Kristi Noem issued an ominous warning to protesters in Los Angeles on Monday as tensions over immigration raids rolled into their fourth day.
The homeland security secretary praised Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents as they faced off against protesters challenging the Trump administration’s sweeping deportation agenda.
“We’re coming in and doing what the president has said that he’s going to do,” she told Fox News’ Hannity. “The more that people conduct violence against law enforcement officers, boy, we’re going to hit ‘em back, and we’re going to hit ‘em back harder than we ever have before.”
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President Donald Trump has so far mobilized about 4,000 National Guard troops and 700 active-duty Marines to quell protests in Los Angeles, which devolved into chaos over the weekend as protesters vandalized properties and set cars on fire while law enforcement aimed tear gas and rubber bullets into crowds.
Noem also took a swipe at Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, who said in a press conference earlier in the day that the unrest “started in Washington, D.C.” when Trump deployed the National Guard against the wishes of California Governor Gavin Newsom.
“She’s holding press conferences talking about the fact that people have the right to peacefully protest and that they’re a city of immigrants,” Noem said. “Well, they’re not a city of immigrants, they’re a city of criminals, because she has protected them for so many years.”
Bass and Newsom have both accused Trump of “manufacturing a crisis” in Los Angeles to justify the heavy-handed response to protesters.
In a separate interview on Hannity, Attorney General Pam Bondi also threatened federal charges against protesters who “abuse” law enforcement officers.
“We can prosecute federally people who assault state law enforcement officers with a maximum of five years in prison,” she warned. “And we are going to do it… If California won’t protect their law enforcement, we will protect the LAPD and the sheriff’s office out there.”
