BERLIN: German federal prosecutors on Friday said they had indicted a Turkish national for alleged spying on individuals that he associated with cleric Fethullah Gulen.
The suspect, who is not in jail and was only identified as Mehmet K., in line with German privacy laws, contacted Turkiye’s police and intelligence service via anonymous letters, prosecutors added.
Gulen built a powerful Islamic movement in Turkiye and beyond, but spent his later years in the US mired in accusations of orchestrating an attempted coup against Turkish leader Tayyip Erdogan.
Gulen died last month.
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Germany indicts Turkish national for spying on alleged Gulen activists
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Germany indicts Turkish national for spying on alleged Gulen activists
- Gulen built a powerful Islamic movement in Turkiye and beyond
Raising school fees torments many Africans. Some expect the Catholic Church to do more to help
KAMPALA” A crying parent with an unpaid tuition balance walked into the staff room of a Catholic private school and begged the teachers to help enroll her son.
The school’s policy required the woman pay at least 60 percent of her son’s full tuition bill before he could join the student body. She didn’t have the money and was led away.
“She was pleading, ‘Please help me,’” said Beatrice Akite, a teacher at St. Kizito Secondary School in Uganda’s capital city, who witnessed the outburst. “It was very embarrassing. We had never seen something like that.”
Two weeks into second term, Akite recounted the woman’s desperate moment to highlight how distressed parents are being crushed by unpredictable fees they can’t pay, forcing their children to drop out of school. It’s leaving many in sub-Saharan Africa — which has the world’s highest dropout rates — to criticize the mission-driven Catholic Church for not doing enough to ease the financial pressure families face.
Legacy of Catholic education across Africa
The Catholic Church is the region’s largest nongovernmental investor in education. Catholic schools have long been a pillar of affordable but high-quality education, especially for poor families.
Their appeal remains strong even with competition from other nongovernmental investors now eying schools as enterprises for profit. The growing trend toward privatization is sparking concern that the Catholic Church may price out the people who need uplifting.
Akite hopes Catholic leaders support measures that would streamline fees across schools of comparable quality. Firm fee ceilings need to be set, she said.
Kampala’s St. Kizito Secondary School, where Akite teaches literature, was founded by priests of the Comboni missionary order, known for its dedication to serving poor communities. Its students come mostly from working-class families and tuition per term is roughly $300, a substantial sum in a country where GDP per capita was about $1,000 in 2023.
Yet that tuition is lower than at many other Catholic-run schools in Kampala, where many students report later in the term because they can’t raise school fees in time, Akite said.
Late starts, long lines, extension requests
One of the most expensive private schools in Kampala, the Catholic-run Uganda Martyrs’ Secondary School Namugongo, maintains a policy of “zero balance” when a child reports to school at the beginning of a three-month term. This means students must be fully paid by the time they report to school.
Tuition at the school was once as high as $800 but has since dropped to about $600 as enrollment swelled to nearly 5,000, said deputy headmaster James Batte. On a recent morning, there was a queue of parents waiting outside Batte’s office to request more time to clear tuition balances.
Daniel Birungi, an electrical engineer in Kampala whose son enrolled this year at St. Mary’s College Kisubi, a leading school for boys in Uganda, said the emerging risk for traditional Catholic schools is to cater only to the rich.
There is hot water in the bathrooms, he said, describing what he felt was a trend toward levels of luxury he never imagined as a student there in the 1990s. Now, students are prohibited from packing snacks and instead encouraged to buy what they need from school-owned canteens, he said.
That has “put us under a lot of pressure,” he said.
Tuition at St. Mary’s College Kisubi is roughly $800 per term, and Birungi doubts he will be able to regularly pay school fees on time. “You can go there and see the brother and negotiate,” he said, referring to the headmaster. “I am planning to go there and see him and ask for that consideration.”
The effects of a private education system
The World Bank reported in 2023 that 54 percent of adults in sub-Saharan Africa rank the issue of paying school fees higher than medical bills and other expenses. That’s partly because education is largely in private hands, with the most desirable schools controlled by profit-seeking owners.
