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Early Start with Rahel Solomon
Police: "Mass Arrests" Amid Downtown Los Angeles Curfew; Newsom Blasts Trump Over Military Deployments In L.A.; Trump: We're Not Going To Wait And Watch Cities Burn. Aired 5-5:30a ET
Aired June 11, 2025 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.
POLO SANDOVAL, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning and welcome to our viewers joining us from -- in the U.S. and all around the world. I'm Polo Sandoval. It is Wednesday, June 11th.
And we begin in Los Angeles, where a nighttime curfew is now in effect more than five nights into the protests we've seen there. Police say they've initiated mass arrests of those refusing to clear out of the curfew zone. We're still waiting to find out exactly how many people were detained in this latest round.
The curfew covering only a small section of America's second largest city, just one square mile in downtown L.A., affecting roughly about 100,000 of the city's roughly 4 million residents.
Meanwhile, California's Governor Gavin Newsom has lashed out at the U.S. president over his decision to send thousands of National Guard troops and stage hundreds of Marines in L.A. in response to the protests over escalating immigration raids.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM (D-CA): Donald Trump's government isn't protecting our communities. They're traumatizing our communities. Authoritarian regimes begin by targeting people who are least able to defend themselves, but they do not stop there. Trump and his loyalists, they thrive on division because it allows them to take more power and exert even more control.
And, by the way, Trump, he's not opposed to lawlessness and violence as long as it serves him. What more evidence do we need than January 6th? Trump is pulling a military dragnet all across Los Angeles, well beyond his stated intent to just go after violent and serious criminals. His agents are arresting dishwashers, gardeners, day laborers and seamstresses. That's just weakness -- weakness masquerading as strength.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANDOVAL: You heard just the latest notable comments from the governor. After this heated back and forth that with no end in sight between the two leaders, President Trump on his side, he's claimed that if not for his actions, L.A. would have burned to the ground, he claims.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I want to applaud the courage and the strength of the incredible troops who are right now standing guard to protect federal property and personnel and uphold the supremacy of federal law. That's what they're doing. They're protecting our ICE agents. They're protecting the police in Los Angeles.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANDOVAL: The state of California has sued the Trump administration over the troop deployment. On Tuesday, a judge denied the state's request to immediately stop the mobilization and then set a hearing for Thursday.
Meanwhile, the current curfew will last another four hours until 6:00 a.m. local time, but the mayor says it's likely to kick in again at nightfall and could last several days, she says.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR KAREN BASS, LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: The city of Los Angeles is a massive area 502 miles. The area of downtown where the curfew will take place is one square mile. I think it is important to point this out, not to minimize the vandalism and violence that has taken place there. It has been significant, but it is extremely important to know that what is happening in this one square mile is not affecting the city. Some of the imagery of the protests and the violence gives the appearance as though this is a citywide crisis, and it is not.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANDOVAL: Important reminder, despite what we're hearing from President Trump, the impact on L.A. has been relatively small and concentrated.
CNN's Nick Watt was reporting from downtown L.A. when the curfew went into effect.
Here's what he saw.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NICK WATT, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The police did take their time moving through. They didn't just slam in and start arresting people. They moved pretty slowly. They gave people every opportunity to get out.
Some people clearly decided not to. And those are the people that you're seeing right now being arrested by the LAPD. Note LAPD, local law enforcement. We did have for most of the evening, National Guard guarding this
federal building right here in the past 5 or 10 minutes. They have moved inside. This is now in the curfew zone. The LAPD is controlling the curfew zone. The National Guard has moved back inside.
The mayor, LAPD clearly wanting to take charge of this situation, not to see a repeat of what's happened over the past couple of nights. And also to make it clear that it's Los Angeles Police Department, not federal troops that are here keeping this one mile square area safe.
[05:05:04]
Listen, these protests have been very concentrated around this area. This is 500 square mile city. The curfew is one square mile. The mayor making it very clear in opposition to President Trump that Los Angeles is not all burning. This whole city is not up in flames and not being held together by the national guard. They want to make that clear. This has been a very isolated protest.
And this afternoon, maybe 200 people outside the detention center. It was peaceful. People singing songs until that one spark that kicked everything off.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SANDOVAL: That's CNN's Nick Watt reporting from what is probably one of the most observed square miles in Los Angeles.
