LOS ANGELES — President Donald J. Trump’s administration said it would deploy 2,000 National Guard troops on Saturday as federal agents in Los Angeles faced off against a few hundred demonstrators during a second day of protests following immigration raids.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth warned that the Pentagon was prepared to mobilize active-duty troops “if violence continues” in Los Angeles, saying the Marines at nearby Camp Pendleton were “on high alert.”

Federal security agents on Saturday confronted protesters in the Paramount area in southeast Los Angeles, where some demonstrators displayed Mexican flags. A second protest in downtown Los Angeles on Saturday night attracted some 60 people, who chanted slogans including “ICE out of LA (Los Angeles)!”

Mr. Trump signed a presidential memorandum to deploy the National Guard troops to “address the lawlessness that has been allowed to fester,” the White House said in a statement. Mr. Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, told Fox News that the National Guard would be deployed in Los Angeles on Saturday.

California Governor Gavin Newsom called the decision “purposefully inflammatory.” He posted on X that Mr. Trump was deploying the National Guard “not because there is a shortage of law enforcement, but because they want a spectacle,” adding: “Don’t give them one. Never use violence. Speak out peacefully.”

Mr. Trump posted on his Truth Social platform that if Mr. Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass can’t do their jobs “then the Federal Government will step in and solve the problem, RIOTS & LOOTERS, the way it should be solved!!!”

The protests pit Democratic-run Los Angeles, where census data suggests a significant portion of the population is Hispanic and foreign-born, against Mr. Trump’s Republican White House, which has made cracking down on immigration a hallmark of his second term.

‘VIOLENT INSURRECTION’
“Insurrectionists carrying foreign flags are attacking immigration enforcement officers, while one half of America’s political leadership has decided that border enforcement is evil,” Vice-President JD Vance posted on X late on Saturday.

Senior White House aide Stephen Miller, an immigration hardliner, described the protests as a “violent insurrection.”

The administration has not invoked the Insurrection Act, two US officials told Reuters on condition of anonymity. One said that National Guard troops can deploy quickly, within 24 hours in some cases, and that the military was working to source the 2,000 troops.

The 1807 law empowers a president to deploy the US military to enforce the law and suppress events like civil disorder. The last time it was invoked was during the 1992 Los Angeles riots at the request of the California governor.

Video footage of the Paramount protest showed dozens of green-uniformed security personnel with gas masks at the Paramount protest, lined up on a road strewn with overturned shopping carts as small canisters exploded into gas clouds. Authorities began detaining some protesters, according to Reuters witnesses. There was no official information of any arrests.

“Now they know that they cannot go to anywhere in this country where our people are, and try to kidnap our workers, our people — they cannot do that without an organized and fierce resistance,” said protester Ron Gochez, 44.

A first round of protests kicked off on Friday night after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents conducted enforcement operations in the city and arrested at least 44 people on alleged immigration violations.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in a statement that there were about “1,000 rioters” at the protests on Friday.

Reuters could not verify DHS’s account. Angelica Salas, executive director of immigrants’ rights organization CHIRLA (Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights), said lawyers had not had access to those detained on Friday, which she called “very worrying.”

TRUMP’S IMMIGRATION CRACKDOWN
Mr. Trump has pledged to deport record numbers of people in the country illegally and lock down the US-Mexico border, with the White House setting a goal for ICE to arrest at least 3,000 migrants per day.

But the sweeping immigration crackdown has also caught up people legally residing in the country, including some with permanent residence, and has led to legal challenges.

ICE, the DHS, and the Los Angeles Police Department did not respond to requests for comment on the protests or whether there had been any immigration raids on Saturday.

Television news footage on Friday showed unmarked vehicles resembling military transport and vans loaded with uniformed federal agents streaming through Los Angeles streets as part of the immigration enforcement operation.

Raids occurred around Home Depot stores, where street vendors and day laborers were picked up, as well as at a garment factory and a warehouse, Ms. Salas of CHIRLA said.

Ms. Bass, the mayor of Los Angeles, condemned the immigration raids.

“I am deeply angered by what has taken place,” Ms. Bass said in a statement. “These tactics sow terror in our communities and disrupt basic principles of safety in our city. We will not stand for this.” — Reuters

BOGOTA — Colombian Senator Miguel Uribe, a potential presidential contender, was shot in Bogota on Saturday, according to the government and his party, as his wife said he was fighting for his life in hospital.

