Vice President JD Vance Friday headed to Los Angeles to meet with National Guard troops and Marines amid tensions over President Trump’s immigration crackdown.
Vance, a Marine veteran, planned to tour a Federal Joint Operations Center as well as a command center, where he will meet with commanders and rank-and-file troops and deliver a speech.
The veep’s trip, which will also include a Republican fundraiser, comes a day after a federal appeals court gave Trump the green light to keep the National Guard deployed in L.A. under his command, over the objections of California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Newsom’s office said it had not been informed of Vance’s trip and would have wanted to meet with him.
Protests erupted in the Los Angeles area earlier this month after authorities mounted immigration enforcement raids at work sites and at spots where undocumented immigrants gather, like parking lots of home improvement stores.
Trump claimed the protests amounted to an uprising, giving him the authority to call out the National Guard and Marines.
Newsom countered that the troops were not needed or wanted and that local law enforcement had the situation under control.
The demonstrations seem to be winding down for now, although dozens of protesters showed up Thursday at Dodger Stadium, where a group of federal agents with covered faced had gathered in a parking lot.
The Los Angeles Dodgers organization asked them to leave, and they did.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass Tuesday lifted a curfew in downtown Los Angeles that was first imposed in response to vandalism and clashes with police after crowds gathered in opposition to agents taking migrants into detention.
The Trump administration won a key court battle over the military deployment late Thursday when a panel of 9th Circuit Court of Appeals judges allowed the president to keep control of National Guard troops he deployed in response to protests over immigration raids.
The appellate decision halted a temporary restraining order from U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer, who found Trump acted illegally when he activated the soldiers over opposition from California Gov. Gavin Newsom.
Despite the court setback, California’s attorneys are expected to ask Breyer on Friday for a new preliminary injunction returning to Newsom control of the troops in Los Angeles, where protests have calmed down in recent days.
Breyer found that Trump had overstepped his legal authority, which he said allows presidents to control state National Guard troops only during times of “rebellion or danger of a rebellion.”
But the appeals court ruled it had to give major deference to Trump’s authority as president and commander in chief.
