The National Guard was deployed on Sunday amid days of riots and demonstrations over immigration enforcement measures.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom formally requested that the Trump administration pull National Guard troops out of Los Angeles, said he will file a lawsuit, and dared Trump’s border czar to arrest him.
In a June 8 letter addressed to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, Newsom said the National Guard deployment is unlawful and violates his state’s sovereignty. He also said the move should have been coordinated through his office, saying that local police have the situation under control.
“Trump is putting fuel on this fire,” he wrote on X. “Commandeering a state’s National Guard without consulting the Governor of that state is illegal and immoral.”
In a tense moment on Sunday, Newsom also called on the Trump administration’s border czar, Tom Homan, to arrest him in the midst of riots and protests in Los Angeles after Homan suggested that “anybody” could face charges for knowingly harboring an illegal immigrant.
“I’ll say it about anybody,” Homan said broadly in an interview with NBC News after protests and riots erupted across the city over the weekend, responding to a question about whether Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and Newsom are at risk of being arrested. “You cross that line, it’s a felony to knowingly harbor and conceal an illegal alien. It’s a felony to impede law enforcement doing their job.”
Homan has previously warned that local officials could face federal charges if they attempt to impede Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) from detaining illegal immigrants. At least two judges—one in Minneapolis and one in New Mexico—have been arrested on federal charges in response to allegations they are harboring or concealing an illegal alien.
In an MSNBC interview on Sunday, the governor taunted Homan, calling him a “tough guy” and asking Homan to arrest him.
Tom Homan responds to Gavin Newsom's caring about his community, after Newsom's comment, "So Tom, Arrest me . . . let's go!!!" pic.twitter.com/k4HzJKjPHq
— The Thinking Conservative News (@TnkConservative) June 9, 2025
“Why doesn’t he do that? He knows where to find me,” Newsom said.
