukrainian resistance to Putin’s imperialism.
To sign the online petition at freeboris.info
—Freedom Socialist Party, August 2024
https://socialism.com/fs-article/russia-jails-prominent-antiwar-leader-boris-kagarlitsky/#:~:text=In%20a%20secret%20trial%20on,of%20Putin's%20war%20on%20Ukraine.
Petition in Support of Boris Kagarlitsky
We, the undersigned, were deeply shocked to learn that on February 13 the leading Russian socialist intellectual and antiwar activist Dr. Boris Kagarlitsky (65) was sentenced to five years in prison.
Dr. Kagarlitsky was arrested on the absurd charge of 'justifying terrorism' in July last year. After a global campaign reflecting his worldwide reputation as a writer and critic of capitalism and imperialism, his trial ended on December 12 with a guilty verdict and a fine of 609,000 roubles.
The prosecution then appealed against the fine as 'unjust due to its excessive leniency' and claimed falsely that Dr. Kagarlitsky was unable to pay the fine and had failed to cooperate with the court. In fact, he had paid the fine in full and provided the court with everything it requested.
On February 13 a military court of appeal sent him to prison for five years and banned him from running a website for two years after his release.
The reversal of the original court decision is a deliberate insult to the many thousands of activists, academics, and artists around the world who respect Dr. Kagarlitsky and took part in the global campaign for his release. The section of Russian law used against Dr. Kagarlitsky effectively prohibits free expression. The decision to replace the fine with imprisonment was made under a completely trumped-up pretext. Undoubtedly, the court's action represents an attempt to silence criticism in the Russian Federation of the government's war in Ukraine, which is turning the country into a prison.
The sham trial of Dr. Kagarlitsky is the latest in a wave of brutal repression against the left-wing movements in Russia. Organizations that have consistently criticized imperialism, Western and otherwise, are now under direct attack, many of them banned. Dozens of activists are already serving long terms simply because they disagree with the policies of the Russian government and have the courage to speak up. Many of them are tortured and subjected to life-threatening conditions in Russian penal colonies, deprived of basic medical care. Left-wing politicians are forced to flee Russia, facing criminal charges. International trade unions such as IndustriALL and the International Transport Federation are banned and any contact with them will result in long prison sentences.
There is a clear reason for this crackdown on the Russian left. The heavy toll of the war gives rise to growing discontent among the mass of working people. The poor pay for this massacre with their lives and wellbeing, and opposition to war is consistently highest among the poorest. The left has the message and resolve to expose the connection between imperialist war and human suffering.
Dr. Kagarlitsky has responded to the court's outrageous decision with calm and dignity: “We just need to live a little longer and survive this dark period for our country,” he said. Russia is nearing a period of radical change and upheaval, and freedom for Dr. Kagarlitsky and other activists is a condition for these changes to take a progressive course.
We demand that Boris Kagarlitsky and all other antiwar prisoners be released immediately and unconditionally.
We also call on the authorities of the Russian Federation to reverse their growing repression of dissent and respect their citizens' freedom of speech and right to protest.
Sign to Demand the Release of Boris Kagarlitsky
https://freeboris.info
The petition is also available on Change.org
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Mumia Abu-Jamal is Innocent!
FREE HIM NOW!
Write to Mumia at:
Smart Communications/PADOC
Mumia Abu-Jamal #AM-8335
SCI Mahanoy
P.O. Box 33028
St. Petersburg, FL 33733
Join the Fight for Mumia's Life
Since September, Mumia Abu-Jamal's health has been declining at a concerning rate. He has lost weight, is anemic, has high blood pressure and an extreme flair up of his psoriasis, and his hair has fallen out. In April 2021 Mumia underwent open heart surgery. Since then, he has been denied cardiac rehabilitation care including a healthy diet and exercise.
Donate to Mumia Abu-Jamal's Emergency Legal and Medical Defense Fund, Official 2024
Mumia has instructed PrisonRadio to set up this fund. Gifts donated here are designated for the Mumia Abu-Jamal Medical and Legal Defense Fund. If you are writing a check or making a donation in another way, note this in the memo line.
Send to:
Mumia Medical and Legal Fund c/o Prison Radio
P.O. Box 411074, San Francisco, CA 94103
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Updates From Kevin Cooper
A Never-ending Constitutional Violation
A summary of the current status of Kevin Cooper’s case by the Kevin Cooper Defense Committee
On October 26, 2023, the law firm of Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe, LLP wrote a rebuttal in response to the Special Counsel's January 13, 2023 report upholding the conviction of their client Kevin Cooper. A focus of the rebuttal was that all law enforcement files were not turned over to the Special Counsel during their investigation, despite a request for them to the San Bernardino County District Attorney's office.
On October 29, 2023, Law Professors Lara Bazelon and Charlie Nelson Keever, who run the six member panel that reviews wrongful convictions for the San Francisco County District Attorney's office, published an OpEd in the San Francisco Chronicle calling the "Innocence Investigation” done by the Special Counsel in the Cooper case a “Sham Investigation” largely because Cooper has unsuccessfully fought for years to obtain the police and prosecutor files in his case. This is a Brady claim, named for the U.S. Supreme court’s 1963 case establishing the Constitutional rule that defendants are entitled to any information in police and prosecutor's possession that could weaken the state's case or point to innocence. Brady violations are a leading cause of wrongful convictions. The Special Counsel's report faults Cooper for not offering up evidence of his own despite the fact that the best evidence to prove or disprove Brady violations or other misconduct claims are in those files that the San Bernardino County District Attorney's office will not turn over to the Special Counsel or to Cooper's attorneys.
On December 14, 2023, the president of the American Bar Association (ABA), Mary Smith, sent Governor Gavin Newsom a three page letter on behalf of the ABA stating in part that Mr.Cooper's counsel objected to the state's failure to provide Special Counsel all documents in their possession relating to Mr.Cooper's conviction, and that concerns about missing information are not new. For nearly 40 years Mr.Cooper's attorneys have sought this same information from the state.
On December 19, 2023, Bob Egelko, a journalist for the San Francisco Chronicle wrote an article about the ABA letter to the Governor that the prosecutors apparently withheld evidence from the Governor's legal team in the Cooper case.
These are just a few recent examples concerning the ongoing failure of the San Bernardino County District Attorney to turn over to Cooper's attorney's the files that have been requested, even though under the law and especially the U.S. Constitution, the District Attorney of San Bernardino county is required to turn over to the defendant any and all material and or exculpatory evidence that they have in their files. Apparently, they must have something in their files because they refuse to turn them over to anyone.
The last time Cooper's attorney's received files from the state, in 2004, it wasn't from the D.A. but a Deputy Attorney General named Holly Wilkens in Judge Huff's courtroom. Cooper's attorneys discovered a never before revealed police report showing that a shirt was discovered that had blood on it and was connected to the murders for which Cooper was convicted, and that the shirt had disappeared. It had never been tested for blood. It was never turned over to Cooper's trial attorney, and no one knows where it is or what happened to it. Cooper's attorneys located the woman who found that shirt on the side of the road and reported it to the Sheriff's Department. She was called to Judge Huff's court to testify about finding and reporting that shirt to law enforcement. That shirt was the second shirt found that had blood on it that was not the victims’ blood. This was in 2004, 19 years after Cooper's conviction.
It appears that this ongoing constitutional violation that everyone—from the Special Counsel to the Governor's legal team to the Governor himself—seems to know about, but won't do anything about, is acceptable in order to uphold Cooper's conviction.
But this type of thing is supposed to be unacceptable in the United States of America where the Constitution is supposed to stand for something other than a piece of paper with writing on it. How can a Governor, his legal team, people who support and believe in him ignore a United States citizen’s Constitutional Rights being violated for 40 years in order to uphold a conviction?
This silence is betrayal of the Constitution. This permission and complicity by the Governor and his team is against everything that he and they claim to stand for as progressive politicians. They have accepted the Special Counsel's report even though the Special Counsel did not receive the files from the district attorney that may not only prove that Cooper is innocent, but that he was indeed framed by the Sheriff’s Department; and that evidence was purposely destroyed and tampered with, that certain witnesses were tampered with, or ignored if they had information that would have helped Cooper at trial, that evidence that the missing shirt was withheld from Cooper's trial attorney, and so much more.
Is the Governor going to get away with turning a blind eye to this injustice under his watch?
Are progressive people going to stay silent and turn their eyes blind in order to hopefully get him to end the death penalty for some while using Cooper as a sacrificial lamb?
An immediate act of solidarity we can all do right now is to write to Kevin and assure him of our continuing support in his fight for justice. Here’s his address:
Kevin Cooper #C65304
Cell 107, Unit E1C
California Health Care Facility, Stockton (CHCF)
P.O. Box 213040
Stockton, CA 95213
www.freekevincooper.org
Call California Governor Newsom:
1-(916) 445-2841
Press 1 for English or 2 for Spanish,
press 6 to speak with a representative and
wait for someone to answer
(Monday-Friday, 9:00 A.M. to 5:00 P.M. PST—12:00 P.M. to 8:00 P.M. EST)
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Resources for Resisting Federal Repression
https://www.nlg.org/federalrepressionresources/
Since June of 2020, activists have been subjected to an increasingly aggressive crackdown on protests by federal law enforcement. The federal response to the movement for Black Lives has included federal criminal charges for activists, door knocks by federal law enforcement agents, and increased use of federal troops to violently police protests.
The NLG National Office is releasing this resource page for activists who are resisting federal repression. It includes a link to our emergency hotline numbers, as well as our library of Know-Your-Rights materials, our recent federal repression webinar, and a list of some of our recommended resources for activists. We will continue to update this page.
Please visit the NLG Mass Defense Program page for general protest-related legal support hotlines run by NLG chapters.
Emergency Hotlines
If you are contacted by federal law enforcement, you should exercise all of your rights. It is always advisable to speak to an attorney before responding to federal authorities.
State and Local Hotlines
If you have been contacted by the FBI or other federal law enforcement, in one of the following areas, you may be able to get help or information from one of these local NLG hotlines for:
Portland, Oregon: (833) 680-1312
San Francisco, California: (415) 285-1041 or fbi_hotline@nlgsf.org
Seattle, Washington: (206) 658-7963
National Hotline
If you are located in an area with no hotline, you can call the following number:
National NLG Federal Defense Hotline: (212) 679-2811
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1) Inside a Courthouse, Chaos and Tears as Trump Accelerates Deportations
Immigration courtrooms in New York City have emerged as a flashpoint, with masked agents making surprise arrests of immigrants who have appeared for routine hearings and check-ins.
By Luis Ferré-SadurnÃ, une 12, 2025
Federal immigration agents, who often wear masks to conceal their identities, have begun apprehending people inside immigration courthouses in New York City and across the nation. Credit...Todd Heisler/The New York Times
Inside an immigration courthouse in the heart of Lower Manhattan, federal agents in T-shirts and caps cover their faces with masks as they discreetly attend routine hearings filled with immigrants.
The agents tip off other officers huddled in the court’s staid hallways as undocumented immigrants on their radar leave the hearings. They then move in to arrest their targets, sometimes leading to disorderly scenes as husbands are separated from wives, and parents from children.
The scene unfolding in New York City has repeated itself in immigration courthouses across the nation, a window into the Trump administration’s accelerating crackdown amid pressure from the White House to ramp up deportations. In Los Angeles, workplace raids have inflamed tensions and led to demonstrations. In New York, the courthouse arrests have emerged as a defining flashpoint.
In June, hundreds came and went at one federal building — for asylum hearings, citizenship applications and mandated check-ins with the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. Some left in handcuffs.
Immigrants arrested after appearing in courtrooms on higher floors were ferried by agents to holding cells on the 10th floor, an off-limits area where ICE typically keeps a few people for several hours as they are processed and transferred elsewhere.
But ICE agents have apprehended so many people showing up for routine appointments this month that the facilities appear to be overcrowded. Hundreds of migrants have slept on the floor or sitting upright, sometimes for days, said Francisco Castillo, a Dominican immigrant who was held there for three days last week.
