Seema Mehta is a veteran political writer for the Los Angeles Times covering national and state politics, including the 2026 gubernatorial race. She has written about every presidential campaign since 2008, as well as multiple gubernatorial, Senate, congressional and mayoral races. Mehta was a 2018-19 Knight-Wallace fellow at the University of Michigan, where she studied how automation and artificial intelligence are indelibly changing the nation’s identity, policies and politics. The Syracuse University graduate and East Coast native swore when she joined The Times in 1998 that she would only spend a few years on the Left Coast. Many years, a husband, a house and a few cats later, she can’t imagine living somewhere she couldn’t golf year-round.
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The deployment of soldiers to L.A. has evoked memories of riots that erupted when LAPD officers were acquitted of brutally assaulting a Black motorist, but officials from that era say the coordinated response that took place three decades ago bears little resemblance to recent days.
Several California Democrats questioned Hegseth about the immigration raids that have roiled Los Angeles, the federal commandeering of the state’s National Guard and the deployment of Marines.
The Trump administration is sending 2,000 National Guard troops to Los Angeles after two days of isolated clashes between federal immigration agents and protesters.
President Trump is sending the National Guard to Los Angeles over the objections of Gov. Gavin Newsom by invoking rarely used federal powers.
An hours-long standoff between protesters and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents erupted Saturday morning near a Home Depot in Paramount.
Las redadas sorpresivas de ICE en el centro de Los Ángeles provocaron una fuerte reacción de oficiales electos y manifestantes, que calificaron la acción de “cruel e innecesaria”
Surprise U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement sweeps in downtown Los Angeles prompted fierce pushback from elected officials and protesters.
Federal agents in riot gear detained workers in the Garment District in downtown Los Angeles as crowds gathered to record them and shout protests.
Democratic and GOP hopefuls lamented California’s affordability crisis but diverged on solutions during the first bipartisan panel in the 2026 governor’s race.