In the meantime, that war of words that we talked about earlier between the president's and California's governor intensified on Tuesday.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NEWSOM: Democracy is under assault before our eyes. This moment, we have feared, has arrived. He's taking a wrecking ball, a wrecking ball to our Founding Father's historic project, three co-equal branches of independent government.
There are no longer any checks and balances. Congress is nowhere to be found. Speaker Johnson has completely abdicated that responsibility. The rule of law has increasingly been given way to the rule of Don.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANDOVAL: Governor Newsom went on to say that the president chose theatrics over public safety in deploying the National Guard this week.
Kristen Holmes has the latest from the White House.
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KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: President Donald Trump talking about the situation in Los Angeles, using a number of opportunities to get in front of cameras with reporters and answer questions on what was happening on the ground there. He took that opportunity to once again trade barbs with Governor Newsom, the Democratic governor in the state, saying that he was grossly incompetent.
But he also took it a step further. When he was at Fort Bragg, he talked for a while about why exactly he sent troops in doubling down on this idea that it was necessary. They have obviously been some complications with this, meaning that there was legal action that was brought against him. He is clearly trying to justify why it was.
He used words like rebellion, used words like invasion. He also at one point said that there were people infiltrating and operating federal buildings. So again, he is trying to stress the idea of why he did this by saying it was necessary to not only send in the national guard, but to also send in these marines, which we have heard from lawmakers in California who have said it was not necessary for Trump to do so.
Now, when asked about how long the national guard or the military was going to be in California or in Los Angeles. Here's what Donald Trump said.
TRUMP: If there's peace, we get out. If there's even a chance of no peace, we stay there until there's peace.
HOLMES: So that they're being a little bit subjective until there's peace. Earlier, he said, until there was no more danger. When asked what danger looked like, he had some examples. But it is clear that Donald Trump himself is watching this unfold and deciding what next steps to take.
One of the things we have been reporting is just how far he was willing to go. Would he be willing to invoke the Insurrection Act? There are members of his team who don't believe that's where they should go, but there are also others who want to take a more aggressive stance.
And Trump himself seemed to say that he was making an example out of Los Angeles in some ways, saying at one point that people would look at this city and know or look at the situation and know that if they were to act out during these various ICE raids or events like this, that they would be met with equal or more force than they're seeing in Los Angeles.
Kristen Holmes, CNN, the White House.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SANDOVAL: And a lot of these protests, there's also some friction happening on Capitol Hill. Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman is splitting with his party over the Democrats' response to the unrest in Los Angeles. But his fellow congressional colleagues, including the Senate minority leader, don't agree with his criticisms.
Here are some of the comments coming out of the Capitol.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. CHUCK SCHUMER (D-NY): The bottom line is that violence in the riots is outrageous and should never happen, full stop. Having said that, Donald Trump bringing American troops and American Marines in against American citizens is not only provocative, it's not only dangerous, it really threatens the bedrock of our democracy.
SEN. CHRIS MURPHY (D-CT): We can do two things at one time. We can condemn protests that get out of control, and we can acknowledge that Donald Trump has no interest in standing up to violent protesters because he pardoned every single violent protester that tried to attack our capitol and destroy our democracy.
REP. ALEXANDRIA OCASIO-CORTEZ (D-NY): I think we should absolutely condemn the violence of ripping apart families of ICE, breaking the law of them going into elementary schools and churches and raiding workplaces.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
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SANDOVAL: A series of immigration raids triggered days of protests in Los Angeles. Still ahead, we'll look at the impact the protests could have on the Latino vote in next year's midterm elections. Plus, shock, pain and a deep sense of grief. How Austrians are coping after a high school mass shooting that has become one of the worst rampages in their country's history.
Also a little later, a judge in the Sean "Diddy" Combs criminal trial ruling on the latest defense request for a mistrial.
You're watching EARLY START.
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SANDOVAL: Welcome back to early start protests denouncing immigration raids and President Trump's immigration policies. They have spread across other parts of the U.S. crowds gathering in New York City on Tuesday, just outside of ICE offices, and people there marching through the city to other ICE locations and also in immigration court building.
Police detained some protesters who defied orders to clear out of the streets. A law enforcement official tells CNN there were about 45 arrests in the city on Tuesday evening, and some frightening video out of Chicago, where a car drove erratically through groups of protesters. Some demonstrators tried to follow the driver, but they never stopped and drove away from the protests.