Mr. Castillo, 36, said that the four holding cells — two for men, two for women — were so packed that some of the nearly 100 migrants in his cell resorted to sleeping on the bathroom floors. They were held for days without showers or clothing changes.
“Every single one of us slept on the floor because there are no beds,” Mr. Castillo said in a phone interview in Spanish from a detention facility in New Jersey where he was transferred. “What’s human about this?”
Mr. Castillo’s account echoed concerns from two Democratic members of Congress who showed up at the building at 26 Federal Plaza on Sunday to inspect the 10th floor after hearing reports of overcrowding and unsanitary conditions. They were denied access by ICE.
The imposing federal building at 26 Federal Plaza — home to an ICE headquarters and one of the city’s three immigration courts — has become a centerpiece of immigration enforcement in New York. ICE agents have arrested dozens of migrants in and around the building, as well as the other two courts in Manhattan, and held them out of view at 26 Federal Plaza before transferring them to detention centers outside the city.
The arrests have drawn protesters to the building’s perimeter, leading the police to arrest several who have tried to block vans carrying migrants out of the building. Inside, the presence of agents in courtrooms that were long considered off-limits to ICE has quickly disrupted courthouse operations and, critics say, eroded their status as a safe space for immigrants to engage with the legal system.
The sight of masked ICE agents in hallways has unsettled the hundreds of immigrants who show up at 26 Federal Plaza each day. There are signs that the arrests may be dissuading some migrants from following the rules by showing up to mandated court dates, worsening their chances of staying in the United States, because missed hearings can lead to deportation.
On Monday morning, 17 of the roughly two dozen immigrants who were required to show up before a judge on the 12th floor of 26 Federal Plaza never appeared — a higher number of no-shows than is usual, immigration lawyers said.
An Ecuadorean family of four living in New Jersey was the first to line up outside the courtroom. The parents clutched paperwork to their chests as they whispered and anxiously eyed the masked agents by the elevators.
“We’re uneasy,” said the mother, Joselyn Titisunta Saavedra, describing the gang threats that they said forced the family to seek asylum in the United States.
Federal officials have said that the court arrests allow agents to detain people in a controlled environment without having to dispatch teams into communities, which takes more time and planning and puts officers and the public at risk. The Department of Homeland Security, the parent agency of ICE, has also said that threats against its officers are up, justifying the use of masks to conceal their identities.
Homeland Security and ICE did not respond to repeated requests for comment about the courthouse arrests and the conditions at 26 Federal Plaza. Top Homeland Security officials have previously cast the arrests as a way to quickly remove some of the millions of migrants who crossed the border during the Biden era.
Mr. Castillo, the man detained for three days, entered the United States illegally in 2022 from the Dominican Republic and does not have a criminal record, his lawyers said. ICE agents arrested Mr. Castillo, who is married to a U.S.-born citizen and lives in the Bronx, when he appeared on June 4 for a routine immigration court hearing in Manhattan.
“Emotionally, I’m frustrated because I was doing what they supposedly wanted to me to do” by showing up to court, Mr. Castillo said.
ICE moved to place him in deportation proceedings that moved on a fast track, a tactic that the agency has deployed to swiftly expel migrants without hearings. The agency has also expanded the arrest of immigrants showing up for other immigration-related appointments, not just court hearings.
Last week, a number of immigrants, including families with children, received automated text messages asking them to report to a nondescript office across the street from 26 Federal Plaza to check in with ICE. They were undocumented immigrants in supervisory programs that allow them to live in communities while their cases wind through the courts, so long as they occasionally check in with ICE.
When they showed up to check in last week, many were surprised with handcuffs. Dozens of immigrants were arrested in broad daylight on the streets of Manhattan as protesters hurled insults at agents, calling them “pigs” and “Nazis.”
Last Wednesday, Ambar Mujica Rodriguez, 33, and her 12-year-old daughter sobbed and screamed as four agents escorted her husband, Jaen Mawer Enciso Guzman, 30, to an SUV. Their daughter ran after him and tried to hug him. The Venezuelan family crossed the border into the United States in 2023 and had a pending asylum application, according to their lawyer, Margaret Cargioli.
“What’s alarming here and at immigration court is that they’re picking up people who are complying,” Ms. Cargioli said. “He was very cooperative with all the requirements that were made of him, and it’s a real shame that they’re separating them.”
She said he was probably targeted because he had entered the country about two years ago. The Trump administration has begun placing immigrants who have been in the country for less than two years into a deportation process known as expedited removal proceedings, which were previously used only for migrants encountered near the border.
Immigration courts are different from criminal courts. People are typically summoned to immigration courts because the federal government has initiated deportation hearings against them for entering the country illegally, not to face accusations of committing other crimes.
The arrests, in and near courts where millions of foreign-born individuals nationwide showed up last year so that judges could determine whether they could stay in the country, have turned the once unexceptional government offices into a daily political spectacle.
Brad Lander, the city comptroller and a candidate for mayor, sat in on several hearings at a different immigration court, at 290 Broadway last week, and escorted out migrant families who seemed to be at risk for arrest. On Sunday, the two members of Congress, Representatives Adriano Espaillat and Nydia Velázquez, were denied entry to tour the 10th floor at 26 Federal Plaza.
Inside the city’s three immigration courthouses — at 26 Federal Plaza and 290 Broadway, just a few blocks from City Hall, and at 201 Varick Street, on the West Side — the atmosphere has grown tense.
Fliers in Spanish and English encouraging self-deportation await arriving families. ICE agents and activists, some of whom also wear masks, occasionally taunt each other. Immigration judges and court staff express consternation over the disruption that the arrests — and the media attention — has wrought on typically sleepy immigration proceedings.
On Friday, one such arrest turned chaotic after ICE executed the administration’s new playbook. Inside a courtroom at 26 Federal Plaza, ICE prosecutors asked a judge to dismiss the immigration case against a Dominican man, a legal maneuver to allow ICE agents in the hallway to detain him and place him in expedited deportation proceedings.
The man, Joaquin Rosario Espinal, like many, showed up without a lawyer and expressed confusion when the government asked that his case be dismissed.
“What do you mean, dismiss my case?” Mr. Rosario Espinal, 34, asked in Spanish. “Do I need to leave the country, or not?”
The judge tried to explain. An immigration lawyer in the chambers sought to intervene on his behalf, to no avail. News photographers gathered in the hallway to capture the imminent arrest, leading the judge to admonish them for being a distraction.
“I wish you the best of luck,” the judge told Mr. Rosario Espinal.
When he exited into a cramped hallway, at least six agents tackled him to the floor as they also grappled with activists.
“Stop resisting!” one agent shouted as Mr. Rosario Espinal, who an acquaintance said arrived in the United States last year, was arrested. He was eventually whisked away to a detention facility north of the city in Orange County, N.Y.
In the lobby of the building, which also houses offices of the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, a family of three from Gambia emerged from the elevators dressed in colorful dresses, smiling and holding American flags.
They had just become American citizens.
Olivia Bensimon and Wesley Parnell contributed reporting.
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2) Iran Reels From Israeli Strikes on Nuclear Sites and Top Officials
Israel said it had damaged a key nuclear facility, and Iran said several military commanders were killed. President Trump warned Tehran to agree to new limits on its nuclear program or risk “even more brutal” attacks.
By Farnaz Fassihi, Aaron Boxerman, Ronen Bergman, Adam Rasgon, Qasim Nauman and Isabel Kershner, June 13, 2025
Iran was reeling on Friday from waves of Israeli strikes that decapitated its military chain of command and targeted a key nuclear facility, as President Trump urged Tehran to strike a deal curbing its nuclear program or risk “even more brutal” attacks.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the assault as a last resort to prevent a nuclear-armed Iran, which Israel views as an existential threat. The attacks, which the Israeli military said were continuing on Friday afternoon, also killed several top Iranian officials and nuclear scientists and hit Tehran’s long-range missile facilities and aerial defenses.
Mr. Trump, whose administration has been holding nuclear talks with Iranian officials, said on Friday that Tehran “must make a deal, before there is nothing left.”
For years, Israel has fought Iran’s proxy forces across the Middle East, and more recently it has exchanged volleys of strikes with Iran. Yet Friday’s strikes were the first time it openly attacked Tehran’s nuclear facilities, including Iran’s main nuclear enrichment facility at Natanz, which an Israeli military spokesman said had suffered “significant damage.”
Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said that Israel “should anticipate a harsh punishment.” Later on Friday morning, the Israeli military announced that Iranian forces had fired about 100 drones at Israel, as Mr. Netanyahu vowed the fighting would last “as many days as it takes.” The Israeli military said it was using fighter jets and missile boats to intercept the Iranian attack, and by Friday afternoon it said that it had successfully shot many of them down. There were no immediate indications of any significant damage in Israel caused by the drones.
Here’s what else to know:
· Top Iranians killed: Iran confirmed that Mohammad Bagheri, the commander in chief of the military and the second-highest commander after the supreme leader, was among those killed, as was Gen. Hossein Salami, commander in chief of the powerful Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps. Ali Shamkhani, a leading politician who was overseeing the nuclear talks with the United States, was also killed, officials said. Mr. Khamenei moved quickly to appoint some replacements, aiming to avoid the appearance of a leadership vacuum. Read more ›
· What was hit: Rafael Grossi, the chief of the International Atomic Energy Agency, confirmed that Iran’s nuclear facility in Natanz had been hit but said that no radiation leak had been detected. There were no indications of attacks at the deep-underground uranium enrichment center at Fordow or the Isfahan nuclear fuel site, he said. Israel also attacked military bases and residences housing military commanders around Tehran, Iranian officials said. Read more ›
· Intelligence coup: Israel’s assault was years in the making, the result of extensive intelligence gathering on Iran’s nuclear sites as well as on top military officials and scientists, according to three Israeli officials with knowledge of the operations. Read more ›
· Iran’s proxies: Few analysts expect Iran’s network of armed proxies to respond meaningfully to the attack, illustrating how degraded the groups have become. Since the Hamas-led October 2023 attack on Israel, the Israeli security services have launched operations that have severely weakened Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. The Assad dictatorship in Syria, a key ally of Iran, collapsed last December. Read more ›
· Countries on edge: Residents of Tehran, the Iranian capital, reported hearing huge explosions, and Iranian state television broadcast images of smoke and fire billowing from buildings. Dozens were killed in Iran and more than 300 others injured, according to unofficial figures cited by the Fars news agency. Israelis were instructed to stock up on essentials, and all gatherings have been banned as the country nervously anticipates retaliation. Read more ›
· Oil prices rise: The strikes shook global markets, as oil prices surged and stocks tumbled on worries that the attacks could set off a broader Mideast conflict. Brent crude oil, the international benchmark, rose 7 percent, its biggest daily gain this year, and the S&P 500 slipped nearly 1 percent in early trading. Read more
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3) Trump’s Use of National Guard in Limbo After Court Rulings
Judge Charles Breyer ordered the administration to return control of the National Guard to the California governor. But he also ruled that it was premature to restrict the use of active-duty Marines.
By Charlie Savage, Kellen Browning and Laurel Rosenhall, Published June 12, 2025, Updated June 13, 2025
Kellen Browning reported from the federal courthouse in San Francisco.
Members of the California National Guard in downtown Los Angeles this week. Credit...Philip Cheung for The New York Times
A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked the federal government’s mobilization of the California National Guard to protect immigration agents from protesters in Los Angeles. He ruled that the Trump administration had illegally taken control of the state’s troops and ordered them to return to taking orders from Gov. Gavin Newsom.
In an extraordinary 36-page ruling, Judge Charles Breyer of the Federal District Court in San Francisco severed Mr. Trump’s control of up to 4,000 National Guard troops, hundreds of whom are already deployed in the streets of Los Angeles on his orders. The judge said the administration’s seizure of them violated required procedures in a federal statute.
President Trump’s “actions were illegal — both exceeding the scope of his statutory authority and violating the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution,” Judge Breyer wrote. “He must therefore return control of the California National Guard to the governor of the state of California forthwith.”