The 39-year-old senator, who was shot during a campaign event as part of his run for the presidency in 2026, is a member of the opposition conservative Democratic Center party founded by former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe. The two men are not related.

According to a party statement condemning the attack, the senator was hosting a campaign event in a public park in the Fontibon neighborhood in the capital on Saturday when “armed subjects shot him from behind.

The party described the attack as serious, but did not disclose further details on Mr. Uribe’s condition. Videos on social media showed a man, identified as Mr. Uribe, being tended to after the shooting. He appeared to be bleeding from his head.

Mr. Uribe’s wife Maria Claudia Tarazona wrote on her husband’s account on X that he was “fighting for his life.”

Colombia’s Defense Minister Pedro Sanchez said a suspect had been arrested in the shooting and that authorities were investigating whether others were involved. Mr. Sanchez said he had visited the hospital where Mr. Uribe was being treated.

The government is offering some $730,000 as a reward for information in the case.

Colombia’s presidency issued a statement saying the government “categorically and forcefully” rejected the violent attack, and called for a thorough investigation into the events that took place.

Leftist President Gustavo Petro sympathized with the senator’s family in a message on X saying, “I don’t know how to ease your pain. It is the pain of a mother lost, and of a homeland.”

Mr. Petro later said in a speech on Saturday night that the person arrested was a minor and that the investigation would focus on finding who had ordered the attack.

“For now there is nothing more than hypothesis,” Mr. Petro said, adding that failures in security protocols would also be looked into.

The United States’ Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement that the US “condemns in the strongest possible terms the attempted assassination” of Mr. Uribe, blaming Mr. Petro’s “inflammatory rhetoric” for the violence.

Mr. Uribe, who is not yet an official presidential candidate for his party, is from a prominent family in Colombia. His father was a businessman and union leader. His mother, journalist Diana Turbay, was kidnapped in 1990 by an armed group under the command of the late cartel leader Pablo Escobar. She was killed during a rescue operation in 1991.

Colombia has for decades been embroiled in a conflict between leftist rebels, criminal groups descended from right-wing paramilitaries, and the government. — Reuters

KAOHSIUNG, Taiwan — Taiwan’s coast guard held drills with the military on Sunday to better practice joint operations in the face of what the government in Taipei says is a growing “gray zone” threat from China, which claims the island as its own territory.

Democratically governed Taiwan has repeatedly complained about activities such as undersea cable cutting and sand dredging by China around the island, designed to pressure it without direct confrontation.

It is often Taiwan’s coast guard that scrambles first to respond.

The drills in the southern port city of Kaohsiung, overseen by President Lai Ching-te, simulated the seizing of a ferry by “international terrorists.” The coast guard worked with an interior ministry rescue helicopter and army medevac helicopter to board and take back control of the boat and evacuate casualties.

A navy anti-submarine helicopter flew over the scene as the drill ended, along with the medevac and rescue helicopters, the first time they have flown together in such a scenario, the coast guard said.

“Taiwan has been facing constant grey intrusion from China, but our coast guard colleagues have always been on the front line to enforce the law and protect the lives and safety of the people of Taiwan,” Mr. Lai told the audience for the drills, which included the top US diplomat in Kaohsiung, Neil Gibson.

“The government will continue to consolidate the strength of all departments and strengthen the resilience of the entire society to defend national security and safeguard Taiwan’s democracy and freedom,” Mr. Lai said.

Taiwan’s coast guard, which would be pressed into military service in the event of war with China, is also routinely sent out to shadow Chinese ships during Beijing’s war games around the island.

The coast guard, like the navy, is in the midst of an expansion and modernization program.

Its new Anping-class corvettes, which began being commissioned in 2020, are based on the navy’s Tuo Chiang-class warships. They are state-of-the-art, highly maneuverable stealth vessels meant to take out larger warships while operating close to Taiwan’s shores.

The Anping-class ships, one of which took part in the drill, have space for launchers for the Taiwan-made Hsiung Feng anti-ship and sea-to-land missiles, as well as added equipment for rescue operations.

Taiwan’s government rejects Beijing’s sovereignty claims, saying only the island’s people can decide their future. — Reuters