‘Arrest me’: California’s governor unfazed by threats of arrest from Trump administration official
LOS ANGELES — California Gov. Gavin Newsom pushed again towards threats of arrest by Trump administration officers, remaining defiant as he oversees clashes between legislation enforcement brokers and protesters in response to immigration raids throughout Los Angeles whereas additionally managing an ongoing energy wrestle with the federal authorities.
Trump’s “border czar,” Tom Homan, warned Saturday that immigration operations and the presence of federal personnel would proceed within the metropolis regardless of criticism from Democratic leaders who’ve warned it may additional escalate protests. He threatened arrest for anybody who obstructs the immigration enforcement effort, together with Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass — although he acknowledged that neither but had “crossed the road.”
“I’ll say about anyone,” Homan mentioned. “You cross that line, it’s a felony to knowingly harbor and conceal an unlawful alien. It’s a felony to impede legislation enforcement doing their job.”
In an interview for MSNBC with NBC Information’ Jacob Soboroff, Newsom referred to as Homan’s bluff, urging him to “simply get it over with” and transfer forward with the arrest.
“He’s a tricky man. Why doesn’t he try this? He is aware of the place to seek out me,” Newsom mentioned. “That form of bloviating is exhausting. So, Tom, arrest me. Let’s go.”
Bass, in the meantime, dismissed Homan’s warning as pointless, emphasizing Sunday that whereas she opposed the choice to deploy Nationwide Guard troops, she has little interest in brawling with the federal authorities.
“He had completely positively no cause to even say that,” Bass mentioned. “I spoke to him final evening. He understands that I’m the mayor of town; the very last thing on the earth I’m going to do is get right into a brawl with the federal authorities. In order that simply made no sense. There was no cause for that remark.”
Trump doubled down on Homan’s warning Sunday, telling reporters that “officers who stand in the way in which of legislation and order” will “face judges.”
However Newsom mentioned Sunday that Trump hadn’t expressed any concern about his capacity to handle the rising protest in Los Angeles or the prospect of federalizing Nationwide Guard troops throughout a cellphone name after protests began Friday.
“We talked for nearly 20 minutes, and he barely — this difficulty by no means got here up,” Newsom mentioned. “We had a really respectable dialog.”
Newsom and Bass have intensely criticized Trump’s choice to authorize the deployment of not less than 2,000 Nationwide Guard troops in response to the protests, arguing they’d solely inflame tensions within the metropolis already heightened by the large-scale immigration operations.
In a letter to Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth, Newsom requested that Trump rescind his order federalizing the troops in Los Angeles County “and return them to my command.”
“In dynamic and fluid conditions such because the one in Los Angeles, State and native authorities are probably the most applicable ones to judge the necessity for assets and safeguard life and property,” Newsom mentioned within the letter.
Threats by the administration to arrest elected officers have been a trademark of Trump’s second time period, notably after the high-profile arrest of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka exterior an ICE detention facility in New Jersey. The costs had been dropped, although the Justice Division charged one other elected official with Baraka, Democratic Rep. LaMonica McIver, with two counts of assaulting, resisting and impeding legislation enforcement officers in reference to the incident.