The directive would have taken effect at noon Pacific time on Friday. But the Trump administration immediately filed a notice that it was appealing Judge Breyer’s decision. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit agreed to stay the ruling while it reviews the case, temporarily blocking it from taking effect.
The ruling, which accused Mr. Trump of setting a “dangerous precedent for future domestic military activity,” was the latest in a series of judicial rebukes to Mr. Trump’s expansive claims of wartime or emergency powers over matters ranging from deporting people without due process to unilaterally imposing widespread tariffs. Court rulings blocking his actions as likely illegal have enraged the White House.
Judge Breyer’s ruling on the National Guard went beyond what California had asked for. While the state’s lawsuit had contended that Mr. Trump’s mobilization of the National Guard was illegal, its specific motion was for a temporary restraining order limiting military forces under federal control to guarding federal buildings in the city and no other law enforcement tasks.
Judge Breyer blocked Mr. Trump from using California’s National Guard at all. But he also rejected a request by the state and Governor Newsom to restrain a separate group of active-duty Marines, which the administration has also mobilized to counter the protesters.
Pete Hegseth, the secretary of defense, mobilized 700 Marines from a base in California to participate in suppressing protests, and the state had wanted the judge to restrict them from accompanying immigration agents on the workplace raids that sparked the protests. But the active-duty troops so far have merely been staged in a neighboring county and have not gone into the city.
Judge Breyer said it would be inappropriate to issue any order restricting the Marines’ actions when they have not done anything that would violate the Posse Comitatus Act, which generally makes it illegal to use federal troops for law enforcement on domestic soil. He said that the state would need to return within a week to try to turn his temporary order into a longer-lasting injunction, allowing time for events to develop.
“As of now, the court only has counsel’s speculation of what might happen,” the judge wrote.
Standing in front of the California flag at a news conference in the lobby of a state courthouse after the ruling, Mr. Newsom hailed the decision.
“Today was really about a test of democracy,” he said. “We passed the test.”
Mr. Newsom said that he would direct National Guard members to resume the duties that they were carrying out before they were redirected by Mr. Trump, which included border control and forest management to reduce wildfire risk.
“They will be back under my command,” he said, “and Donald Trump will be relieved of his command, at noon tomorrow.”
The press offices of the White House and the Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Complicating matters, the judge issued his directive to the Trump administration to relinquish control of the National Guard in the form of a temporary restraining order, a short-term tool that is normally not appealable, unlike a more durable preliminary injunction.
Sometimes, however, courts treat consequential temporary restraining orders as injunctions and permit appeals of them anyway. If the Ninth Circuit rejects the appeal, the executive branch could then file an emergency appeal to the Supreme Court — where Republican appointees hold a six-to-three supermajority — seeking to block the judge’s move.
Judge Breyer, who was nominated by President Bill Clinton in 1997, had telegraphed his focus on the legality of Mr. Trump’s calling up the National Guard at a hearing earlier on Thursday.
The statute President Trump cited as the authority for his move says that such orders must go “through” governors. But Mr. Hegseth instead sent the directive to the general who oversees the National Guard, bypassing Governor Newsom.
At the hearing, the Justice Department lawyer, Brett Shumate, argued that Mr. Hegseth had complied with the National Guard call-up statute. But even if he hadn’t, Mr. Shumate said, Mr. Trump had the legal authority to order the National Guard into federal service anyway.
Sporting a light-blue bow-tie, Judge Breyer interrupted the Justice Department’s lawyer repeatedly and at one point waved a small copy of the Constitution in the air. Some of his pointed replies drew laughs from the packed courtroom of more than 100 people.
When it came, his ruling was scathing.
The state of California “and the citizens of Los Angeles face a greater harm from the continued unlawful militarization of their city, which not only inflames tensions with protesters, threatening increased hostilities and loss of life, but deprives the state for two months of its own use of thousands of National Guard members to fight fires, combat the fentanyl trade, and perform other critical functions,” he wrote.
No president has deployed troops under federal control over the objections of a state governor since the Civil Rights era, when Southern governors were resisting court-ordered desegregation.
Since being federalized and deployed, some National Guard troops have accompanied ICE agents on raids while others have primarily stood outside federal buildings in downtown Los Angeles during protests.
The legal face-off comes amid escalating political tensions between the Trump administration and the California governor. After Mr. Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, threatened to arrest Mr. Newsom, Mr. Trump endorsed the idea on Monday, saying, “I’d do it.” Mr. Newsom on Tuesday said in a televised speech that “democracy is under assault right before our eyes.”
Mr. Newsom, after the ruling, forcefully rebuked the tactics that Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents have employed to arrest and deport undocumented immigrants, describing conversations with children who had been separated from their parents and family members whose relatives had suddenly disappeared without a trace.
“That’s Donald Trump’s America,” he said, calling it “indiscriminate cruelty.”
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4) This Is How the Protests Could Break Trump’s Deportation Machine
By Jean Guerrero, June 13, 2025
Ms. Guerrero, a contributing Opinion writer, is a journalist and author.
Seth Herald/Reuters
On June 6 in downtown Los Angeles, the day that sparked citywide protests that have captured the nation’s attention, a woman watched federal agents lead her handcuffed father away from a fast-fashion warehouse amid an ICE raid. In a TikTok video viewed more than nine million times, she sobs from behind a camera lens. “Papa, I love you,” she cries.
Her father struggles to remain composed, telling her he loves her, too. He assures her it’s going to be OK. In a final gesture of love, he folds his hands in prayer and blows her a kiss as he’s placed in an unmarked van. The TikTok video, which his daughter uploaded the next day to the song “Fantasmas” by the Mexican singer Humbe, has been re-uploaded and shared by countless other accounts across social media platforms.
As videos like this reach millions, Los Angeles is becoming the epicenter of a counternarrative to President Trump’s propaganda about immigrants. Mr. Trump’s decisions to deploy the National Guard and now the Marines appear calculated to provoke chaos that will distract people from the damning optics of his immigration enforcement operations. The protesters shouldn’t give him what he wants. Although their rage is understandable, burning vehicles and hurtling rocks divert attention from the fact that ICE is destroying families. It’s those families’ stories that threaten Mr. Trump’s grip on the public imagination.
A recent CBS News survey found that most Americans believe the president’s crackdown is prioritizing “dangerous criminals.” But videos out of Los Angeles and across the country paint a different picture. They show ICE arresting mothers, fathers, co-workers and friends of U.S. citizens. Not hardened criminals, but valued community members. The videos show ICE snatching workers outside of a Home Depot, at a local carwash, on the street. They show parents on lockdown at a school graduation because ICE was nearby. These videos, which are going viral, have the power to destabilize Mr. Trump’s narrative that his immigration operations are about law and order.
As The Wall Street Journal reported Monday, the highly visible raids in Los Angeles resulted from a directive from Mr. Trump’s deputy chief of staff, Stephen Miller, who urged agents to “just go out there and arrest illegal aliens,” including at 7-Elevens and Home Depots. It was never going to be possible for Mr. Trump to keep his campaign promise of mass deportations without rounding up innocent people, because the world he and Mr. Miller created in which millions of undocumented gang members are running wild doesn’t exist. Mr. Miller’s insatiability means that arrests that once happened mostly in the shadows are now happening in broad daylight, and that people are capturing evidence.
Each act of documentation chips away at the alternate reality that Mr. Trump and Mr. Miller have constructed — one in which ICE is making communities safer. In fact, the administration is diverting resources from serious child trafficking and homeland security investigations to meet quotas that will satisfy Mr. Miller’s appetite for detained human beings.
The Trump administration’s escalating shows of force reveal the president’s understanding of the optics. He knows most Americans don’t have Mr. Miller’s stomach for the suffering of immigrants. The president, a master manipulator of the media, is creating a spectacle to reorient the news cycle. He wants people to see fire and broken glass, not broken families.
But the movement to resist ICE and record the inhumanity of ICE is rippling outward, and Americans are seeing it on their social media feeds. In San Antonio, a video shows a woman pleading for her release as agents in plain clothes detain her outside a courthouse. “Please, my children are in school!” she screams. “My children!” Near that same courthouse, a visibly shaken young boy tries to comfort his mother during her arrest. “Mom, I’m here,” he says, fighting tears as she collapses in distress.
The immigrant rights movement is taking cues from the Black Lives Matter movement, in which Black Americans and allies spent years using smartphones to expose police brutality and change the national conversation about race.
“What we’re seeing is a continuation of the digital witnessing tradition: using mobile devices not just to record harm, but to demand accountability in real time,” said Allissa Richardson, an associate professor of journalism at the University of Southern California who has long studied how African Americans use mobile and social media to change narratives. “Black witnessing laid the blueprint, and now other communities are building upon it, adapting it and carrying it forward.”
Many of the videos that are circulating online have been filmed by Latinos, whose communities are disproportionately impacted by the raids and who are severely underrepresented in the traditional news media, where they have long been unable to correct inaccurate and dehumanizing stereotypes about immigrants. These community videos, a form of citizen journalism, may represent a tipping point.
In the face of boldfaced authoritarianism, filming ICE arrests may seem futile and even absurd. After all, in a world of echo chambers, it’s easy to turn away from evidence that contradicts our beliefs. Can these videos actually change people’s minds?
I believe they are the only thing that can. When I was a public media reporter documenting the human cost of the first Trump administration’s immigration policies, I had a Trump-supporting aunt who sometimes commented on the links to my videos on Facebook, expressing empathy for the immigrants I interviewed. She told me she had no idea Trump was going to be targeting mothers and that it was upsetting. Later, when I became an opinion columnist, she began to write off my work as propaganda. It left me convinced that the most powerful storytelling is not commentary, but human stories. Instead of condemning and criticizing Mr. Trump, Democratic politicians should use every opportunity to lift the stories of the families he has harmed.
Such stories are what forced Mr. Trump to end his family separation policy during his first term. More recently, the story of Kilmar Abrego Garcia — the Maryland man mistakenly deported to a prison in El Salvador — provoked so much outrage that the administration was forced to find a pretext to bring him back. Earlier this month, the story of a 4-year-old Bakersfield, Calif., girl with a rare and life-threatening medical condition who was facing deportation mobilized people across the country and sparked a reversal by immigration authorities — possibly saving her life.
Mr. Trump and Mr. Miller understand the power of human stories. That’s why Mr. Miller has long combed the internet for anecdotes about immigrant rapists and killers, writing them into the president’s speeches and his own social posts. That is also why he has long invoked the murder of the Georgia nursing student Laken Riley, whose story led to the passage of the Laken Riley Act, which made it easier to deport immigrants not yet convicted but accused of crimes. That is why the Trump administration created an office devoted to spotlighting such stories. That is why they would rather the headlines be about rogue rioters and burned Waymo vehicles than be about torn-apart families.
Make no mistake: Mr. Trump is not waging a war for the streets. He is fighting a war for the hearts and minds of Americans. The most formidable weapon on this battlefield is the human story. Not fire, not fists, not bullets. The war will be won only through strategic and relentless exposure.
In many of the videos coming out of Los Angeles and other cities, the people recording can be heard helping immigrants to protect their rights — telling people who have been arrested not to sign documents, shouting at neighbors not to open doors to ICE agents unless they see a signed warrant. Other videos show people putting their bodies between ICE and their targets. In one viral video, a white man is partially run over by an ICE van he was trying to stop. Another shows the labor leader David Huerta shoved to the ground by an agent while standing in front of a work site; he was arrested and charged with conspiracy to impede an officer.
These videos are particularly dangerous to Mr. Trump because they expose something his politics can’t touch: the fierce humanity of people willing to risk everything for one another. They don’t just document resistance — they ignite it. They move people not just to care, but to act, to intervene, to put their own bodies on the line.
For example, Abby King, a 25-year-old white resident of Los Angeles, was moved to demonstrate, in part, by the video of Mr. Huerta’s arrest. I met her on Sunday at Gloria Molina Grand Park in a crowd of thousands who gathered for a nonviolent protest of ICE raids and to demand the release of Mr. Huerta, who was set free on a $50,000 bond later that day. She brought her mother along to demand a stop to the arrests of beloved community members. “We’re citizens,” Ms. King said. “We’re white, and if people like us aren’t standing up for them, then who is? You have to push through the fear.”
