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Law enforcement officers clashed with protesters in Los Angeles for a third day on Sunday after President Donald Trump deployed the National Guard to stamp out demonstrations against raids on suspected illegal immigrants.
Federal agents fired smoke-filled canisters at protesters near a detention centre in downtown LA, according to video footage published by US media.
Over the weekend, Trump invoked a rarely used law designed to repress invasions and rebellions to send in National Guard troops, a move deemed unnecessary by local law enforcement officials and decried by California’s governor Gavin Newsom as “inflammatory”.
The US president justified the drastic move on Sunday night with incendiary language: “A once great American City, Los Angeles, has been invaded and occupied by Illegal Aliens and Criminals.”
On his Truth Social platform, Trump claimed, without evidence, that “violent, insurrectionist mobs are swarming and attacking our Federal Agents to try and stop our deportation operations”.
Over the weekend, federal agents faced off with hundreds of protesters, in some cases firing rubber bullets and using flash-bang grenades.
It was not clear how the incident began on Sunday evening.
The unrest in the second-largest US city has been prompted by federal agents arresting dozens of people in a sweep of local businesses.
On Sunday evening, Trump did not rule out sending in marines after defence secretary Pete Hegseth threatened the move on Saturday.
“We’re going to see what we need,” he told reporters. “We’ll send whatever we need to ensure there’s law and order.”
In his Truth Social post, Trump said he had ordered officials “to take all such action necessary to liberate Los Angeles from the Migrant Invasion, and put an end to these Migrant riots.”
Deploying up to 2,000 guardsmen will test the ability of heavily Democratic states to resist the Trump administration’s agenda and protect their citizens from its enforcement actions.
Trump’s decision to “federalise” the National Guard — or transfer it from state to federal control — was highly unusual. It was last done in 1992, when then-President George HW Bush sent guardsmen to LA to control riots following the beating by police of Rodney King. In that instance, the Guard’s assistance was requested by California’s governor, Pete Wilson.
This time Trump overruled the wishes of Newsom, a frequent target of the president. The last time a president sent in the Guard without a request by the state governor was in 1965, when Lyndon Johnson sent troops to protect civil rights marchers.
Newsom said the Trump administration made the decision to deploy the National Guard “not because there is a shortage of law enforcement, but because they want a spectacle” in a post on X.
Vermont senator Bernie Sanders, who votes with Democrats, warned that Trump was “moving this country rapidly toward authoritarianism”. He accused the president of defying the Constitution and the rule of law.
Nanette Barragán, a Democratic member of Congress whose district includes the areas of southern Los Angeles that witnessed many of the protests, told CNN that Trump was “sending in the National Guard because he doesn’t like the scenes. He doesn’t like the scenes of people peacefully protesting.”
She added that she had spoken to sheriffs on the ground who said they had things under control and that there was no need for federal backup.
Barragán said officials in Los Angeles had been told by the federal government to “get ready for 30 days of enforcement”, while border tsar Tom Homan told NBC that “around 150” undocumented immigrants had already been detained in the city over the past two days.
The deployment of the National Guard in Los Angeles comes amid a broader stand-off between the White House and California.
The Trump administration, which has been aiming for a “minimum” of 3,000 migrant arrests daily, has clashed with the predominantly Democratic state, after officials vowed resistance and non-cooperation with Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids.
Trump has threatened federal funding cuts due to California’s positions on immigration, transgender rights and other matters.
In retaliation, Newsom proposed that California might withhold federal tax payments, stating on X: “Californians pay the bills for the federal government . . . Maybe it’s time to cut that off.”
He noted that the state contributes over $80bn more in taxes than it receives back.
