Los Angeles protests follow weeks of intensifying immigration enforcement

The Pentagon's deployment of about 700 Marines to Los Angeles to join the National Guard's response to immigration protests follows weeks of rapid-fire developments as President Donald Trump pursues his top domestic priority for mass deportations.

Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff and chief architect of Trump's immigration policies, said late last month that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement should make at least 3,000 arrests a day. That would mark a dramatic increase from Jan. 20 to May 19, when the agency made an average of 656 arrests a day.

Miller's target has brought new strains on immigration detention and increased ICE's presence to a level with no recent parallels.

Tensions soared in Los Angeles after a series of sweeps starting last week, including in the city's fashion district and a Home Depot, pushed the tally of immigrant arrests in the city past 100. A prominent union leader was arrested while protesting and accused of impeding law enforcement. Trump sent the National Guard and Marines over objections of state officials.

But even before Los Angeles, ICE stepped up its presence with rare shows of force featuring officers in heavy tactical gear firing flash bangs. Officers engaged in a tense standoff at a popular Italian restaurant in San Diego's trendy South Park neighborhood on May 30 in an operation that resulted in four immigration arrests.

In Massachusetts, a high school student was arrested on May 31 on the way to volleyball practice. Asked why ICE detained an 18-year-old with no criminal record, acting ICE Director Todd Lyons answered, “I didn’t say he was dangerous. I said he’s in this country illegally and we’re not going to walk away from anybody.”

ICE has also worked with the Tennessee Highway Patrol, which conducted nearly 600 traffic stops and arrested about 200 people in recent weeks.

With no additional funding and limited staff, ICE is drawing from other federal agencies and local police to carry out deportations. The number of 287(g) agreements to deputize local police to enforce federal immigration laws has more than quadrupled — to about 650 — since Trump took office in January.

ICE also lacks the detention space to carry out Trump's agenda, leading to overcrowding in some locations. The agency is budgeted to detain about 41,000 people but held more than 53,500 at the end of May, approaching the all-time highs of 2019.

A massive spending bill winding through Congress calls for $45 billion to go toward increasing immigration detention capacity to 100,000 and $8 billion to add 10,000 ICE personnel.

The Los Angeles arrests have created an opening for Trump to tie into one of his favorite targets: state and local governments that limit cooperation with federal immigration authorities. California limits cooperation except when people in the country illegally are convicted of serious crimes.

The White House recently published a list of more than 500 “sanctuary” jurisdictions but removed it from its website after widespread criticism that it was inaccurate, including from allies like Huntington Beach, California.

The volume of immigration policy changes has not slowed since Trump took office, reaching a breakneck pace in recent weeks.

On Friday, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran man mistakenly deported and imprisoned without communication, was returned to the United States to face criminal charges related to human smuggling.

People showing up for hearings to pursue legal status at immigration courtrooms have been met with a spate of arrests across the country. And a travel ban and restrictions on 19 countries took effect Monday.

A Dominican man, left, and an activist, right, are detained by plain clothes officers with Immigration and Customs Enforcement after an immigration hearing at the immigration court inside the Jacob K. Javitz Federal Building in New York, Friday, June 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura)

EDS NOTE: OBSCENITY - Protesters against U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement raids pass diners while marching through San Francisco's Mission district on Monday, June 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Noah Berger)

Protesters cheer from pedestal of a statue during a protest against Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Trump administration at Metro Hall, Monday, June 9, 2025, in Louisville, Ky. (AP Photo/Jon Cherry)

FILE - A protester is detained in downtown Los Angeles, Sunday, June 8, 2025, following last night's immigration raid protest. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer, File)

A protester taunts a line of California National Guard protecting a federal building in downtown Los Angeles on Monday, June 9, 2025. (AP Photo/Eric Thayer)

Police use pepper spray as they move protesters away from a van leaving the Federal Building in Santa Ana, Calif., on Monday, June 9, 2025. (Jeff Gritchen/The Orange County Register via AP)

CRANS-MONTANA, Switzerland (AP) — In the aftermath of a fire inside a Swiss Alpine bar that killed 40 people celebrating the new year, survivors, friends and family members, the region’s top authorities and even Pope Leo have spoken to the public in remarks in French, Italian, German and English, reflecting the tradition of Swiss multilingualism.

Another 119 people were injured in the blaze early Thursday as it ripped through the busy Le Constellation bar at the ski resort of Crans-Montana, authorities said. It was one of the deadliest tragedies in Switzerland’s history.

Investigators said Friday that they believe sparkling candles atop Champagne bottles ignited the fatal fire when they came too close to the ceiling of the crowded bar.

Here’s a look at what people said in the wake of the disaster:

— “I’m looking everywhere. The body of my son is somewhere,” Laetitia Brodard told reporters Friday in Crans-Montana as she searched for her son, 16-year-old Arthur. “I want to know, where is my child, and be by his side. Wherever that may be, be it in the intensive care unit or the morgue.”

— “We were bringing people out, people were collapsing. We were doing everything we could to save them, we helped as many as we could. We saw people screaming, running,” Marc-Antoine Chavanon, 14, told The Associated Press in Crans-Montana on Friday, recounting how he rushed to the bar to help the injured. “There was one of our friends: She was struggling to get out, she was all burned. You can’t imagine the pain I saw.”

— “It was hard to live through for everyone. Also probably because everyone was asking themselves, ‘Was my child, my cousin, someone from the region at this party?’” Eric Bonvin, general director of the regional hospital in Sion that took in dozens of injured people, told AP on Friday. “This place was very well known as somewhere to celebrate the new year,” Bonvin said. “Also, seeing young people arrive — that’s always traumatic.”

— “I have seen horror, and I don’t know what else would be worse than this,” Gianni Campolo, a Swiss 19-year-old who was in Crans-Montana on vacation and rushed to the bar to help first responders, told France's TF1 television.

—“You will understand that the priority today is truly placed on identification, in order to allow the families to begin their mourning,” Beatrice Pilloud, the Valais region's attorney general, told reporters Friday during a news conference in Sion.

Pope Leo said in a telegram Friday to the bishop of Sion that he " wishes to express his compassion and concern to the relatives of the victims. He prays that the Lord will welcome the deceased into His abode of peace and light, and will sustain the courage of those who suffer in their hearts or in their bodies.”

— “We have numerous accounts of heroic actions, one could say of very strong solidarity in the moment,” Cantonal head of government Mathias Reynard told RTS radio Friday. "In the first minutes it was citizens — and in large part young people — who saved lives with their courage.”

— “Switzerland is a strong country not because it is sheltered from drama, but because it knows how to face them with courage and a spirit of mutual help," Swiss President Guy Parmelin, speaking on his first day in the position that changes hands annually, told reporters Thursday.

People bring flowers near the sealed off Le Constellation bar in Crans-Montana, Swiss Alps, Switzerland, Friday, Jan. 2, 2026, where a devastating fire left dead and injured during the New Year's celebrations. (AP Photo/ Antonio Calanni)

A woman holding a stuffed animal, whose daughter is missing, gather with others near the sealed-off Le Constellation bar in Crans-Montana, Switzerland, Friday, Jan. 2, 2026, where a devastating fire left dead and injured during the New Year's celebrations. (AP Photo/Baz Ratner)

People light candles near the sealed off Le Constellation bar in Crans-Montana, Swiss Alps, Switzerland, Friday, Jan. 2, 2026, where a devastating fire left dead and injured during the New Year's celebrations. (AP Photo/ Antonio Calanni)