All around her were others moved by the same impulse: a white grandmother worried about her immigrant neighbors, a Guatemalan father who brought his 7-year-old child, and a Bolivian woman accompanied by an entourage of elderly white friends who helped her feel safe.
It was human stories that motivated them to be there. Those stories sparked their compassion and courage. Mr. Trump is vulnerable in the face of those emotions. He depends on fear and hate. That is why he will continue to try to goad the city into violence so that he can regain the upper hand.
The people of Los Angeles can take the bait and lose the narrative war. Or they can stay disciplined in their nonviolent protests and production of human stories. Then Mr. Trump’s attempt to provoke chaos will collapse under its own cruelty.
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5) What We Know About the ‘No Kings’ Protests on Saturday
Organizers have planned demonstrations in cities and towns across the country on the same day as President Trump’s parade in Washington to celebrate the Army.
By Chris Hippensteel, June 13, 2025
A rally in Atlanta in April protesting the Trump administration. More protests are being organized for Saturday throughout the country. Credit...Audra Melton for The New York Times
Planned protests against the Trump administration that are expected to be among the largest since the president’s second term began will be held across the country on Saturday.
The demonstrations will occur in all 50 states, and organizers have estimated that there will be roughly 2,000 of them — ranging from small groups in more rural communities to larger rallies in major cities including New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Atlanta, Dallas and Denver. According to a map provided by organizers, there are some three dozen events scheduled in Indiana alone. Protests are also scheduled in other countries including Britain, Mexico and Germany.
They come as President Trump’s immigration crackdown and decision to deploy the military in Los Angeles have already led to large-scale protests there and additional protests in several other cities.
On the same day as the protests, Mr. Trump has scheduled a military parade in Washington for the Army’s 250th anniversary, which also coincides with his 79th birthday.
Here’s what we know about the protests.
Who’s behind the protests?
The demonstrations, organized under the slogan “No Kings,” have been arranged by a number of groups that overlap with the coalition that pulled together the “Hands Off!” demonstrations on April 5 and other recent large protests against the president.
Organizers include Indivisible, the American Civil Liberties Union and 50501. Some of these groups organized protests during Mr. Trump’s first term over abortion rights and gun violence. The “Hands Off!” protests in April focused on the message that the president was threatening health care, education and Social Security.
The coalition behind “No Kings” has branded Saturday as a “day of defiance” against what the groups describe as authoritarian overreach by Mr. Trump and his allies. Plans for the event were in the works well before federal immigration raids set off protests in Los Angeles and other cities.
Organizers have characterized the Washington parade — the largest display of military power in the nation’s capital in decades — not as a celebration of the armed forces but as a theatrical “display of dominance” akin to military marches hosted by dictators abroad.
Where will the protests take place?
The main events are slated for Atlanta, Chicago, Houston, New York, Phoenix, Philadelphia and Charlotte, N.C. But there are also protests planned in smaller communities like Lewisburg, W.Va.; Pinedale, Wyo.; and Moab, Utah.
Philadelphia, a city rich with revolutionary history, will host the event’s national livestream, said Leah Greenberg, co-founder of Indivisible and one of the rallies’ organizers, keeping with their efforts to frame the protests as peaceful and patriotic opposition.
Ms. Greenberg declined to speculate on the size of the demonstrations but said that organizers had received more RSVPs than for the “Hands Off!” mass protests in April.
One major city is notably absent from the list of planned demonstrations: Washington, the site of the military parade. The omission was intentional, Ms. Greenberg said.
In remarks earlier this week, Mr. Trump warned that any protesters who rallied against the military parade in Washington would be met with “very big force.”
Instead of drawing more attention to the military parade and perhaps giving Mr. Trump the opportunity to carry out his threat, Ms. Greenberg said, organizers want the focus to be on the people.
“We want to create contrast,” Ms. Greenberg said. “Not conflict.”
What time will the protests be held?
While plans and schedules vary from city to city, many are scheduled between late morning and early afternoon. At the flagship protest in Philadelphia, organizers plan on leading a march from LOVE Park to the Philadelphia Museum of Art, where speakers are expected to include Ms. Greenberg; Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers; and Martin Luther King III.
How has the Trump administration responded?
When asked on Wednesday whether, in light of his warning about using “very big force,” Mr. Trump would allow peaceful protests around the military parade, Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, called the question “stupid.”
“The president absolutely supports peaceful protests,” she said. “He supports the First Amendment. He supports the right of Americans to make their voices heard. He does not support violence of any kind. He does not support assaulting law enforcement officers who are simply trying to do their job.”
Mr. Trump addressed the “No Kings” protests directly for the first time on Thursday, brushing off their central message.
“I don’t feel like a king, I have to go through hell to get stuff approved,” Mr. Trump said, appearing to refer to the opposition he faces from Democrats. “We’re not a king at all, thank you very much,” he added.
Chris Cameron contributed reporting.
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6) Israel takes aim at Tehran in a second day of strikes.
By Aaron Boxerman and Qasim Nauman, June 14, 2025
A second day of Israeli strikes on Iran targeted a major airport in the capital, Tehran, and sought to weaken air defenses around the city, the military said on Saturday. Iran fired at least three waves of ballistic missiles at Israel, sending residents rushing to bomb shelters.
Israel attacked the Mehrabad International Airport in Tehran overnight between Friday and Saturday, according to Iranian state news media. The airport is used for both military and civilian purposes and IRNA, the state news agency, said a hangar for military jets there was targeted.
Video filmed by a witness in Tehran and verified by The New York Times showed thick black smoke billowing from the part of airport where military hangars are located.
Dozens of Israeli warplanes struck sites in Tehran overnight, including surface-to-air missile systems, as part of an effort to weaken the capital’s aerial defenses, the Israeli military said.
Brig. Gen. Effie Defrin, the Israeli military’s chief spokesman, told reporters, “Tehran is no longer immune.” He said dozens of Israeli fighter jets had flown over the Iranian capital for more than two hours overnight alongside drones now stationed there on a standing basis, showing that the Israeli military had achieved “freedom of action.”
“This is the deepest we have ever operated in Iran,” General Defrin said.
An Iranian missile struck homes south of Tel Aviv, Israel’s largest metropolitan area, killing two people, according to Israeli authorities.
These attacks followed the launch of Israel’s shock assault on Iran on Friday, which began with a surprise, predawn attack on an array of targets connected to the country’s nuclear program and military.
Iran later responded with waves of ballistic missiles and drones that sent Israelis scrambling for reinforced shelters. Israel has conducted roughly 150 strikes on Iran over two days, an Israeli military official said on Saturday afternoon, while Iranian forces have fired roughly 200 ballistic missiles at Israeli territory, in addition to scores of drones.
At least four top Iranian military figures have been killed by Israel. The Israeli military also said on Saturday that it had killed nine senior scientists and experts in the country’s nuclear program.
Iran said on Friday that at least 78 people had been killed and more than 300 wounded in the Israeli attacks. An updated figure was not yet available by Saturday.
An Iranian missile landed overnight in a residential area of Rishon LeZion, a city south of Tel Aviv, killing two Israelis and wounding 19, according to the Israeli authorities.
One of those killed was Yisrael Aloni, a 73-year-old man, said Moria Malka, a city spokeswoman. The identity of the second person killed, a woman, has not been made public.
Malachy Browne and Adam Rasgon contributed reporting.
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7) The West Bank is in the firing line without shelters or air-raid sirens.
By Adam Rasgon and Rawan Sheikh Ahmad, June 14, 2025
As Israel and Iran exchange military barrages, air-raid sirens across Israel warn residents to seek safety in reinforced bomb shelters.
But in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, which lies on the flight path between the two countries, few, if any, Palestinians have safe rooms or communal shelters to protect them from incoming Iranian ballistic missile attacks on Israel. And no air-raid early warning system is in place, though Palestinians living near Jewish settlements can hear their sirens and others use Israeli applications that provide alerts.
The civil defense of the Palestinian Authority, which administers parts of the West Bank, said that its teams had responded to 40 reports of injuries and property damage from shrapnel falling in the West Bank on Friday. Seven children were among the injured, the civil defense said.
The latest escalation of violence in the region is adding to the fear and insecurity that many of the almost three million Palestinian residents in the West Bank already face living under Israeli military rule and a poorly managed Palestinian administration.
“It’s a terrifying experience,” said Yaqoub al-Rabi, 57, a resident of Biddya, a village near the border between the West Bank and Israel.
He was able to hear sirens at a nearby Israeli settlement in the West Bank blare late Friday, and he and six of his children and grandchildren crowded into his living room, crouching against a wall away from the windows.
But they did not feel safe, Mr. Rabi said. The most difficult part was seeing the fearful faces of his grandchildren as they heard powerful booms in the distance, he said.
While many Palestinians said they were fearful of the missiles, others said they had gone up to their rooftops to witness the spectacle of them flying overhead.
Maj. Gen. Anwar Rajab, the spokesman of the Palestinian Authority security forces, said Palestinians in the territory were encouraged to stay in their homes during missile attacks. The authority, he said, could not afford to build public shelters, noting that the governing body was facing a steep financial crisis.
Mohammed Abu al-Rub, the director of the Palestinian Government Communications Center, said that the West Bank lacked the technological infrastructure needed for the type of advance warning systems used in Israel.
“There are no sirens in the West Bank, because they require technologies and systems we simply don’t have,” he said.
Ala al-Khabass, 37, a resident of village outside Jenin in the northern West Bank, said the missiles were “frightening,” recalling a fragment of an Iranian missile that killed a Palestinian man in the West Bank town of Jericho in October when Iran fired a barrage of missiles at Israel.
“It’s horrifying, but what can we do?” he said. “The only thing we can do is accept we can’t do anything.”
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8) How the Israel-Iran Conflict Could Spiral Into More Turmoil
Israel’s leader and President Trump appeared to bet they can persevere, but other world leaders warned of unintended outcomes in a volatile region.
By Mark Landler, Reporting from Paris, June 14, 2025
A projectile hit buildings on Friday as the Israeli Iron Dome air-defense system fired to intercept missiles over Tel Aviv. Credit...Leo Correa/Associated Press
After a fiery night of Israeli attacks across Iran, followed by a fusillade of Iranian missiles launched at Israeli cities in retaliation, the Middle East awoke Saturday to a radically reshaped landscape, with the combatants digging in.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed that Israel’s assault would last “as many days as it takes” to eliminate any nuclear threat Iran could pose against Israel. President Trump piled on, casting the stakes in near-apocalyptic terms for Iran.
“Iran must make a deal, before there is nothing left, and save what was once known as the Iranian Empire,” he posted on social media, hours after Israeli jets struck dozens of targets, killing much of Iran’s military high command.
Both men appeared to be gambling. In Mr. Netanyahu’s case, that Israel’s barrage of attacks would fatally damage Iran’s nuclear program and decapitate its military leadership. And in Mr. Trump’s case, that the assault would weaken Iran and force it into a diplomatic accommodation with the United States without spiraling into unintended, potentially catastrophic consequences.
For other world leaders, including Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain and President Emmanuel Macron of France, those consequences loomed large. They urged restraint, warning of ripple effects in a region that has already been at war on multiple fronts, from Gaza to the Israeli offensive against Hezbollah in Lebanon and the attacks of the Houthi rebels on shipping in the Persian Gulf.
Israel’s audacious attack will almost certainly torpedo Mr. Trump’s attempts to broker a deal curbing Iran’s nuclear ambitions. His implication that the Israeli attack could be a lever to soften up the Iranian leadership for diplomacy seemed far-fetched in the wake of images of burning apartment towers in Tehran.
Oil prices spiked and stock markets skidded as the prospect of a wider war rattled a world already buffeted by Mr. Trump’s zigzag course on tariffs. What loomed above all was the uncertainty about what comes next.
