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.
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, media’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”.
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