Schools run by the Catholic Church are not usually registered as profit-making entities, but those who run those schools say they wouldn’t be competitive if they were run merely as charities. They say they face the same maintenance costs as others in the field and offer scholarships to exceptional students.
Regulating tuition is not easy, said Ronald Reagan Okello, a priest who oversees education at the Catholic Secretariat in Kampala. He urges parents to send their children to schools they can afford.
“As the Catholic Church, also we are competing with those who are in the private sector,” said Okello, the national executive secretary for education with the Ugandan bishops conference. “Now, as you are competing, the other ones are setting the bar high. They are giving you good services. But now putting the standard to that level, we are forced to raise the school fees to match the demands of the people who can afford.”
Across the region, the Catholic Church has built a reputation as a key provider of formal education in areas often underserved by the state. Its schools are cherished by families of all means for their values, discipline and academic success.
In Zimbabwe, the Catholic Church operates about 100 schools, ranging from dozens in impoverished areas where annual tuition is as low as $150 to elite boarding schools that can charge thousands of dollars.
But a legacy of inclusion is under pressure in the southern African nation due to fee increases at boarding schools and efforts by Catholic leaders to fully privatize some schools. Many boarding schools already charge tuition fees between $600 and $800, prohibitive for the working class in a country where most civil servants make less than a $300 per month.
Privatization will raise tuition fees even higher, warned Peter Muzawazi, a prominent educator in Zimbabwe.
Muzawazi, who attended Catholic schools, once was the headmaster of Marist Brothers, a top Catholic school for boys in Zimbabwe. That school in Nyanga is among those earmarked for privatization.
“I know in the Catholic Church there is a lot of space for reasonable fees for day scholars, but for boarders there is need to be watching because the possibility that they would be out of reach for the vulnerable is there,” he said.
The church needs to be actively engaged, he said. “How do we continue to guarantee education for the poor?”
Efforts to privatize church-founded schools have sparked debate in Zimbabwe, which for years has been in economic decline stemming in part from sanctions imposed by the US and others. Authorities say privatizing these schools is necessary to maintain standards, even as critics warn Catholic leaders not to turn their backs on poor people.
“Schools have now turned into businesses,” Martin Chaburumunda, president of the Zimbabwe Rural Teachers’ Union, told The Manica Post, a state-run weekly. “Churches now appear only hungry for money as opposed to educating the communities they operate in.”
Rather than privatizing old mission schools, the church should invest in building new ones if it’s useful to experiment with different funding models, said Muzawazi, a lay Catholic who serves on the governing council of the Catholic University of Zimbabwe.
“The bright people who advance the cause of countries are not the rich ones,” he said. “We want every church and every nation to tap the potential of every person, regardless of economic status.”
The school’s policy required the woman pay at least 60 percent of her son’s full tuition bill before he could join the student body. She didn’t have the money and was led away.
“She was pleading, ‘Please help me,’” said Beatrice Akite, a teacher at St. Kizito Secondary School in Uganda’s capital city, who witnessed the outburst. “It was very embarrassing. We had never seen something like that.”
Two weeks into second term, Akite recounted the woman’s desperate moment to highlight how distressed parents are being crushed by unpredictable fees they can’t pay, forcing their children to drop out of school. It’s leaving many in sub-Saharan Africa — which has the world’s highest dropout rates — to criticize the mission-driven Catholic Church for not doing enough to ease the financial pressure families face.
Legacy of Catholic education across Africa
The Catholic Church is the region’s largest nongovernmental investor in education. Catholic schools have long been a pillar of affordable but high-quality education, especially for poor families.
Their appeal remains strong even with competition from other nongovernmental investors now eying schools as enterprises for profit. The growing trend toward privatization is sparking concern that the Catholic Church may price out the people who need uplifting.
Akite hopes Catholic leaders support measures that would streamline fees across schools of comparable quality. Firm fee ceilings need to be set, she said.
