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Protesters in cities across the country have been demonstrating this week against President Trump's immigration raids and his military response in Los Angeles. In Texas, Governor Greg Abbott ordered more than 5,000 Texas National Guard troops and more than 2,000 state police to help local law enforcement manage planned protests this weekend. Dan Katz reports from Texas Public Radio.
DAN KATZ, BYLINE: Abbott's announcement did not detail where the troops were sent across the state, but some were seen arriving at a downtown San Antonio hotel on Wednesday night. The governor says that peaceful protests are, quote, "part of the fabric of our nation." But the guardsmen were mobilized to assist local law enforcement's response to the protests. Large-scale protests are planned on Saturday across Texas in cities like Houston, Austin, Dallas and San Antonio as part of the national No Kings Movement. Organizers already in San Antonio say the show of force is meant to intimidate ahead of Saturday's protests, but they're not backing down.
(SOUNDBITE OF PROTEST)
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: (Chanting) Si se puede, si se puede, si se puede.
KATZ: Organizer Juan Castaneda spoke to protesters who turned out in San Antonio on Wednesday night.
(SOUNDBITE OF PROTEST)
JUAN CASTANEDA: Your voice means way more than you think. There's people that are struggling, that fight so hard to have this voice that are hiding in houses, finding shelter. And we have a voice that they fight so hard to do. I'll be damned if I let my voice go to waste.
(CHEERING)
KATZ: Recent demonstrations in Texas have been mostly peaceful, but tensions have flared at times. In Austin, more than a dozen people were arrested after hundreds gathered at the Texas capital. And police in Dallas fired pepper balls at demonstrators and made one arrest. In San Antonio, the guardsmen did not interact with some protesters who turned out on the streets near the Alamo on Wednesday night, and no violence was reported. San Antonio Police Chief William McManus says Abbott did not coordinate with local officials on the National Guard deployment. He says his department has its own way of handling protests.
WILLIAM MCMANUS: We're there initially to protect the constitutional rights to express First Amendment.
KATZ: Abbott did not respond to requests for comment. In a statement this week, the governor said that Texas would not tolerate the, quote, "lawlessness we've seen in Los Angeles." The governor deployed Texas guardsmen to the border with Mexico back in 2021 as part of Operation Lone Star to crack down on migrant border crossings.
For NPR News, I'm Dan Katz in San Antonio.
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