LA protesters hit by tear gas amid conflict with National Guard, police as immigration protests escalate

Troops and protesters against immigrant raids have faced off in Los Angeles after Donald Trump deployed the US National Guard. City police fired tear gas, rubber bullets and flash genades to try to disperse the crowd.

Tensions in Los Angeles have escalated as thousands of protesters took to the streets in response to President Donald Trump’s extraordinary deployment of the National Guard, blocking off a major freeway and setting autonomous vehicles on fire as local law enforcement used tear gas, rubber bullets, and flash grenades to control the crowd.

Some police patrolled the streets on horseback while others with riot gear lined up behind Guard troops deployed to protect federal facilities including a detention centre where some immigrants were taken in recent days.

Troops and protesters faced off in Los Angeles hours after Mr Trump deployed the US National Guard to the city in an effort to quell recent unrest against federal immigration authorities.

City police later moved in to try to disperse the crowd.

The tense gatherings followed two days of skirmishes over federal immigration operations that President Trump cited in his decision to send in the state’s National Guard over the California governor’s objections.

At the federal Metropolitan Detention Centre in downtown LA, National Guard troops equipped with firearms and plastic shields guarded the building’s entrance from a swelling crowd that became more vocal as Sunday afternoon wore on.

“Take off your riot gear! I don’t see no riot here!” one protester shouted at the officers, over honking from cars trying to get through the crowded street.

Hundreds of police arrived to push the throng back from where the National Guard was stationed. Law enforcement launched tear gas canisters and rubber bullets at the crowds.

Los Angeles police ordered people in the area to disperse and said they were making arrests.

On Sunday afternoon, California Governor Gavin Newsom said he had formally requested that the Trump administration rescind the national guard deployment and return them to his command.

“We didn’t have a problem until Trump got involved,” Mr Newsom said in a post on X that attached the letter from David Sapp, the legal affairs secretary in his office, to Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth “This is a serious breach of state sovereignty – inflaming tensions while pulling resources from where they’re actually needed.”

Members of the Los Angeles Metro Police clash with demonstrators during a protest against federal immigration sweeps. Picture: Reuters.

An earlier demonstration at City Hall had ended after a few hours of peaceful protest. “No justice, no peace. We don’t want ICE or police!” people chanted.

Jocelyn Pimentel, 28, a resident of Los Angeles’s Orange County, went to a demonstration with her 72-year-old grandmother, who was visiting from Puebla, Mexico.

They said they were protesting on behalf of immediate family members who aren’t in the US legally and are at risk from the crackdown. Immigrants needed better rights and pathways to citizenship, Ms Pimentel said.

Roughly 300 National Guard soldiers arrived in Los Angeles early on Sunday after Mr Trump said he would deploy about 2000 troops to the city, over objections from Mr Newsom. The troops were deployed to protect federal agents and property, officials said.

A protester is seen as a Waymo taxi burns near the federal Metropolitan Detention Centre in downtown Los Angeles on Sunday local time. AP Photo/Jae C. Hong

As the soldiers stationed themselves at federal facilities in LA, the war of words between the Trump administration and California officials escalated.

Mr Trump on Sunday painted a dark picture of the protests over the past three days, saying the city had been “invaded and occupied”.

He said he would work with Homeland Security and others in his administration to “take all such action necessary to liberate Los Angeles”.

Mr Newsom said Mr Trump’s National Guard order was intended to “manufacture a crisis. He’s hoping for chaos so he can justify more crackdowns, more fear, more control,” the governor said.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said the immigration raids that sparked the first protests on Friday left communities in fear.

“Deploying federalised troops on the heels of these raids is a chaotic escalation,” she said. “This is the last thing that our city needs, and I urge protesters to remain peaceful.”

Mr Hegseth said on X that active-duty Marines at Camp Pendleton in Southern California were on high alert and would be sent to reinforce the National Guard if violence continued.

“We’re going to have troops everywhere,” Mr Trump told reporters on Sunday, without offering specifics about his plans. The President also appeared to call for retaliation against protesters who spit at law enforcement or members of the military. “They spit, we hit,” he said.

The deployment of National Guard troops under federal authority in response to civil unrest is a rare step, one that usually requires the president to find under the Insurrection Act that they are needed to enforce the law or restore order.

The National Guard forces were deployed under the orders of the federal government, known as Title 10 authority, a US Northern Command spokesman said.

Nearly two dozen Democratic governors on Sunday said the move was an abuse of power.

“Local authorities should be able to do their jobs without the chaos of this federal interference and intimidation,” the governors said in a joint statement.

The recent protests remain far smaller than past events that have brought the National Guard to LA, including the Watts and Rodney King riots, and the 2020 protests against police violence, in which Mr Newsom requested the assistance of federal troops, the Associated Press reported.

The last time the National Guard was activated without a governor's permission was in 1965, when President Lyndon B. Johnson sent troops to protect a civil rights march in Alabama, according to the Brennan Centre for Justice.

Hannah Navarro, 29, a receptionist from Boyle Heights in LA., held up a “Melt ICE” sign at a protest and said she fears history is repeating itself.

“We’re fighting so our families can come out of hiding,” said Ms Navarro.

LA’s protests first erupted Friday when people reacted to federal agents engaged in what appeared to be immigration enforcement. Demonstrations were held in parts of the city and then coalesced in late afternoon in a larger gathering that continued well into the night.

The president of the California chapter of the Service Employees International Union, David Huerta, was injured and detained while protesting what the union said was a raid by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in LA. Videos captured people surrounding vans, shouting and chanting.

US Attorney for the Central District of California Bilal “Bill” Essayli said on Friday on social media that agents were executing a warrant at a work site in Los Angeles when Huerta “deliberately obstructed their access by blocking their vehicle.”

Mr Trump also said that California officials who stand in the way of the deportations could face charges, the AP reported. A Wisconsin judge was arrested last month on accusations she helped a man evade immigration authorities.

“If officials stay in the way of law and order, yeah, they will face charges,” Trump said.

Mr Newsom called Mr Trump on Friday night and they spoke for about 40 minutes, according to the governor’s office. It was not clear if they spoke Saturday or Sunday.

The Wall Street Journal