Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass speaks during a news conference at the L.A. Emergency Operations Center in Los Angeles on Monday. Drew A. Kelley - staff photographer.

By Linh Tat | SCNG

When wildfires tore through Los Angeles County in January, it quickly became the biggest leadership test for L.A. Mayor Karen Bass, two years into her term as chief executive of the nation's second-largest city.

Five months later, with the wildfires still fresh in people's minds and recovery efforts continuing to this day, Bass has been forced to pivot to another major crisis - this one

stemming from the mass detention of immigrants in L.A. by federal immigration agents under President Donald Trump's orders.

In a citywhere over one in three residents are foreign-born, recent U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement actions have led to days of mass protests in Los Angeles and surrounding communities.

Tensions between protesters and federal law enforcement agents intensified after Trump deployed U.S. National Guard troops to the city- over the objections of Gov. Gavin Newsom and Bass, both of whom maintain that the situation can be handled by local law enforcement.

With Angelenos seeking leadership in this moment, and Bass seeking reelection next year, how the mayor and her administration respond to the latest crisis could prove critical for both residents who call Los Angeles home and for Bass' own political future.

Over the weekend, Bass held multiple press conferences or interviews with reporters, and she or her staff regularly posted statements on social media or through an email blast to Angelenos, at once denouncing actions by the Trump administration and declaring her support for immigrants while also urging protesters not to resort to violence or break the law.

"Los Angeles is a city of immigrants ... and we embrace all Angelenos," Bass said while speaking with reporters on Sunday. "It doesn't matter where you came from or when you got here. But the most important thing right now is that our city be peaceful, and so protests and expressing your ... fears, your beliefs, is appropriate to do, but it is just not appropriate for there to be violence."

Fernando Guerra, a political science professor at Loyola Marymount University and director of the Thomas and Dorothy Leavey Center for the Study of Los Angeles, said Bass' handling of this latest crisis has been "good" so far, but noted that the challenge for the mayor is that Trump is calling the shots.

"She does not control the narrative, The schedule -when it started, how it will evolve and when it will end- that is up to Donald Trump," Guerra said on Monday, June 9.

"He (Trump) has won the narrative nationally. I don't think he's won the narrative in Los Angeles or California," Guerra continued. "I do think both Newsom and Bass are doing what they need to do. Their political base wants them to resist" Trump.

State Attorney General Rob Bonta announced Monday that California would sue the Trump administration over its federalization of the state's National Guard, alleging the move to deploy some 2,000 troops across the state without the approval of the governor or local law enforcement is unlawful.

Trump, meanwhile, posted on his social media platform Truth Social on Monday morning that sending in the National Guard was "a great decision," following at least 40 arrests Sunday night into Monday morning by LAPD or California Highway Patrol officers responding to disturbances, which included some demonstrators setting vehicles on fire.

"We made a great decision in sending the National Guard to deal with the violent, instigated riots in California .... The very incompetent 'Governor,' Gavin Newscum, and 'Mayor,' Karen Bass, should be saying, 'THANK YOU, PRESIDENT TRUMP ... ,"' the president wrote.

Bass has pushed back on Trump's characterization of the disturbances on the streets as "riots" -though she's acknowledged some unruly behavior. At the same time, she has blamed the Trump administration for ordering ICE raids in the first place.

"Los Angeles was peaceful before Friday," Bass told CNN.

Both Guerra and Mike Bonin, a former L.A. City Council memberwho now serves as executive director of the Pat Brown Institute for Public Affairs at Cal State LA, said one of Bass' biggest challenges may be whether Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell is on the same page as the mayor.

On Sunday evening, McDonnell said protests were starting to get out of control. When asked whether the National Guard needed to be there, McDonnell told reporters that police would not "go to that right away." However, he added, "Looking at the violence tonight, I think we've got to make a reassessment."

Bonin said that statement from McDonnell could lead to a public opinion that the Los Angeles Police Department sides with the Trump administration.

As for Bass' handling of the situation so far, Bonin said the latest crisis is different from the one five months ago with the wildfires.

While Bass "took a lot of hits" over her wildfire response, Bonin said, this latest crisis is "one that her political skillsets are very well suited to address."

"She took a lot of hits over the fires. That type of moment requires a sort of command-and­ control mindset. That is not the mayor's style or temperament. This mayor is very consensus-oriented, likes to bring together a team, who doesn't like to hog the spotlight," Bonin said.

"This moment is very different. This is a moment that needs someone who has the experience and a temperament of a healer, ... someone who has managed neighborhoods in crisis over racial and ethnic issues, someone who has an ability to bring people together.

That's her experience founding and leading Community Coalition," he added, referring to the grassroots organization that advocates for racial and social justice that Bass founded in 1990 before her career as an elected politician took off.

Guerra said that although Bass' response so far has been good, he thinks she next should gather community leaders together to demonstrate to the public that L.A. is united in its response.

Around the same time that Guerra made his remarks, Bass posted on the social media platform X that she had met with local immigration rights community leaders to respond to "this chaotic escalation" by the Trump administration.

"Let me be absolutely clear - as a united city, we are demanding the end to these lawless attacks on our communities," Bass stated. "Los Angeles will always stand with EVERYONE who calls our city home."