Kampala’s St. Kizito Secondary School, where Akite teaches literature, was founded by priests of the Comboni missionary order, known for its dedication to serving poor communities. Its students come mostly from working-class families and tuition per term is roughly $300, a substantial sum in a country where GDP per capita was about $1,000 in 2023.
Yet that tuition is lower than at many other Catholic-run schools in Kampala, where many students report later in the term because they can’t raise school fees in time, Akite said.
Late starts, long lines, extension requests
One of the most expensive private schools in Kampala, the Catholic-run Uganda Martyrs’ Secondary School Namugongo, maintains a policy of “zero balance” when a child reports to school at the beginning of a three-month term. This means students must be fully paid by the time they report to school.
Tuition at the school was once as high as $800 but has since dropped to about $600 as enrollment swelled to nearly 5,000, said deputy headmaster James Batte. On a recent morning, there was a queue of parents waiting outside Batte’s office to request more time to clear tuition balances.
Daniel Birungi, an electrical engineer in Kampala whose son enrolled this year at St. Mary’s College Kisubi, a leading school for boys in Uganda, said the emerging risk for traditional Catholic schools is to cater only to the rich.
There is hot water in the bathrooms, he said, describing what he felt was a trend toward levels of luxury he never imagined as a student there in the 1990s. Now, students are prohibited from packing snacks and instead encouraged to buy what they need from school-owned canteens, he said.
That has “put us under a lot of pressure,” he said.
Tuition at St. Mary’s College Kisubi is roughly $800 per term, and Birungi doubts he will be able to regularly pay school fees on time. “You can go there and see the brother and negotiate,” he said, referring to the headmaster. “I am planning to go there and see him and ask for that consideration.”
The effects of a private education system
The World Bank reported in 2023 that 54 percent of adults in sub-Saharan Africa rank the issue of paying school fees higher than medical bills and other expenses. That’s partly because education is largely in private hands, with the most desirable schools controlled by profit-seeking owners.
Schools run by the Catholic Church are not usually registered as profit-making entities, but those who run those schools say they wouldn’t be competitive if they were run merely as charities. They say they face the same maintenance costs as others in the field and offer scholarships to exceptional students.
Regulating tuition is not easy, said Ronald Reagan Okello, a priest who oversees education at the Catholic Secretariat in Kampala. He urges parents to send their children to schools they can afford.
“As the Catholic Church, also we are competing with those who are in the private sector,” said Okello, the national executive secretary for education with the Ugandan bishops conference. “Now, as you are competing, the other ones are setting the bar high. They are giving you good services. But now putting the standard to that level, we are forced to raise the school fees to match the demands of the people who can afford.”
Across the region, the Catholic Church has built a reputation as a key provider of formal education in areas often underserved by the state. Its schools are cherished by families of all means for their values, discipline and academic success.
In Zimbabwe, the Catholic Church operates about 100 schools, ranging from dozens in impoverished areas where annual tuition is as low as $150 to elite boarding schools that can charge thousands of dollars.
But a legacy of inclusion is under pressure in the southern African nation due to fee increases at boarding schools and efforts by Catholic leaders to fully privatize some schools. Many boarding schools already charge tuition fees between $600 and $800, prohibitive for the working class in a country where most civil servants make less than a $300 per month.
Privatization will raise tuition fees even higher, warned Peter Muzawazi, a prominent educator in Zimbabwe.
Muzawazi, who attended Catholic schools, once was the headmaster of Marist Brothers, a top Catholic school for boys in Zimbabwe. That school in Nyanga is among those earmarked for privatization.
“I know in the Catholic Church there is a lot of space for reasonable fees for day scholars, but for boarders there is need to be watching because the possibility that they would be out of reach for the vulnerable is there,” he said.
The church needs to be actively engaged, he said. “How do we continue to guarantee education for the poor?”
Efforts to privatize church-founded schools have sparked debate in Zimbabwe, which for years has been in economic decline stemming in part from sanctions imposed by the US and others. Authorities say privatizing these schools is necessary to maintain standards, even as critics warn Catholic leaders not to turn their backs on poor people.