And in San Francisco, a source telling CNN, protests are the reason two immigration courts had to close their doors early on Tuesday. According to "The Associated Press", there were multiple arrests during those demonstrations. Here's what protesters there had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're not scared of Trump. We're not scared of ICE. And we're going to stay out here to defend our immigrant community.
UNIDENTIIFED FEMALE: I mean, I'm glad that people are coming out and doing something, you know what I mean? A lot of people look at what's happening in L.A., and they're scared to come out of their houses or go protest or say anything. And it's like, you know, the government is going to be as fascist as it can be to, you know, oppress the people it's trying to exclude from this country.
And we can't be afraid like we have to come out. We have to do something. And we have to help the people around us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SANDOVAL: And back where this all started, where authorities in Los Angeles say that the 8:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m. curfew could be around for quite a few days.
CNN's Kyung Lah looks at the growing military presence downtown.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Armored military vehicles pull out of L.A.'s metropolitan detention center. California National Guard.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Back up, back up, back up, back up.
LAH: Yet another day. Holding the line against demonstrators like this Los Angeles resident who asked to not be identified.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's disturbing. It's dystopian, and it's awful seeing this city be turned into what the police and the national guard are turning it into, to what Trump is turning it into.
LAH: She calls this a battle between Los Angeles and the Trump administration. Immigration raids hit southern California for yet another day, targeting the farming industry to street vendors. This is just the beginning, pledges the White House.
PETE HEGSETH, U.S. DEFENSE SECRETARY: We believe --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I asked about the budget.
HEGSETH: -- ICE agents, should be allowed to be safe in doing their operations. And we have deployed National Guard and the Marines to protect them.
LAH: That message from the top is driving the protests. Night after night, tension escalating. Local police forced to face off with the public they're sworn to protect.
And it's not just Los Angeles. Other demonstrations are unfolding around the country -- in New York to Dallas. Near downtown L.A., local residents, some of themselves immigrants, say they helped the sheriff's deputies battle the effects of tear gas. All of this, some residents say, is creating a cauldron of chaos.
DANIEL FABIANO, LOS ANGELES RESIDENT: Having troops in a civilian American neighborhood does not make anyone safer at all.
MICHAEL MARSHALL, LOS ANGELES RESIDENT: It seems like an infringement on a lot of rights, you know, and if and its tyrannical, you know, if lives at risk. The Marines are at risk. The cops are at risk.
LAH: The protests are largely taking place within just several blocks of this sprawling city of more than 500 miles. With city leaders asking why some 700 Marines have been mobilized to respond.
BASS: People have asked me, what are the marines going to do when they get here? Thats a good question. I have no idea. This was not needed.
LAH: President Trump today justifying the deployment and saying the National Guard will stay in L.A. until there's no danger.
TRUMP: If we didn't get involved, right now, Los Angeles would be burning just like it was burning a number of months ago with all the houses that were lost.
REP. LAURA FRIEDMAN (D-CA): To take over the National Guard in California, which the governor is perfectly capable of calling on himself if he needs it, is a manufactured crisis that Trump now wants to claim that he solved is very disrespectful to local law enforcement.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SANDOVAL: All right, let's take a minute now to talk about the potential effects that these protests have on voters.
Getting more now from Sonja Diaz. She is the co-founder of the Latina Futures 2050 Lab. And she also joins me live from Los Angeles.
Thank you so much for staying up late for us. Really appreciate you.
SONJA DIAZ, CO-FOUNDER, LATINA FUTURES 2050 LAB: Happy to be here, Polo.
SANDOVAL: Look, it's easy to distract ourselves with everything that's going on right now, but I think its important to take a moment and really just speak to the defining moment, political potential, political moment that we could see here.
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Should we, in your opinion, should we expect these images that have played out in parts of downtown L.A. to maybe have an influence on Latino voters? How are people taking this -- all of this in?
DIAZ: Well, absolutely. But first, I want to preface this by saying that Latino voters are not a monolith. We saw that in elections prior to the 2024 presidential election, and we certainly are seeing that in the polling today.
But some of the things that are interesting and important in terms of the impact of all of these tactics by the federal administration to upend the lives of so many immigrant families, particularly Latino families and Latino workers, is that these actions are going to be seen as personal and generational threats to first and second generation Latino voters, and those are voters that live all across the country, but particularly in very competitive house races for 2026 and Arizona and California and in other parts of the U.S.
SANDOVAL: Yeah, we remember last year, my little corner of south Texas, stark county, making massive headlines, turning red there with the incredible amount of support that President Trump had in an area that was traditionally blue. In history, though, can you point to examples where we have seen sort of harsh immigration policies, perhaps lure voters toward the Democrats?
