An additional 2,000 National Guard soldiers, along with 700 Marines, have headed to Los Angeles on orders from United States President Donald Trump, escalating a military presence local officials and California Governor Gavin Newsom do not want, and which the city’s police chief says creates logistical challenges for safely handling protests.
An initial deployment of 2,000 National Guard personnel ordered by Trump started arriving on Sunday, as violence erupted during protests driven by an accelerated enforcement of immigration laws that critics say are breaking apart families.
Monday’s demonstrations were less raucous. Thousands peacefully attended a rally at City Hall, hundreds protested outside a federal complex that includes a detention centre where some immigrants are being held following workplace raids across the city.
Los Angeles Police Department chief Jim McDonnell said in a statement he was confident in LAPD’s ability to handle large-scale demonstrations, and that the Marines’ arrival without coordinating with police would present a “significant logistical and operational challenge” for them.
Newsom called the deployments reckless and “disrespectful to our troops” in a post on the social media platform X.
“This isn’t about public safety. It’s about stroking a dangerous President’s ego.”
The protests began on Friday in downtown Los Angeles after federal immigration authorities arrested more than 40 people across the city.
In a directive on Saturday, Trump invoked a legal provision allowing him to deploy federal service members when there is “a rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority” of the US government.
The smell of smoke hung in the air on Monday, one day after crowds blocked a major motorway and set self-driving cars on fire, and police responded with tear gas, rubber bullets and flashbangs.
Additional protests against immigration raids continued into the evening on Monday in several other cities, including San Francisco and Santa Ana in California and Dallas and Austin in Texas.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott said in a post on X that more than a dozen protesters were arrested, while in Santa Ana, a police spokesperson said the National Guard had arrived in the city to secure federal buildings.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a lawsuit over the use of National Guard troops following the first deployment, telling reporters in his announcement on Monday that Trump had “trampled” the state’s sovereignty.
Trump said Los Angeles would have been “completely obliterated” if he had not deployed the National Guard.
US officials said the Marines were being deployed to protect federal property and personnel, including immigration agents.
Several dozen protesters were arrested over the weekend. Authorities say one person was arrested for throwing a Molotov cocktail at police and another for ramming a motorbike into a line of officers.
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.