“Schools have now turned into businesses,” Martin Chaburumunda, president of the Zimbabwe Rural Teachers’ Union, told The Manica Post, a state-run weekly. “Churches now appear only hungry for money as opposed to educating the communities they operate in.”
Rather than privatizing old mission schools, the church should invest in building new ones if it’s useful to experiment with different funding models, said Muzawazi, a lay Catholic who serves on the governing council of the Catholic University of Zimbabwe.
“The bright people who advance the cause of countries are not the rich ones,” he said. “We want every church and every nation to tap the potential of every person, regardless of economic status.”
Italians vote on citizenship and job protections amid low awareness and turnout concerns
- Referendum to make it easier for children born in Italy to foreigners to obtain citizenship
- Supporters say reform to bring Italy’s citizenship law in line with many other European countries
ROME: Italians vote over two days starting Sunday on referendums that would make it easier for children born in Italy to foreigners to obtain citizenship, and on providing more job protections. But apparent low public awareness risks rendering the vote invalid if turnout is not high enough.
Campaigners for the change in the citizenship law say it will help second-generation Italians born in the country to non- European Union parents better integrate into a culture they already see as theirs.
Italian singer Ghali, who was born in Milan to Tunisian parents, urged people to vote in an online post, noting that the referendum risks failure if at least 50 percent plus one of eligible voters don’t turn out.
“I was born here, I always lived here, but I only received citizenship at the age of 18,’’ Ghali said, urging a yes vote to reduce the residency requirement from 10 to five years.
The new rules, if passed, could affect about 2.5 million foreign nationals who still struggle to be recognized as citizens.
The measures were proposed by Italy’s main union and left-wing opposition parties. Premier Giorgia Meloni has said she would show up at the polls but not cast a ballot — an action widely criticized by the left as antidemocratic, since it will not help reach the necessary threshold to make the vote valid.
“While some members of her ruling coalition have openly called for abstention, Meloni has opted for a more subtle approach,” said analyst Wolfango Piccoli of the Teneo consultancy based in London. ”It’s yet another example of her trademark fence-sitting.’’
Rights at stake
Supporters say this reform would bring Italy’s citizenship law in line with many other European countries, promoting greater social integration for long-term residents. It would also allow faster access to civil and political rights, such as the right to vote, eligibility for public employment and freedom of movement within the EU.
“The real drama is that neither people who will vote ‘yes’ nor those who intend to vote ‘no’ or abstain have an idea of what (an) ordeal children born from foreigners have to face in this country to obtain a residence permit,” said Selam Tesfaye, an activist and campaigner with the Milan-based human rights group “Il Cantiere.”
“Foreigners are also victims of blackmail, as they can’t speak up against poor working conditions, exploitation and discrimination, due to the precariousness of the permit of stay,” she added.
Activists and opposition parties also denounced the lack of public debate on the measures, accusing the governing center-right coalition of trying to dampen interest in sensitive issues that directly impact immigrants and workers.
In May, Italy’s AGCOM communications authority lodged a complaint against RAI state television and other broadcasters for a lack of adequate and balanced coverage.
“This referendum is really about dignity and the right to belong, which is key for many people who were born here and spent most of their adult life contributing to Italian society. For them, a lack of citizenship is like an invisible wall,” said Michelle Ngonmo, a cultural entrepreneur and advocate for diversity in the fashion industry, who has lived most of her life in Italy after moving as a child from Cameroon.
“You are good enough to work and pay taxes, but not to be fully recognized as Italian. This becomes a handicap for young generations, particularly in the creative field, creating frustration, exclusion and a big waste of potential,” she said.
The four other referendums aim to roll back labor reforms, making it harder to fire some workers and increase compensation for those laid off by small businesses, reversing a previous law passed by a center-left government a decade ago. One of the questions on the ballot also addresses the urgent issue of security at work, restoring joint liability to both contractors and subcontractors for workplace injuries.
