Hegseth says the National Guard could be sent to other US cities

As the protests against Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown in LA spread across America, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth says Washington could send in the troops to other US cities.

Mounted police officers disperse protesters in Los Angeles. Picture: AP

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The protests against Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown which began in Los Angeles are spreading across America, as US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth made clear the administration “had the capability to surge (the) National Guard” in other parts of the country.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said there were more troops across a few blocks in downtown LA than there were in Iraq and Syria, warning the Trump administration was using the city as a “test case.”

Demonstrations took place in New York, Chicago, San Francisco, Austin, Dallas, Atlanta, Spokane, Milwaukee, Santa Ana and Louisville with a curfew entering into force from 8pm for a second consecutive night in the heart of Los Angeles.

On Wednesday evening local time before the curfew entered into force, police cordoned off the area in front of City Hall and sought to disperse the crowd while urging the public not to go into downtown LA.

Police mounted on horseback patrolled the area after the gathering was deemed an unlawful assembly on the sixth straight day of demonstrations in the nation’s second largest city. Police started firing rubber bullets into the crowd at 7pm.

The unrest in LA has caused local business owners to complain of declining foot traffic with some having been looted since the demonstrations began last Friday and buildings being deface and vandalised.

It is expected that protests across the country will intensify on Saturday when a military parade is planned in Washington on the National Mall to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the US Army.

But this is also the same day that Mr Trump will celebrate his 79th birthday, with a “No Kings” movement seeking to organise a “nationwide day of defiance.”

“From city blocks to small towns, from courthouse steps to community parks, we’re taking action to reject authoritarianism—and show the world what democracy really looks like,” the movement says on its website.

Police open fire on protesters. Picture: Getty Images via AFP

At the Kennedy Centre in Washington where he was seeing a production of Les Misérables, the US President said that he was “very proud to have helped LA survive” and warned that a failure to have sent-in the troops would have seen the city “burning to the ground.”

Mr Trump intervened over the weekend by invoking a federal statute – Title 10, Section 12406 of the US Code – to federalise about 4000 California National Guard members and deploy 700 Marines to the LA.

The action was branded a “brazen abuse of power” by California Governor Gavin Newsom, with the state filing a legal challenge against the deployment.

Nico, a 24-year-old protester outside City Hall who was carrying a combination of the Mexican and American flags enmeshed in a single design, told The Australian he was a US citizen but that both his grandmother and aunt had entered the country illegally about 30 years ago.

“Silence is a choice. Not doing anything is still doing something unfortunately,” he said. “I think we have a responsibility to be out here.”

Nico, aged 24. His grandmother came to the US illegally from Mexico. Picture: Joe Kelly / The Australian

He said the administration’s decision to call in the troops was a “fear tactic” and that “they are trying to do everything they can to silence us essentially. Which is why we have to especially push back even harder.”

The goal was to “abolish ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) … It’s supposed to be the land of the free and opportunity. The American dream is more than dead right now specifically because of people like Trump and ICE.”

Protesting a few blocks away, 17-year-old Raylene Martinez told The Australian she was there “because everybody deserves to be treated with respect no matter their skin colour, no matter where they come from.”

Protesters in San Antonio. Picture: Getty Images via AFP

Speaking before the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on armed forces on Wednesday, Mr Hegseth said that he was hopeful that, in most states, there would be a governor who understood when to activate the National Guard when required.

“California unfortunately wants to play politics with it,” Mr Hegseth said.

He warned there was an “ongoing situation in Los Angeles which could expand to other places. But it is quite easy to point out that there has been an invasion of 21 million illegals in our country.”

“Part of it is getting ahead of a problem so that, if in other places, if there are other riots in places where law enforcement officers are threatened, we would have the capability to surge (the) National Guard there if necessary,” he said.

The scene in downtown Los Angeles. Picture: Getty Images via AFP

Texas Governor Greg Abbott was the first to follow the example set by the administration in Washington, announcing that the Texan National Guard “would be deployed to locations across the state to ensure peace & order.”

“Peaceful protest is legal,” he said on social media. “Harming a person or property is illegal & will lead to arrest.”

He said the National Guard soldiers were partnering with Border Patrol agents in the Rio Grande Valley to “arrest human smugglers and illegal immigrants. Texas is securing the border.”

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that 330 immigrants had been arrested in Los Angeles since Friday and that 113 had prior criminal convictions.

“There’s been 157 people arrested for assault and obstruction-related charges,” she said.