Among the many questions after the strikes:
Will Israel be able to cripple Iran’s nuclear program, especially Fordo, one of the most critical uranium enrichment facilities, buried deep in the side of a mountain? Israeli fighter jets struck the site early on Saturday, Iranian authorities told the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Will the strikes impel Iran to make a dash for a nuclear bomb, presuming it still has the capacity after the attacks on sites and the killing of Iranian scientists? Experts warn that Iran could withdraw from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty, which in turn could set off a regional nuclear arms race. (Israel is not a signatory to the treaty and has never confirmed it possesses nuclear weapons.)
Will the United States be dragged into the conflict beyond what it has already done to defend Israel from Iran’s retaliation? If it is, will that expose American troops and assets in the region to attacks by Iran or its proxies? The United States has moved diplomatic personnel out of vulnerable locations like Iraq.
Will the United States be able to prevent the conflict from metastasizing into a regionwide war? If it does spiral, how would that affect the calculus of Russia with its war in Ukraine and China with its designs on Taiwan? Both could exploit a United States preoccupied by another quagmire in the Middle East.
“Trump may have calculated that this was a bargaining move,” said Vali R. Nasr, a former dean of the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. “But it is a big gamble. If the U.S. gets dragged into a war, the entire geopolitical map — from Paris to Moscow to Washington to Beijing — will change.”
Mr. Nasr, who served in the State Department during the Obama administration, said Mr. Trump’s immediate challenge would be to prevent such an escalation. While Mr. Starmer, Mr. Macron and other leaders have urged restraint, the American president is the only figure who can play a decisive role.
To do that, Mr. Nasr said, Mr. Trump will have to put pressure not only on Iran, but also on Mr. Netanyahu, who has left no doubt that he views these strikes as the opening salvo in a sustained operation to extinguish Iran’s nuclear threat.
A regionwide war, Mr. Nasr said, would upend Mr. Trump’s foreign policy agenda, which is tilted toward trade policy and economic competition with China. During the 2024 presidential campaign, Mr. Trump presented himself as a peacemaker in Ukraine and the Middle East — goals that now look more elusive than ever.
“Trump came into office saying the big geopolitical challenge was the rivalry with China,” Mr. Nasr said. “He’s being sucked into a conflict he didn’t want on an issue that is third or fourth on his list of priorities.”
Oil prices soared more than 10 percent after news of the attacks broke. A wider war would deal a blow to global growth, generating another source of uncertainty at a time when Mr. Trump’s erratic course on tariffs has disrupted trade flows between the United States and dozens of trading partners.
Persuading Israel not to strike Iran’s nuclear facilities had been an article of faith of among American officials dating back more than a decade. Fears of an attack crested during the Obama administration because of Mr. Netanyahu’s outspoken opposition to the nuclear deal negotiated by President Barack Obama.
But the success of Israel’s more targeted strikes against Iran in recent months — as well as their limited spillover in the region — quelled the anxiety of American officials that an Israeli attack would have calamitous consequences.
Still, some analysts warned that Israel’s all-out assault could badly tarnish the credibility of the United States. Unlike a few years ago, when Persian Gulf countries tacitly favored an Israeli strike on Iran, viewing it as a strategic enemy, Saudi Arabia and other gulf states lobbied against Israeli military action this time.
“The U.S. now faces a reality where basically the entire region views its closest ally, Israel, as the primary destabilizing force and driver of radicalization in the region,” said Daniel Levy, a former Israeli peace negotiator who now runs the U.S./Middle East Project, a research group in London and New York.
Moreover, he said, the timing of the attack, just days before the next scheduled round of negotiations between Iranian officials and Mr. Trump’s special envoy, Steven Witkoff, in Oman, raises the risk that other countries will regard American diplomacy as merely a distraction intended to give Israeli warplanes a greater element of surprise. (Iran has said it will not take part in the talks.)
If that hardens into conventional wisdom, Mr. Levy said, it could encourage other countries to act pre-emptively in parts of the world that are not in a state of conflict, but where they fear a similarly disruptive United States.
For Iran, the stakes are no less profound. Israel’s waves of aerial attacks, augmented by Israeli intelligence agents operating inside Iran, have exposed, again, the glaring weaknesses in Iran’s defenses.
“Iran has a weak hand to play, compared to one year ago,” said Karim Sadjadpour, a senior fellow and expert on Iran at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a think tank in Washington.
With Israel having decimated Hamas and Hezbollah, the Iranians would have to rely on Houthi proxies to carry out reprisals against Israel or the United States. And the Houthis themselves have been targeted by the Americans.
Iran’s choices are all bad, Mr. Sadjadpour said. If it attacks oil installations in Saudi Arabia, it risks American military retaliation. If it announces plans to race for a bomb, it faces retaliation from Israel, as well as from the United States, which has long said it would not allow Iran to develop a nuclear weapons ability.
“Compounding Iran’s vulnerabilities,” he said, “its key military leaders and strategists who would prepare their retaliation have already been assassinated.”
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9) How L.A. Raids Ignited a New Fight Over Immigration
Los Angeles is home to the country’s largest population of undocumented immigrants. So when President Trump’s immigration raids arrived, many expected trouble.
By Miriam Jordan, Soumya Karlamangla, Shawn Hubler, Emily Baumgaertner Nunn, Orlando MayorquÃn and Matt Stevens, Reporting from Los Angeles and Washington, June 14, 2025
It was the morning shift at Ambiance Apparel, a clothing wholesaler on the edge of Los Angeles’s fashion district, and along with a crowded showroom of mannequins and women’s skirts was a sprawling warehouse, where immigrant workers were bustling about.
On any other day, the inventory would have flowed smoothly, from folded piles to cardboard boxes stacked on wooden pallets to be loaded onto trucks. But on June 6, as U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents swarmed the premises, dozens of employees at the warehouse and at a second facility nearby fled their workstations, ducking between shelves and inside boxes.
They couldn’t hide for long.
One of the workers, Tomas Anastacio, 55, who has three U.S.-born, college-educated children and has lived in Los Angeles for three decades, texted his son Carlos at around 10 a.m.
“Ca,” he wrote, “Immigration is at work.”
Carlos responded, “Oh no, I love you very much.”
When Carlos arrived at the downtown warehouse a few minutes later, Mr. Anastacio was already gone. Carlos stood in disbelief as his father’s co-workers were hauled away and their loved ones screamed, cried and bid them goodbye.
By the end of the day, about 40 people had been taken into custody, and hundreds of protesters were clashing with the police in downtown Los Angeles. It was the opening salvo in days of turmoil that have upended parts of the nation’s second-largest city and touched off protests across the country. The day after the raid, as scattered protests grew, President Trump ordered thousands of National Guard and Marine Corps troops to Los Angeles in an extraordinary, and to many excessive, show of force.
That Los Angeles struck the match that led thousands of Americans to take to the streets came as little surprise. The city, in the largest blue state, is home to the country’s largest undocumented population. It seemed an inevitable target for Mr. Trump’s plan to conduct mass deportations. In fact, it appears that all sides — the Trump administration; Gov. Gavin Newsom and his lawyers; activists; and immigrants themselves — had spent months preparing for this moment.
It came early on June 6, when Mayor Karen Bass was at home getting ready for a breakfast meeting. The messages began to land. One. Then another. Then a veritable deluge. Federal immigration agents appeared to be conducting an immigration raid of some sort, detaining day laborers at a Home Depot near MacArthur Park — three miles from the official mayor’s residence, The Getty House, and hours before the fashion district operation.
Stunned, she said, she asked her security detail to drive her there, quickly. Spanish-language media outlets were interviewing shaken bystanders by the time she pulled up. Frightened street vendors had abandoned their carts of tamales and rice pudding cups on the sidewalks.
The mayor stayed in the vehicle, cruising anonymously past the television trucks and the bystanders, reluctant to wade into a phalanx of reporters before she knew the whole story. But at some level, she already understood what was happening — had been expecting it, in fact, since Mr. Trump won the election.
From her black S.U.V., she gazed out the window. “My reaction was: ‘OK. Here we go.’”
Los Angeles had swiftly passed an ordinance in the days after Mr. Trump’s re-election that formally established the city as a so-called sanctuary zone, in alignment with a 2018 state law that limits the extent to which local law enforcement participates in immigration enforcement.
For months, in church basements, in community centers and over Zoom, immigrant advocates had been walking undocumented people through their rights, in case they were confronted by federal agents: Remain silent. Don’t let them in unless they slip a warrant, signed by a judge, under the door. Show them the red card that lists your constitutional rights.
Maegan Ortiz, executive director of the nonprofit group IDEPSCA, which supports day laborers, said the group had been running practice drills for months at five different job resource centers.
“I was playing ICE in different scenarios and literally timing everyone,” she said. “If I came from this side of the street, how long would it take for you to see me? How long would it take for workers to get inside and lock up the door?”
So in some ways workers already knew what to expect that Friday morning when camouflage-clad federal agents rolled through the city’s fashion district, a collection of narrow downtown alleyways where vendors sell leather handbags, quinceañera gowns and bolts of fabric in every shade.
A father of four who had shown up at the Ambiance Apparel warehouse for his shift packing women’s clothes had messaged his wife: “ICE is here. There’s very little time, they’re going to take us.” That was the last text he sent her before being detained.
Community organizers rushed to take photos and video to spread the word via a rapid response network established by immigrant rights, legal and faith-based groups to immediately report any ICE activity and dispatch people to disrupt the operations and use bullhorns to inform immigrants of their rights.
As the morning wore on, more activists, family members and neighbors crowded outside Ambiance Apparel to see workers lined up against a wall, handcuffed and muscled into law enforcement vans.
Montserrat Arrazola, a college student, was watching a live TikTok video and spotted her father’s workplace as the scene of the raid. She rushed over in time to see him loaded into a white van. Carlos Gonzalez said he saw his brother “being chained up like he was some kind of dangerous animal.”
Some protesters threw eggs and aluminum cans and shouted through wrought-iron gates at ICE agents, who had obscured their faces with sunglasses, masks and baseball caps. At some point, someone in the crowd tried to padlock the gate to prevent law enforcement vehicles from coming in or out, according to a federal complaint.
Even more federal agents with rifles rolled in on armored vehicles and came face to face with the protesters, who they said threw bicycles and rocks at them and slashed their tires. The agents fired rubber bullets and flash-bang grenades at the crowd, injuring at least one person with shrapnel.
The federal agents had clearly been prepared for a confrontation, perhaps in part because of what had happened in San Diego the previous week, when agents in tactical gear raided a popular Italian restaurant and were confronted by screaming protesters who tried to block their vehicles with their bodies. The military-style operation, in which some agents carried rifles and lobbed flash-bang grenades, set off days of demonstrations in San Diego.
The day before the first Los Angeles raids, Mr. Trump waved away reporters from his round table with leaders of police unions at the White House, and he privately indicated that an aggressive new phase of his deportation campaign was coming, according to one of the law enforcement officials in attendance.
He criticized “rogue prosecutors” blocking his agenda and said that immigration agents would soon be greatly expanding their presence in cities.
The next day, Thomas D. Homan, appointed border czar by Mr. Trump, visited the ICE field office in Los Angeles, where agents were gearing up for the forthcoming raids. He was accompanied by Dr. Phil McGraw, the conservative-leaning on-air psychologist, who later broadcast his conversation with Mr. Homan.
Mr. Homan told the agents to be prepared for serious pushback from the public, and reminded them of their marching orders: “Zero tolerance. If someone impedes you, you arrest them. If someone puts hands on you, you arrest them. If someone tries to get between you and the alien you’re arresting, you’re going to arrest and prosecute them.”
Mr. Trump by then was at his residence in Bedminster, N.J., where he and his aides watched footage of the protests unfolding in Los Angeles.
The Situation Escalates
Mayor Bass had resumed her day after her visit to the Home Depot. She was near Los Angeles International Airport with local transportation officials for a late morning event when her phone blew up again: Another raid, this time downtown at Ambiance Apparel. David Huerta, the head of the Service Employees International Union-United Service Workers West and a well-known Los Angeles labor leader, had been arrested. She jumped back into her S.U.V.
