LOS ANGELES — California Gov. Gavin Newsom dismissed threats from Trump administration officials regarding potential arrest, standing firm as he navigates tensions between law enforcement officials and protestors following immigration raids throughout Los Angeles, while also dealing with ongoing disputes with the federal government.
Tom Homan, Trump’s “border czar,” asserted on Saturday that immigration enforcement actions and the deployment of federal agents would persist in the city, notwithstanding disapproval from Democratic leaders who caution that it may intensify protests further. He threatened prosecution for those who obstruct the immigration operations, including Gov. Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, although he admitted that neither has yet “crossed the line.”
“This applies to anyone,” Homan declared. “Crossing that line constitutes a felony for knowingly harboring and concealing an illegal alien. It’s also a felony to obstruct law enforcement from performing their duties.”
In an interview for MSNBC with NBC News’ Jacob Soboroff, Newsom called Homan’s bluff, urging him to “just get it over with” and move ahead with the arrest.
“He’s a tough guy. Why doesn’t he do that? He knows where to find me,” Newsom said. “That kind of bloviating is exhausting. So, Tom, arrest me. Let’s go.”
Bass, meanwhile, dismissed Homan’s warning as unnecessary, emphasizing Sunday that while she opposed the decision to deploy National Guard troops, she has no interest in brawling with the federal government.
“He had absolutely positively no reason to even say that,” Bass said. “I spoke to him last night. He understands that I am the mayor of the city; the last thing in the world I’m going to do is get into a brawl with the federal government. So that just made no sense. There was no reason for that comment.”
Trump doubled down on Homan’s warning Sunday, telling reporters that “officials who stand in the way of law and order” will “face judges.”
But Newsom said Sunday that Trump hadn’t expressed any concern about his ability to manage the growing protest in Los Angeles or the prospect of federalizing National Guard troops during a phone call after protests started Friday.
“We talked for almost 20 minutes, and he barely — this issue never came up,” Newsom said. “We had a very decent conversation.”
Newsom and Bass have intensely criticized Trump’s decision to authorize the deployment of at least 2,000 National Guard troops in response to the protests, arguing they would only inflame tensions in the city already heightened by the large-scale immigration operations.
In a letter to Defense 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 situations such as the one in Los Angeles, State and local authorities are the most appropriate ones to evaluate the need for resources and safeguard life and property,” Newsom said in the letter.
Threats by the administration to arrest elected officials have been a hallmark of Trump’s second term, particularly after the high-profile arrest of Newark Mayor Ras Baraka outside an ICE detention facility in New Jersey. The charges were dropped, though the Justice Department charged another elected official with Baraka, Democratic Rep. LaMonica McIver, with two counts of assaulting, resisting and impeding law enforcement officials in connection with the incident.