Many expected to abstain from voting
Opinion polls published in mid-May showed that only 46 percent of Italians were aware of the issues driving the referendums. Turnout projections were even weaker for a vote scheduled for the first weekend of Italy’s school holidays, at around 35 percent of around 50 million electors, well below the required quorum.
“Many believe that the referendum institution should be reviewed in light of the high levels of abstention (that) emerged in recent elections and the turnout threshold should be lowered,” said Lorenzo Pregliasco, political analyst and pollster at YouTrend.
Some analysts note however that the center-left opposition could claim a victory even if the referendum fails on condition that the turnout surpasses the 12.3 million voters who backed the winning center-right coalition in the 2022 general election.
Colombian presidential candidate shot and wounded
- Miguel Uribe was speaking to supporters in the capital when a gunman shot him twice in the head and once in the knee
- Defense minister Pedro Sanchez announced a roughly $725,000 reward for information about who was behind the shooting
BOGOTA: A prominent Colombian right-wing presidential candidate is in critical condition after being shot three times during a campaign event in Bogota on Saturday, authorities said.
Thirty-nine-year-old Senator Miguel Uribe was speaking to supporters in the capital when a gunman shot him twice in the head and once in the knee before being detained.
Images from the scene showed Uribe slumped against the hood of a white car, smeared with blood, as a group of men tried to hold him and stop the bleeding.
A security guard managed to detain the suspected attacker, a minor who is believed to be 15 years old.
Uribe was airlifted to the hospital in “critical condition” where he is undergoing a “neurosurgical” and “peripheral vascular procedure,” the Santa Fe Clinic in Bogota confirmed.
Uribe’s wife posted on his X account that “he is fighting for his life at this moment.”
Police director Carlos Fernando Triana said the suspect was injured in the affray and was receiving treatment.
Two others – a man and a woman – were also wounded, and a Glock-style firearm was seized.
“Our hearts are broken, Colombia hurts,” Carolina Gomez, a 41-year-old businesswoman, said as she prayed with candles for Uribe’s health.
The motive for the attack is not yet publicly known, and Colombia’s minister of defense vowed that the military, police and intelligence services would deploy “all their capabilities” to find out what happened.
The minister, Pedro Sanchez, also announced a roughly $725,000 reward for information about who was behind the shooting.
The attack was condemned across the political spectrum and from overseas, with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio calling it “a direct threat to democracy.”
Rubio pointed blame at Colombia’s leftist president Gustavo Petro, claiming the attack was the “result of the violent leftist rhetoric coming from the highest levels of the Colombian government.”
“President Petro needs to dial back the inflammatory rhetoric and protect Colombian officials,” the top US diplomat said.
Petro “categorically and forcefully” condemned the attack.
“This act of violence is an attack not only against his person, but also against democracy, freedom of thought, and the legitimate exercise of politics in Colombia,” the presidency said in the statement.
Petro was due to address the nation late on Saturday evening.
Uribe, a strong critic of Petro, is a member of the Democratic Center party, which announced last October his intention to run in the 2026 presidential election.
Authorities said that there was no specific threat made against the politician before the incident. Like many public figures in Colombia, Uribe had close personal protection.
The country is home to several armed guerrilla groups, powerful cartels and has a long history of political violence.
Uribe is the son of Diana Turbay, a famed Colombian journalist who was killed after being kidnapped by Pablo Escobar’s Medellin Cartel.
One of his grandfathers was former Colombia president Julio Cesar Turbay, who led the country from 1978 to 1982.
Supporters gathered outside the facility, lighting candles and clutching crucifixes as they prayed for his recovery.
Uribe’s party said in a statement Saturday that an “armed individual” had shot the senator from behind.
The party leader, former president Alvaro Uribe, described the shooting as an attack against “a hope for the country.”
Miguel Uribe – who is not related to Alvaro – has been a senator since 2022. He previously served as Bogota’s government secretary and city councilor.
He also ran for city mayor in 2019, but lost that election.