Federal authorities, in the criminal complaint they later filed against Mr. Huerta, said that ICE agents had been confronted by a hostile crowd. “I want you to kill yourself!” one onlooker shouted, according to the complaint. “Go home and drink a lot of vodka and shoot yourself with your own goddamn revolver!”
Mr. Huerta, prosecutors said, shouted at the protesters, “Stop the vehicles!” and sat cross-legged in front of a vehicular gate. A video of Mr. Huerta’s arrest shows a federal agent pushing him while his hands were at his hips. He fell to the ground, was detained and then taken to the hospital to be treated for a head injury.
In California labor circles, news of Mr. Huerta’s arrest on charges of conspiracy to impede an officer spread within seconds. Lorena Gonzalez, president of the California Labor Federation, was having lunch in San Diego with a group of old friends when she received the first of about a half-dozen simultaneous calls.
The janitors union was the first to break through. “The reaction was, like, what the heck?” Ms. Gonzalez recalled. She excused herself and took to the phones. Leaders of S.E.I.U. Leaders of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor. She called the president of the A.F.L.-C.I.O. in Washington, Elizabeth H. Shuler, to give her a heads-up. “She was like, ‘Oh my god.’”
The ensuing hours were a flurry of planning, trying to gather the facts of the situation and Mr. Huerta’s condition.
Mayor Bass raced to the apparel wholesaler, debriefing with the police chief and expressing her outrage to reporters. Then, worried about Mr. Huerta, she went to the county hospital emergency room and negotiated her way past federal agents to find him on a bed, “very emotional.”
It was not clear whether federal authorities knew at the time that they had taken a powerful labor leader into custody. “We had no idea who he was when he was arrested,” the U.S. attorney in Los Angeles, Bill Essayli, said in an interview the next day. “He’s being housed at the Metropolitan Detention Center, like every other criminal who gets arrested in our district.”
Across the rapid response network, there was an urgent call to action. A minute later, someone texted that ICE agents were in another part of the city arresting day laborers who had gathered there.
By evening, hundreds of people had swarmed the federal detention center where some of the detainees were being held. Demonstrators chanted “Free them all,” vandalized the building and hurled chairs, rocks and other objects at officers. Federal authorities guarding the detention center fired projectiles, flash-bang grenades and tear gas at the demonstrators, many of whom were the same activists who had been preparing immigrants for months.
“We’re marching toward Alameda,” said a text message at around 5:30 p.m. received by one activist organizer, Alex Quintero. “Crowds are merging,” said another.
At one point, a text popped up: “Be careful, it’s getting spicy.”
“They are starting to teargas people,” said another.
As the unrest was building, Mr. Trump called Mr. Newsom. According to a White House official, who was granted anonymity to discuss the unfolding events, he demanded that the governor get the police in gear and get things under control.
Mr. Newsom remembered the call very differently. In an interview with The New York Times, he said that he had tried to bring up the raids but that the president had changed the subject. “He never brought it up,” Mr. Newsom said. “Period, full stop. He lied about that.” He said he had no warning when, roughly 24 hours later, Mr. Trump bypassed the governor to announce he was deploying the National Guard to Los Angeles over his objections.
Friday had been Capt. Raul Jovel’s day off. The police official in charge of downtown Los Angeles had planned to treat himself to a steak dinner. He had even begun texting friends about meeting him for it.
But as he was driving on the 10 freeway to his planned meal, he got a call from his boss. “I need you to come in,” the boss told him. Crowds were gathering in the civic center.
“We were really unsure what was going to happen,” Captain Jovel recalled.
The federal officers who were under assault at the detention center were calling the Los Angeles police to help, and eventually, close to 200 officers from the department were sent to the scene.
“When I saw the federal officers deploying tear gas, that’s when you know it’s getting bad,” Captain Jovel said.
“OK, it’s escalated now,” he thought to himself. “Let’s really move in and take care of business.”
At around 7 p.m., the Los Angeles Police Department declared an unlawful assembly and ordered crowds to disperse, and lines of officers in riot gear began pushing demonstrators out of the streets. They did not make any arrests that night. But by that time, the detention facility had been tagged with anti-ICE graffiti, the ground was littered with shards of flash-bang grenades, and protesters had been riled up for a fight.
Protests Enter a Second Day
“Oh my god,” the voice on the Instagram livestream began.
It was Saturday morning, a little before 9 a.m., and José Luis Solache Jr., a state lawmaker from southeastern Los Angeles County, had pulled out his phone to film. He had been on his way to an event in a nearby city when he saw a convoy of what appeared to be federal officers that had just exited the freeway. They appeared to be staging near another Home Depot in Paramount, a small city southeast of Los Angeles where more than 80 percent of residents are Hispanic.
“I’m shaking,” Mr. Solache said as the camera jostled toward the intersection. “I’ve already let my team know so we’re going to make some calls.”
One of those he phoned was Peggy Lemons, Paramount’s mayor, who called her staff. No one at the federal government had warned the city of any enforcement action. City workers reported that the staging area was in an industrial park outside a federal Homeland Security office. They hadn’t divulged much, she said, but they said they were there not to raid the Home Depot but to conduct an operation elsewhere.
It was clear, as she pulled up in her Kia Sportage to the Home Depot, that fear had filled the vacuum left by no information.
“People just had already put two and two together and decided that they were going to, you know, go over there and snatch up people from our Home Depot,” she said. “So they started kind of like blocking them and taunting them and yelling, saying: ‘You’re not going to arrest anybody here. We don’t want you in our city.’”
In fact, she said, as far as she knew, the agents did not arrest any day laborers at the Home Depot. But two protesters were arrested.
Federal agents and sheriff’s deputies squared off with demonstrators, filling the streets of Paramount with tear gas and smoke on Saturday morning.
Standing a few feet from armed officers, Gabriel Garcia, 26, a teacher in the Paramount Unified School District who had rushed to the scene, called out to the protesters. “Be brave!” he shouted. “I know you’re scared, but so are undocumented families!”
The Paramount area is under the jurisdiction of the Los Angeles County sheriff, Robert Luna, who grew up in an unincorporated part of East Los Angeles that was patrolled by the department he now oversees.
“I come from an immigrant family,” Sheriff Luna said. “I have a lot of family members who migrated here. Some of them legally, some of them illegally.”
By the time he got to his command post on Saturday afternoon, the radio traffic was filled with reports of specialized units arriving. “A sign that things are not calm,” he said.
“When our deputies first arrived on that morning in Paramount, there was already full-scale confrontation between the feds and the community,” he said. “Eventually all the feds left, and then we got left there with the angry community.”
Sheriff Luna said that over a span of hours, his deputies had “tried everything to de-escalate the situation” and at one point declared an unlawful assembly. But after some in the crowd attacked deputies with broken cinder blocks, rocks, bottles and pepper spray, “we unfortunately had to respond.”
“We do not use less lethal munitions on protesters or demonstrators,” he said. “We use them on agitators who are attacking us or the public.”
Ms. Lemons’s eyes welled with tears as she described the events. She said she had been hearing all week from constituents who feared for the safety of their children, parents and family members.
“These are not people who just crossed the border,” she said. “These are people who’ve been here 15, 20, 30 years. They have no clue what this is all going to cost us, not just economically but on a personal and moral level. These are our hairdressers, our barbers, our lawn service workers. Our grocery store people.”
Law enforcement officials said the tone of the protests also seemed to change on Saturday. Cars now came in caravans. People showed up at protests in masks, dressed in black. Some brought hammers to break off chunks of concrete barriers that they could then throw at officers.
Jim McDonnell, the Los Angeles police chief, has said that a clear distinction emerged between “the people that we see during the day, who are legitimately out there exercising their First Amendment rights” and “the people who are out there doing the violence,” who are “hooded up” with face masks, moving from one place of civil unrest to another to “do this all the time.”
ICE officials emphasized that most of their arrest targets had been people with criminal records, but that others present during their operations might also face immigration charges.
“These rioters in Los Angeles are fighting to keep rapists, murderers and other violent criminals loose on Los Angeles streets,” Tricia McLaughlin, an assistant Homeland Security secretary, said in a statement on Sunday. “Instead of rioting, they should be thanking ICE officers every single day who wake up and make our communities safer.”
That morning, Jonathan Alvarado, 15, whose father is undocumented, spent several hours making cold calls to members of unions to encourage them to join the protests.
He followed a script, in English or Spanish, depending on the language listed next to the person’s name.
“We are speaking from the workers’ union,” he began, and explained where demonstrators were gathering at Gloria Molina Grand Park in downtown Los Angeles. “Can we count on you?”
The teenager and his mother, Marcelle, joined the demonstrations. But they would not stay for long.
Tensions intensified later on Sunday with the arrival of the National Guard. When self-driving cars were set ablaze and a crowd blocked the 101 freeway, law enforcement officers from multiple agencies responded with tear gas, rubber bullets and flash bangs. One person used a motorcycle to ram into a line of officers, the police said.
The crowd was much bigger by that time, the authorities said, perhaps as many as 1,000 people. Captain Jovel recalled that at one point, officers in five separate locations were asking for backup. “Sunday was the busiest, most volatile incident that I’ve seen in my 29 years,” he said.
Roughly 42 people were arrested by various agencies.
The families of those detained in the Ambiance Apparel raid have struggled to contact their loved ones.
Carlos Anastacio, whose father was taken, was not able to speak to him for four days, and has not been allowed to see him.
For over a decade, the elder Mr. Anastacio had worked for minimum wage in the packaging department at Ambiance. The first to rise each morning, he headed out early from their home in Koreatown and returned some 12 hours later.
“He wasn’t just the head of the household,” Carlos said in an interview. “He was our emotional support.”
When he manages to reach him on the phone at the overcrowded detention center, Carlos said, his father “sounds anxious, very much in fear of what the future holds.”
Lisa Knox, a lawyer who represents detained immigrants, called the ICE office in Los Angeles repeatedly to get information on the garment factory workers, to no avail. Then she sent an email to ICE again asking about one of the workers. Within 17 minutes, she received a succinct reply.
“Good morning,” the email read. “Your client has been removed to Mexico.”
Jill Cowan, Zolan Kanno-Youngs, Laurel Rosenhall, Ana Facio-Krajcer, Mimi Dwyer and Hamed Aleaziz contributed reporting.
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10) Marines, in a Rare Move, Briefly Detain Man in Los Angeles
The man, who said he was a veteran, was soon released. But the incident calls attention to the operation of troops in a police-like domestic function.
By Rachel Parsons, Eric Schmitt and Richard Fausset, June 13, 2025
Marcos Leao, 27, was detained by Marines who were protecting a federal building in the Westwood section of Los Angeles on Friday. Credit...Aude Guerrucci/Reuters
A man running an errand and trying to enter a Veterans Affairs office at a federal building in Los Angeles was briefly detained on Friday by U.S. Marines who have been sent to the city by the Trump administration to quell unrest.
The man was quickly released and the incident appeared to be a minor one. But it was noteworthy in one major way: Federal troops are rarely deployed on American soil and are rarely seen detaining U.S. civilians, even temporarily.
The man, Marcos Leao, 27, was detained by Marines who were protecting the Wilshire Federal Building, about 15 miles west of where the protests have been taking place in downtown Los Angeles. In an interview, he said he was an Army veteran.
Mr. Leao said he tried to duck under yellow caution tape cordoning off a plaza area outside the building. He said he was undisturbed by his brief detention.
“They treated me very fairly,” he said.
Los Angeles has been on edge for a week, with nightly protests downtown in response to the Trump administration’s immigration raids in the region. Other protests have surfaced in surrounding neighborhoods and cities.
The Trump administration’s deployment of Marines, along with National Guard troops, has stoked outrage among protesters and California officials. A federal judge late Thursday temporarily prevented the federal government’s mobilization of the California National Guard. But an appeals court has blocked that ruling for the time being, freeing up National Guard troops to be in the city during a mass demonstration planned for Saturday.
