US National Guard soldiers have begun deploying on Los Angeles streets after United States President Donald Trump sent in 2,000 troops in a bid to suppress protests against a wave of federal immigration raids in the region, sparking a sharp rebuke from California’s Democratic leadership.
Troops were seen early Sunday at the federal complex in downtown Los Angeles, including around the Metropolitan Detention Center, which has been a flashpoint over the past two days.
The deployment follows intense confrontations between demonstrators and federal agents near a Department of Homeland Security facility in Paramount, a city south of Los Angeles with a large Latino population.
The clashes erupted after federal authorities carried out mass arrests in several locations, including the city’s fashion district and a Home Depot store.
More than 100 people have been detained over the past week, according to immigration officials.
Trump accused of inflaming tensions
During Saturday’s confrontation, agents fired tear gas, stun grenades, and pepper balls, while protesters responded with rocks and debris. Fires burned in the streets as tensions spiralled.
“This deployment of National Guard troops was done in a very unusual manner,” said Rob Reynolds, Al Jazeera’s senior correspondent reporting from Los Angeles.
“Usually, the National Guard presence is requested by the governor of a state. In this case, Trump went around [California Governor Gavin] Newsom using a different provision of the law that allows him to nationalise the state National Guard and call it out in cases of insurrection against the United States government,” said Reynolds.
He added that many in the city, including community leaders and politicians, fear that the very presence of the National Guard “could constitute in and of itself a provocation, an inflammatory situation that might actually lead to more confrontations”.
“That’s certainly something that the leaders of this city do not want to see happen,” Reynolds said.
Newsom, who has long been at odds with Trump, condemned the move as “inflammatory” and warned it would only make the situation more combustible.
“They want a spectacle. Don’t give them one,” Newsom posted on X.
He accused the administration of using heavy-handed tactics to provoke unrest and distract from its controversial immigration agenda.
Trump has denounced the protests as “a form of rebellion”.
“There has long been a sense of antagonism between Trump and the state of California in general and also particularly against Newsom, who Trump refers to on social media by the somewhat juvenile nickname of Gavin New Scum. He was brandishing that nickname on social media earlier today,” Reynolds noted.
The White House defended the decision, saying the Guard was being sent to “address the lawlessness that has been allowed to fester.”
Alexandra Miller, an immigration justice attorney at VECINA, a non-governmental organisation working on immigrant legal needs, said the raids by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are “incredibly concerning”, with local communities afraid of what they should do to defend their area.
“I think that’s exactly the point of the raids … to create a massive public fear tactic to undermine communities into demonstrating the force of the administration,” Miller told Al Jazeera.
While the US government has the authority to enforce immigration laws, the way that it is being handled is “disproportionate to the needs and priorities” that the government should have, Miller said.
“ICE and other federal authorities have to abide by the rules of due process and to ensure that migrants have the ability to defend themselves against removal and they’re not having that full due process [at] this moment,” she added.
The last deployment of the National Guard in Los Angeles was in 1992, during the rioting triggered by the brutal police beating by white officers of Black motorist Rodney King, which was caught on video.
Robert Patillo, a civil and human rights attorney, called the president’s move to bypass the governor and call in troops as “unprecedented” in recent history.
“Normally, if federal troops are going to be used inside of states, it’s going to be at the invitation of the governor of that state. For example, in 1992, the California governor invited federal troops in to put down the LA riots. But if the governor, such as Gavin Newsom, has not asked for federal troops to come in, and these troops are coming in against his will, then there will be challenges,” he said.
In Compton, another site of protest, a vehicle was set alight, while in Paramount, hundreds of demonstrators rallied near a doughnut shop as police erected barriers of barbed wire. The protests extended into the night, with crowds also returning to federal buildings in central Los Angeles.
Police later declared an unlawful assembly and began making arrests.
In a further escalation, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth warned that active-duty Marines based at Camp Pendleton were on high alert and could be mobilised if unrest continues.
Progressive Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders said the Trump order captured “a president moving this country rapidly into authoritarianism” and “usurping the powers of the United States Congress”.
Several Republican leaders voiced their support for the involvement of the National Guard.