World leaders head to France for UN summit on ocean threats
- The UN Ocean Conference must try to turn a corner as nations feud over deep-sea mining, plastic litter and exploitative fishing, against a backdrop of wider geopolitical tensions
NICE, France: World leaders descend on the French Riviera on Sunday ahead of a high-level summit to tackle a deepening crisis in the oceans driven by overfishing, climate change and pollution.
The United Nations says oceans face an “emergency” and leaders gathering in Nice will be under pressure to commit much-needed money and stronger protections for the ailing seas and the people that depend on them.
The UN Ocean Conference must try to turn a corner as nations feud over deep-sea mining, plastic litter and exploitative fishing, against a backdrop of wider geopolitical tensions.
Some 50 heads of state and government are expected to attend, including Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and his Argentine counterpart Javier Milei.
On Sunday, French President Emmanuel Macron is expected to sail to Nice from Monaco, where he is attending a related event aimed at raising private capital for ocean conservation.
He will be joined on the shimmering Mediterranean Sea by other vessels in a colorful maritime parade, before touring an exhibition center on land transformed into the cavernous belly of a whale.
That evening, Macron will host leaders for a dinner of Mediterranean fish ahead of the summit’s formal opening on Monday.
Peaceful demonstrations are expected over the five-day event and France has deployed 5,000 police to the heritage-listed city where scientists, business leaders and environmental activists are also attending in big numbers.
A strong turnout is also expected from Pacific Island nations, whose delegations will demand greater financial assistance to fight the rising seas, marine trash and plunder of fisheries that threatens their very survival.
The United States under President Donald Trump — whose recent push to fast-track seabed mining in international waters sparked global outrage — is not expected to send a delegation.
Conservationists have warned the summit — which will not produce a legally binding agreement — risks being a talk fest unless leaders come armed with concrete proposals for restoring marine health.
Chief among these is securing the missing finance to get anywhere near protecting 30 percent of the world’s oceans by 2030, a globally agreed target.
“We’ve created this sort of myth that governments don’t have money for ocean conservation,” Brian O’Donnell, director of Campaign for Nature, told reporters.
“There is money. There is not political will,” he said.
So far, only around eight percent of oceans are designated marine conservation zones and even less are considered truly protected.
Greenpeace says at this rate, it could take another 82 years to reach the 30 percent goal.
In a boost this week, Samoa declared 30 percent of its national waters under protection with the creation of nine new marine parks.
Conservationists hope others at Nice follow suit.
“All eyes should be on the many Pacific leaders attending... Their ambition and dedication to ocean protection can serve as inspiration to all countries,” said Kevin Chand from the nonprofit group Pristine Seas.
There has also been a concerted push for nations, including France, to ban bottom trawling — a destructive fishing method that indiscriminately scrapes the ocean floor.
On Saturday, Macron told the Ouest-France newspaper that bottom trawling would be restricted in some national marine protected areas.
Inching closer toward the numbers required to ratify a global treaty on harmful fishing subsidies, and another on high seas protection, will also be a summit priority.
France is spearheading a separate push in Nice to build support for a moratorium on deep-sea mining ahead of a closely-watched meeting of the International Seabed Authority in July.
On Sunday, an expert scientific panel will hand Macron a list of recommendations for leaders at the summit, including pausing seabed exploration when so little is known about the deep oceans.
Trump deploying California National Guard over governor’s objections to LA to quell protests
- Border czar says National Guard to deploy on Saturday evening
- White House aide Stephen Miller calls LA protests an ‘insurrection’
- Trump’s DHS says Democrat rhetoric contributing to violence against ICE
PARAMOUNT, California: President Donald Trump is deploying 2,000 California National Guard troops over the governor’s objections to Los Angeles over where protests Saturday led to clashes between immigration authorities and demonstrators.
The White House said in a statement Saturday that Trump was deploying the Guardsmen to “address the lawlessness that has been allowed to fester” in California.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, objected to the move and said in a post on X that the move from the Republican president was “purposefully inflammatory and will only escalate tensions.”