The federal building is the same one where F.B.I. agents forcibly removed Senator Alex Padilla, Democrat of California, from a news conference on Thursday. The 17-story building includes offices for the F.B.I., the Veterans Affairs Department and a federal passport agency.
A 19th-century law, the Posse Comitatus Act, generally makes it illegal to use federal troops for law enforcement on domestic soil.
Defense Department officials have said, however, in explaining their authority to detain people, that soldiers can do so under Title 10 of the United States Code, which lays out the legal basis for the use of U.S. military forces. Officials said that members of the military may take actions to provide for the defense of others and the defense of property, including temporarily detaining an individual. Any person who is temporarily detained, Defense Department officials have said, will be transferred to civilian law enforcement, and federal prosecutors will decide whether to bring any charges.
Chief Jim McDonnell of the Los Angeles Police Department said in a news conference Friday afternoon that he was “unaware” of the detention by the Marines. The chief said that troops had not been involved in any detentions carried out by L.A.P.D. officers.
Chief McDonnell has been critical of the troops’ deployment, saying that their presence created a “significant logistical and operational challenge” for local law enforcement agencies. On Friday, he said that his department had had some contact with military officials. But he also called that contact “minimal.”
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11) Cities Nationwide Brace for Day of Protests
Los Angeles said it was preparing for a turnout that “may be unprecedented” after days of sustained protests against the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration.
By Mike Baker, Sean Keenan and Rick Rojas, June 14, 2025
Federal law enforcement agents outside the Edward R. Roybal Federal Building in downtown Los Angeles on Thursday. Protests in the city were expected to be the largest since demonstrations started over a week ago. Mark Abramson for The New York Times
Protesters began filling plazas and streets in cities across the country on Saturday morning, mobilizing for mass demonstrations to counter the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, cuts to federal services and a large military parade in Washington that coincides with the president’s 79th birthday.
In Atlanta, thousands of people packed into Liberty Plaza, carrying signs that included the message “Stop Trump’s Terrorism” and singing a rendition of “Take Me Out to the Ball Game” adjusted with the words “Take Trump out of the White House.” In Nashville, where more than 1,000 people gathered near the Tennessee State Capitol, a cheering crowd recited the Pledge of Allegiance.
The authorities in Los Angeles, which has emerged as the epicenter of anxiety over immigration enforcement and seen days of sustained protests, said they were bracing for the possibility of crowd sizes that could be “unprecedented.”
The collective action on Saturday — called “No Kings” demonstrations by organizers — encompasses some 2,000 planned events spread through all 50 states, from big cities to small towns. Those protests come amid building outrage over raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Los Angeles that led to mass demonstrations and conflicts with law enforcement. The Trump administration has now shifted the focus of its mass deportation campaign, telling immigration officials to largely pause raids and arrests in hotels, restaurants and the agricultural industry.
The protest organizers avoided calling for demonstrations in Washington, where the military parade is set to go on despite a forecast of possibly severe storms. Mr. Trump warned that anyone seeking to protest at the parade would be met with “very big force.”
Elected leaders and law enforcement officials in California and across the country encouraged protesters to remain peaceful, and organizers of the “No Kings” demonstrations called on participants to focus on “nonviolent action.” Mayor Karen Bass of Los Angeles warned that demonstrations that turned destructive would only feed into an unfounded portrayal of Los Angeles as gripped by unrest.
“We want to make sure that everybody understands that Los Angeles is united,” Ms. Bass, a Democrat, said at a news conference on Friday night.
Here’s what else to know:
Detained by Marines: Marcos Leao, a 27-year-old Army veteran, was briefly held by U.S. Marines outside of a federal building in Los Angeles. The move was noteworthy because federal troops are rarely seen detaining U.S. civilians, even temporarily. Read more ›
Congressional inquiry: The House Oversight Committee said it was opening an investigation into the Los Angeles protests, including communications between Gov. Gavin Newsom and Mayor Karen Bass. Mr. Newsom responded that the records would include “some highly unusual communications from the White House.”
Orlando Mayorquin
June 14, 2025, 11:14 a.m. ET12 minutes ago
As an overnight curfew lifts in downtown Los Angeles, the streets remain quiet. Police are stationed near locations where protesters are expected later today.
Maria Jimenez Moya
June 14, 2025, 11:10 a.m. ET16 minutes ago
Maria Jimenez Moya
Reporting from Houston
The Houston protest is kicking off. Thousands of people of all ages surround City Hall, U.S. and Latin American flags are waving and Latin music is playing.
Taylor Robinson
June 14, 2025, 10:58 a.m. ET28 minutes ago
Taylor Robinson
Reporting from Newark, N.J.
A crowd of protesters is braving the rain in Newark, N.J., gathering in front of the Essex County Courthouse. In front of a statue of Abraham Lincoln, Larry Hamm, a community organizer, is leading the poncho-clad protesters in chants of “Trump must go” and “down with dictatorship.” The protest will officially begin at 11 a.m.
Sean Keenan
June 14, 2025, 10:30 a.m. ET56 minutes ago
Anti-Trump demonstrators booed as a small group of Proud Boys weaved through the crowd outside the Georgia statehouse.
June 14, 2025, 10:20 a.m. ET1 hour ago
The Atlanta protest launched with a rendition of “Take Me Out to the Ballgame,” its lyrics swapped to demand an end to Trump’s presidency. Organizers held up placards with the new words that the crowds sang: “Take Trump out of the White House/Lock him up in the jail.”
Sean Keenan
June 14, 2025, 9:59 a.m. ET1 hour ago
Thousands have already funneled into Liberty Plaza, a park in the shadow of Georgia’s statehouse in Atlanta. The sardine-packed crowd is quiet, awaiting the 10 a.m. kickoff of speeches and chants.
Kevin Williams
June 14, 2025, 9:51 a.m. ET2 hours ago
Kevin Williams
Reporting from Cincinnati
Protesters began an early morning march on the University of Cincinnati campus. The university announced that all five of the university’s public parking garages would be closed today because of the protests.
Michael Gold
June 14, 2025, 9:14 a.m. ET2 hours ago
All 45 Senate Democrats and two independent senators sent a letter on Friday to President Trump urging him “to immediately withdraw all military personnel that have been deployed to Los Angeles.” The letter, led by Senator Alex Padilla of California, said the senators feared the precedent the deployment of troops to L.A. set for other cities and states and that the Trump administration’s decision undermined the “constitutional balance of power between the federal government and the states.”
Supporters of President Trump in Republican strongholds across the country are preparing to celebrate his birthday and the 250th anniversary of the Army on Saturday, the same day thousands of protesters will demonstrate against what they see as authoritarian actions by the president’s administration.
The striking juxtaposition follows several days of protests against federal immigration raids in major cities, including Los Angeles, where Mr. Trump’s deployment of the California National Guard and the Marines fueled further civil unrest and a legal battle between a Democratic governor and the president.
At least 60 protesters were arrested on Thursday night in demonstrations against the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, raising the number of arrests to more than 1,200 nationwide since the protests erupted last week in Los Angeles.
Roughly 2,000 other protests against the Trump administration were expected across the country on Saturday, when a military parade is planned by the White House in Washington.
An “unprecedented” number of people are expected to attend protests in Los Angeles on Saturday against President Trump and his administration immigration crackdown, the Los Angeles police chief said.
The surge in demonstrators was expected on the same day as a planned military parade in Washington in honor of the Army’s 250th anniversary, which also coincides with Mr. Trump’s 79th birthday.
Fact Check
The protests in Los Angeles, entering their eighth day on Friday, have spurred President Trump to deploy National Guard troops to the city, an extraordinary move that he has justified with a number of dubious claims.
The demonstrations against the president’s widening crackdown on immigration have led to clashes between demonstrators and law enforcement. But many of Mr. Trump’s claims follow a yearslong pattern of expressing skepticism and contempt toward protesters and are not rooted in fact. They seek to portray the protests as fraudulent, the deployment of troops as lauded and the city in need of liberation.
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12) Inside the Tumult That Led 4 Men to Escape from a Migrant Facility
Conditions had been deteriorating at Delaney Hall in Newark for days. Detainees complained about erratic meals and crowded conditions. Then their frustrations boiled over.
By Tracey Tully, Luis Ferré-Sadurnà and Raúl Vilchis, June 14, 2025
Delaney Hall, an immigration detention center in Newark, where four detainees escaped on Thursday. Credit...Bryan Anselm for The New York Times
Conditions had been disintegrating for days inside a massive immigration detention center in an industrial corner of Newark.
Meals had been erratic at the privately run facility that last month began holding migrants facing deportation. Some detainees were sleeping on floors. And the water available from faucets was sometimes scalding or foul tasting.
Several dozen men in Unit 5, on an upper floor of the jailhouse known as Delaney Hall, had grown frustrated. And after returning Thursday afternoon from a first-floor cafeteria, where they said they had been given slices of bread in place of a meal, they began covering security cameras and smashing at walls and windows.
Two security guards stationed in the unit retreated, and some of the detainees pushed the door closed.
By the time the disruption was over, four men had escaped.
This account of events before and after the escape is based on interviews with several immigration lawyers who spoke to clients at Delaney Hall during the melee and more than a dozen people who had conversations with loved ones who called from inside the jail, pleading for help. On Friday, Senator Andy Kim and Representative Rob Menendez, both Democrats from New Jersey, offered additional details after touring the facility and speaking with federal officials and representatives from GEO Group, the private company that runs the 1,000-bed jail.
The tumult raised urgent questions about the living conditions inside the detention facility and others like it across the country as President Trump ramps up immigration arrests, filling to capacity many detention centers that, together, are holding about 51,000 migrants nationwide.
The breakout also prompted scrutiny of GEO Group and the measures it took as it converted a facility that had been dormant for about a year into a detention center after winning a 15-year, $1 billion contract from the Trump administration in February. Local officials have for months raised concerns that Delaney Hall had not been properly inspected, leading the mayor of Newark, Ras J. Baraka, to sue GEO Group as he sought to force the company to reapply for a new certificate of occupancy.
The men who escaped had punched a hole through an exterior wall of the jail that Mr. Kim described as crude — “essentially just drywall with some mesh inside.”
“It shows just how shoddy construction was,” he said, and highlights what can happen when for-profit prisons “try to pocket” as much money as possible.
On Friday afternoon, representatives from GEO Group pushed back on that claim, noting all the services offered to the detainees, including medical care, family visitations and opportunities to exercise religious faiths.
“Contrary to current reporting, there has been no widespread unrest at the facility,” Christopher Ferreira, a GEO Group spokesman, said in an email.
Still, on Friday night, guards began loading migrants into large white vans and appeared to be evacuating at least part of the facility, as officials from the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency, rushed to contain the fallout.
Trouble had been brewing at Delaney Hall for days.
Detainees had complained to their lawyers and to relatives about increasingly crammed quarters and paltry meals served at irregular hours.
The cafeteria was being used to accommodate migrants who had been moved out of other parts of the facility to address crowding, Mr. Kim said. That disrupted the delivery of the already small portions of food, he said.
At about 4:30 p.m. on Thursday, the tension hit a tipping point.
“Guards — they lost control,” said Mustafa Cetin, a New Jersey immigration lawyer who spent 11 minutes on the phone Thursday night with a Turkish client who huddled during the chaos with others in Unit 5.
The Turkish man, a father of three who lives in South Jersey, told Mr. Cetin that after a hole was punched through the wall, the men who escaped used bedsheets to lower themselves to the ground.
Mr. Kim said that the fleeing men wound up in an adjacent parking lot, and then climbed a fence behind the facility to escape.
A woman whose brother, José, was being held at the facility, said she got a call from him at 5:44 p.m. Thursday. A Salvadoran construction worker in New Jersey, he had been there for several weeks after being detained when he showed up for a court hearing.
“He told me he was scared and didn’t know what would happen to him,” said the woman, who asked to be identified only by her first name, Cecilia, because she fears retaliation. “People were desperate, breaking doors, banging on walls.”