DIAZ: Yeah, absolutely. My home state of California saw very much a similar policy trends of Trump's first administration and parts of the second administration. And I present that caveat because this is just really out of the bounds of what many people think in terms of constitutional law and public policy.
What I'm alluding to is Proposition 187, which was a direct democracy ballot initiative that California voters voted in support of majority support of. And this would have really had teachers and doctors act as immigration enforcement agents, really trying to shut off access to education, to social services, to important benefit programs for immigrants, undocumented immigrants.
This was caught up and ultimately ruled unconstitutional in our courts. But as a result of Proposition 187, you saw the galvanization of Latino voters. Latinos turned out in mass to naturalize, to be able to cast a ballot in elections, and also really showed their affinity for the Democratic Party.
Proposition 187 was something that was a Republican trope that really got a lot of support from Republicans up and down the state. And obviously a majority of voters. But a Republican Governor, Pete Wilson, and we have not elected a Republican to statewide constitutional office since Arnold Schwarzenegger. And he was someone who was compassionate and really called for comprehensive immigration reform.
I have two other examples for you, Polo. One is House Bill Four in Georgia, and the other is SB 1070 in Arizona. So, this would have been this century, these were xenophobic legislative proposals that sought to criminalize and target immigrants somewhere known colloquially as "show me your papers".
As a result, I think it's suffice to say that both Arizona and Georgia's two U.S. Senate seats are represented by Democrats in the United States Senate, and those were huge shifts that ultimately presented President Biden with the necessary support in the Senate for his affirmative agenda, and has made the Senate very tight today.
SANDOVAL: Completely appreciating the fact that Latino voters and you said this at the beginning, you know, there are other issues that are critical to them. I know I've heard from Latino voters who tell me health care, the economy are big priorities as well. Education for their children and the future generations of Latinos here. Those are big ones.
Immigration, though, it seemed that Donald Trump did enjoy, especially his immigration agenda, did enjoy quite a bit of support during the election based on just purely looking at the last five days alone, Sonja, what's your expert analysis on the potential impact, especially when you hear see some of the other polling that shows that there are some Americans that are perhaps rethinking some of that support, saying, we support undocumented people with criminal histories being removed from the country.
However, for those non-criminal, undocumented people who are now being impacted by this, is this a potential game changer that could lead to some to some consequences, political consequences for the president and his party?
DIAZ: It is. For example, there was a poll earlier this spring that essentially found that 66 percent of Latino voters have felt like the president has overreached. And the piece of that poll that I think is really important for answering your question is that 36 percent of those polled Latino voters, again, who voted for Trump in 2024, think that his deportations have gone too far.
And so, there is this issue that, yes, going into the 2024 election, immigration as an issue was a top issue for all voters polled. This was really central to the Trump campaign and the Trump policy agenda. Where we're at right now is a shift in tide.
There was a lot of rhetoric around who was going to be targeted and who was not. Ultimately, what we've seen, not just the past five days, but really under this administration is that everybody is a target for this. People with green cards, students with student visas from international countries that are studying and trying to further their career and possibly be able to support the American economy.
We have folks that are going to immigration court to resolve their immigration status, that are being apprehended and detained, and we have workers. A lot of the enforcement actions are tied to those that have data in the system. And the data sharing from the federal government under Trump. And ultimately, these are people that are people's neighbors, their people's family members, their community members, their colleagues.
And I think the American public is really aghast at who is being picked up because Trump and the MAGA extremists were really clear about getting rid of criminals and criminality. And it seems as though with enforcement actions under Trump's administration and the MAGA extremists under Stephen Miller is that if you are an immigrant in the U.S., is not a place for you.
SANDOVAL: Yeah, migrant communities are being impacted not just in blue states, but in red states as well. And voters there are certainly taking note. And as you remind us, not only is the world watching, but so are voters watching these pictures very closely.
Sonja Diaz, thank you so much for all this great perspective. We'll let you get some rest.
DIAZ: Absolutely. Thanks so much, Polo. Take care.
SANDOVAL: You, too.
Still ahead here on your EARLY START, a second night of violence rocking a town in northern Ireland. We'll have the latest on that unrest.
Plus, a nation in mourning. Austrians are honoring the victims of a deadly high school mass shooting. We'll have a live report from the city of Graz.
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