The White House’s move to dramatically ratchet up the response came as protests in Los Angeles extended into a second day where tear gas and smoke filled the air as protesters faced off with Border Patrol personnel in riot gear.
Trump federalized part of the state’s National Guard under what is known as Title 10 authority, which places him, not the governor, atop the chain of command, Newsom told The Associated Press.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement that the work the immigration authorities were doing when met with protest is “essential to halting and reversing the invasion of illegal criminals into the United States. In the wake of this violence, California’s feckless Democrat leaders have completely abdicated their responsibility to protect their citizens.”
The president’s move came shortly after he issued a threat on his social media network that said that if Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass didn’t “do their jobs,” then “the Federal Government will step in and solve the problem, RIOTS & LOOTERS, the way it should be solved!!!”
Newsom said in his statement on social media that local authorities “are able to access law enforcement assistance at a moment’s notice,” and “there is currently no unmet need.”
“This is the wrong mission and will erode public trust,” he added.
Border Patrol personnel in riot gear and gas masks stood guard outside an industrial park in the city of Paramount, deploying tear gas as bystanders and protesters gathered on medians and across the street. Some jeered at officers while recording the events on smartphones.
“ICE out of Paramount. We see you for what you are,” a woman said through a megaphone. “You are not welcome here.”
One handheld sign read, “No Human Being is Illegal.”
Smoke rose from burning shrubbery and refuse in the street, and demonstrators kicked at a Border Patrol vehicle. A boulevard was closed to traffic as Border Patrol agents circulated through a community where more than 80 percent of residents identify themselves as Latino.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem posted a message on social media addressing “LA rioters” and warning that interference with immigration enforcement will not be tolerated.
In 2020, Trump asked governors of several states to deploy their National Guard troops to Washington, D.C., to quell protests that arose after George Floyd was killed by Minneapolis police officers. Many of the governors agreed, sending troops to the federal district.
At the time, Trump also threatened to invoke the Insurrection Act for protests following Floyd’s death in Minneapolis — an intervention rarely seen in modern American history. But then-Defense Secretary Mark Esper pushed back, saying the law should be invoked “only in the most urgent and dire of situations.”
Trump did invoke the Insurrection Act during his first term and did not invoke it Saturday, according to Leavitt and Newsom.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers executed search warrants at multiple locations Friday, including outside a clothing warehouse in the fashion district. The action came after a judge found probable cause that the employer was using fictitious documents for some of its workers, according to representatives for Homeland Security Investigations and the US Attorney’s Office.
A tense scene unfolded outside as a crowd tried to block agents from driving away.
Advocates for immigrants’ rights said there were also migration detentions outside Home Depot stores and a doughnut shop.
DHS said in a statement that recent ICE operations in Los Angeles resulted in the arrest of 118 immigrants, including five people linked to criminal organizations and people with prior criminal histories.
Following the Friday arrests, protesters gathered in the evening outside a federal detention center, chanting, “Set them free, let them stay!”
Some held signs with anti-ICE slogans, and some some scrawled graffiti on the building.
Among those arrested at the protests was David Huerta, regional president of the Service Employees International Union. Justice Department spokesperson Ciaran McEvoy confirmed that he was being held Saturday at the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles ahead of a scheduled Monday court appearance.
It was not clear whether Huerta had legal representation.
Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer called for his immediate release. In a social media post, he cited a “disturbing pattern of arresting and detaining American citizens for exercising their right to free speech.”
The immigration arrests come as President Donald Trump and his administration push to fulfill promises of mass deportations across the country.
Mayor Karen Bass said the activity was meant to “sow terror” in the nation’s second-largest city.
In a statement Saturday, ICE Acting Director Todd Lyons chided Bass for the city’s response to the protests.
“Mayor Bass took the side of chaos and lawlessness over law enforcement,” Lyons said. “Make no mistake, ICE will continue to enforce our nation’s immigration laws and arrest criminal illegal aliens.”
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