The unit was also very hot, she said, with air conditioning that was either broken or not working well. Temperatures on Thursday in Newark were unseasonably high, hitting 91 degrees in the late afternoon.
At around the same time, another detainee called a staffer at DIRE, an emergency immigration hotline in New Jersey.
“We could hear screaming and yelling in the background,” said Ellen Whitt, a volunteer who works at DIRE.
People who had been scheduled to visit detainees on Thursday afternoon were turned away. Many were still gathered outside when a fire truck showed up, followed by squad cars from the Newark Police Department and the Essex County Sheriffs Department.
Soon after, vans filled with masked federal agents wearing vests labeled ICE and ERO, an ICE division known as the Enforcement Removal Operation, began arriving and entered through the locked gated perimeter of the facility, according to several videos taken by immigrant rights activists and relatives of detainees.
One van that entered held two gray vats of material labeled “toxic” and “flammable,” according to photos taken by a witness and shared with The New York Times.
As guards attempted to restore order, a pungent odor filled Unit 5, Mr. Cetin said, and his client doused fabric with water and placed it under a door in a dormitory-style room to try to keep a strong smell of gas from seeping in.
Over on Unit 4 a guard entered and asked a Mexican detainee if the “gas” that had been fired to quell unrest in another part of the building had reached his dormitory, according to Rosalinda Ortega, 35, the detainee’s wife.
“He’s the only one who speaks English in his room, and he told me that an official asked him if they were fine, because they had thrown gas to control the other people and they wanted to check because the windows were sealed,” Ms. Ortega said, relaying a phone conversation she had with her husband on Friday.
Delaney Hall has for weeks been the site of protests against the Trump administration’s immigration arrests. As news of the disturbance began to spread Thursday night, so did the size of the crowd outside.
At nightfall, a K-9 unit and agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation arrived.
A New Jersey law enforcement official who was briefed on the details of the escape said that the number of people who were believed to be missing fluctuated throughout the night, from five to nine and then to four.
Federal authorities continued to search late Friday for the missing men, who, according to the Department of Homeland Security, were from Colombia and Honduras and all had criminal records. The men had crossed the border illegally in recent years or had overstayed their visas, the agency said. They had all been arrested in New Jersey or New York for crimes that included weapons possession, burglary, aggravated assault and terroristic threats.
Officials announced a $10,000 reward for information about their whereabouts.
Worried families showed up at Delaney Hall early on Friday, hoping to get a glimpse of their loved ones.
Ms. Ortega, the wife of the Mexican detainee, said she drove 13 hours from Gainesville, Ga., with her three young daughters, hoping to pick up her husband, who had been scheduled to be released on Friday.
She worried that the breakout would delay or derail their reunion.
She and her daughters watched Friday evening as van after van filled with migrants exited the facility, wondering aloud if their husband and father was inside one of them, and where he might be going next.
Mark Bonamo contributed reporting.
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13) Protest Is Underrated
By David Wallace-Wells, Opinion Writer, June 14, 2025
The first thing to know is that it was all basically willed into being — not by “paid protesters” or the Mexican government or socialists or union leaders, but by Stephen Miller, the architect of President Trump’s xenophobic immigration plan and his deputy chief of staff. In a May meeting at ICE headquarters, Miller reportedly demanded that field agents forget about targeting only those undocumented immigrants with criminal records and instead stage purposefully cruel, attention-getting sweeps in places like the parking lot of a Home Depot. That is precisely where, last Friday, those raids began.
The second thing to know is that the unrest was really quite limited: a roughly five-block stretch downtown, in a city of nearly four million people spread over almost 500 square miles; several driverless Waymo robot taxis, lined up on one street and set ablaze. There was some more serious violence, too: some journalists were shot with rubber bullets and other less-lethal munitions, a few cop cars were pelted with rocks, and at least one was set on fire, but no serious law-enforcement injuries were reported. But this was not 1965, with widespread arson and 34 deaths, or 1992, with disorder spreading through whole neighborhoods and more than 60 people killed.
None of that means that what began last Friday in Los Angeles — a series of spectacular ICE raids, a direct-action response to block them, large-scale peaceful protests punctuated in places by bursts of familiar violence — is insignificant. To the contrary: Hundreds of migrants and protesters have been arrested over the last week, with many of the raids conducted by ICE officers in the now-familiar uniform of masked anonymity. The National Guard was mobilized over the objection of California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, and without the support of the Los Angeles Police Department’s leadership, with hundreds of Marines on active duty mobilized to join them in a rare deployment of military personnel to a site of domestic unrest.
On Tuesday, Trump disparaged Los Angeles as a “trash heap” in an incendiary speech that was met with horrifying applause from assembled loyalists in the Army, and on Thursday, Senator Alex Padilla was hauled out of a local news conference being held by the secretary of homeland security, Kristi Noem. When the senator was wrestled to the floor, the secretary had just declared “we are not going away,” but would instead stay in L.A. to “liberate the city” from “socialists” and its democratically elected local government.
The political scientists I spoke to throughout the week used phrases like “competitive authoritarianism,” “acute democratic backsliding” and “autocratic power grab.”
But the political theater of the last week also seemed strangely distorted, as though we were watching it transpire through the wrong end of a telescope. If the decade of protest that encircled the world from Tahrir Square to Hong Kong in the 2010s was a result of social media, which made it much easier to amass enormous rallies on the streets without much real organization or commitment among those joining the march, we seem to have entered a new phase, in which the relationship between real-world protest and the debate stage of our phones has been somewhat inverted.
Social media is still useful in drawing crowds pretty spontaneously into the streets. But it is now also functioning as its own theater, where the real world serves as fodder for endless argumentation, exasperation, outrage, and hand-wringing. “The agenda gets set through virality,” says the Berkeley political scientist Jake Grumbach. As does responsibility, he says — which, “in an era of social media, it’s incredibly hard to manage.”
“I am struck, in some ways, by the scriptedness of it all,” says another Berkeley political scientist, Omar Wasow, who studies activism and backlash. “Protests are an act of storytelling, at their most powerful when they draw on mythology in our culture, and what happens on the ground matters in shifting politics,” he goes on. “But there’s also a template now: outrage and calls for law and order on the right, and a kind of rallying behind the righteousness of the cause on the left. There is media coverage that just hyper-fixates on there’s a fire!” And, of course, a know-it-all impulse to proclaim, too, when we first see such images, that their effect on public opinion is obvious.
Grumbach calls this “pundit brain” — the impulse to immediately digest political news primarily through debates over strategy. Was it good to burn a Waymo, effective to block a highway, productive to wave a Mexican flag, all in the name of raising salience? Or would it all backfire, giving Trump and Miller exactly what they wanted, as so many pundits immediately warned.
Within just a few days, attention had turned away from those images and the A.I. slop each inspired, and toward the Trump administration’s eager escalation. But public opinion was scattered enough that it was pretty foolish to presume any coherent strategic lesson from it. One poll says Americans largely support the use of the military “to bring order to the streets” in the event of violence; another says they oppose even the use of the National Guard. Overall polling suggests that while Americans may disapprove of the protests, they also disapprove of Trump’s response. One poll says immigration is Trump’s best issue; another has support turning sharply downward in recent days.
And, of course, over time opinion is volatile, too, and getting more so in an age of thermostatic whiplash. Just five years ago, for the first time in the Gallup survey’s history, more Americans were telling pollsters that they wanted higher rates of immigration rather than less, and not long before that those who believed immigrants were on net contributing positively to the country outnumbered those who thought they were a burden — 62 percent to 28 percent.
There are enduring lessons from political science about what works, but despite what we are often told, those lessons are not exactly that the public will never support disruptive action or even that some amount of violent protest is always counterproductive. These questions are the core focus of the research of Erica Chenoweth, a political scientist at Harvard, who finds that nonviolence is generally less politically risky, but also thinks questions about specific tactics are less important than the basic playbook for success: mass mobilization focused on cultivating noncooperation like boycotts and strikes among institutions and business elites, and designed above all to invite public defections from the other side.
In that sense, it is encouraging to see veterans and members of the military speaking out, and several Republican members of Congress appearing to criticize the president’s actions — and indeed to see the president himself somewhat backing down, suggesting that ICE should deploy more common sense in targeting farm and hotel workers, for instance. (Of course, we’ll see if that holds.)
But as Hahrie Han of Johns Hopkins pointed out to me, it’s always critical to build alliances between protesters and other leaders — as Senator Padilla seemed to be when he disrupted that D.H.S. news conference. But in the present environment that is becoming harder to do, given greater government surveillance and far more aggressive policing of dissent and political speech. (It’s no mistake, after all, that this administration’s first high-profile ICE detentions were not of violent criminals or even people in the country illegally but of activists here on green cards and student visas.)
This was one major shortcoming of the large-scale global protests of the 2010s, Vincent Bevins argued in his book “If We Burn: The Mass Protest Decade and the Missing Revolution,” when millions took to the streets across Cairo, Istanbul, Rio de Janeiro and Hong Kong, successively shocking the world with the sheer volume of widespread indignation — only to watch as the spontaneous-seeming protest energy quickly dissipated. In so many cases, something like the status quo, and often worse, returned.
By this standard, you might judge a whole generation of mass American protest to be a failure, too. The anti-globalization drive centered in Seattle in 1999, the antiwar protests in the run-up to the invasion of Iraq in 2003, and the Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street movements in the aftermath of the financial crisis of 2008 — all sputtered out without notching obvious policy victories or reversing the patterns of history each hoped to thwart. But sometimes, the victories are simply more diffuse than we might expect — as, in truth, were the demands of protesters. Occupy Wall Street, for instance, didn’t lead to a huge wealth tax, but it did introduce income inequality as a new center of political gravity for the country. Over the same period, the country simultaneously grew considerably more isolationist and, in recent years, anti-free trade.
The legacy of more recent mass protests is complicated, too, partly because we so rush to adjudicate each episode immediately that we miss what protest is really meant to do, which is to bring change over time. Do you measure the balance of progress and backlash on Day 3, Month 3, Year 3, or even later? Do you look to public opinion, or policy, or who’s in the White House or the statehouse or the mayor’s office?
The climate protests, which surged in 2019, did ultimately result in concrete policy: the Inflation Reduction Act and the European Green Deal. But the first is now on the MAGA chopping block and the second has been put on the back burner, amid a broader cultural retreat from climate alarm. The Black Lives Matter protests of 2020 were enormously popular, meaningfully elevating national concern for racial justice and benefiting Democratic candidates that fall, though they are often remembered as progressive excess feeding of what looks like the country’s present reactionary turn. And activism against Israel’s war on Gaza, centered on college campuses, has ignited a war on elite higher education and is these days routinely derided as cartoonish political grandiosity from privileged 20-year-olds — but American sympathy for Israel has recently reached an all-time low. Exactly what is cause and what is effect, in each of these, is not so clear — it rarely is, in real time, and it isn’t always so clear in retrospect, either.
And then there is what you might call the most significant of all recent political unrest — the storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. In the weeks and months that followed, Trump’s political standing seemed to collapse — including among electorally critical moderates and many prominent Republicans, who took the opportunity to publicly and unequivocally defect from and denounce the Trump coalition.
But that backlash didn’t exactly sink Trump’s political future, and while it’s hard to say for sure whether he might have won in 2024 without it, his coalition was ultimately hardened by the experience. This is one reason the country is where it is today, in a battle between humanitarian progressivism and an emboldened right-wing authoritarian faction. History is complicated.
Over the last week, that battle has unfolded in a kind of social-media diorama of Los Angeles. This weekend, it spreads across the country through nationwide “No Kings” marches. What follows may be what Wasow calls a “long hot summer” of violence and escalation, as the Trump administration has already hinted it is planning. Or it might yield to a merciful de-escalation, with the violence of protesters already somewhat circumscribed and the violence of the state already blunted by public outrage.
Whatever comes, let’s not pretend we know the ultimate meaning of each episode because we caught a glimpse of the Fox News chyron or saw someone denouncing protest tactics on X. Better to try and see those protests and federal crackdowns against them each for what they are — a renewed resistance and the eager use of force to snuff it out.
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