The deployment of the National Guard to Los Angeles is a “dangerous escalation meant to provoke chaos,” former Vice President Kamala Harris said in a statement that did not condemn the riot against immigration enforcement agents.
Harris, the failed 2024 Democrat presidential candidate, broke her silence more than 30 hours after rioters rampaged against U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents seeking to enforce the nation’s immigration law.
“Los Angeles is my home,” Harris said in a statement posted to X. “And like so many Americans, I am appalled at what we are witnessing on the streets of our city. Deploying the National Guard is a dangerous escalation meant to provoke chaos. In addition to the recent ICE raids in Southern California and across our nation, it is part of the Trump Administration’s cruel, calculated agenda to spread panic and division.”
Harris’s statement comes a day after Trump issued a presidential memorandum deploying 2,000 National Guardsmen to quell the violence of the riots.
Harris continued to criticize the Trump administration, claiming that the administration’s “actions are not about public safety,” but about “stoking fear.”
“Fear of a community demanding dignity and due process,” Harris continued. “Protest is a powerful tool — essential in the fight for justice. And as the LAPD, Mayor, and Governor have noted, demonstrations in defense of our immigrant neighbors have been overwhelmingly peaceful.”
Harris’s claim that demonstrations in defense of migrants “have been overwhelmingly peaceful,” comes as videos and photos on social media have shown protesters throwing projectiles such as rocks as Border Patrol vehicles, spray painting graffiti on federal buildings, and setting fire to vehicles.
Other Democrats, such as California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass (D), have also criticized Trump for federalizing 2,000 National Guard troops to quell the violence.
Breitbart News Senior Editor-at-Large Joel Pollak reported that Bass issued a statement describing the federalization of the National Guard as a “chaotic escalation.”
“The fear people are feeling in our city right now is very real – it’s felt in our communities and within our families and it puts our neighborhoods at risk,” Bass said. “This is the last thing that our city needs, and I urge protestors to remain peaceful.”
In a statement on Saturday, Newsom described the deployment of thousands of National Guardsmen as a “purposefully inflammatory” move that would “only escalate tensions.”
