Trump-deployed National Guard arrives in LA to crush immigration protests

Police have fired tear gas at demonstrators and arrests have been made in Los Angeles on Sunday after tensions escalated near the Metropolitan Detention Center, hours after US President Donald Trump deployed 2,000 United States National Guard soldiers there.

The troops were seen early Sunday on Los Angeles streets as part of the Trump administration’s push to suppress protests against a wave of federal immigration raids in the region, sparking a sharp rebuke from California’s Democratic leadership.

The Metropolitan Detention Center has been a flashpoint over the past two days.

Footage showed uniformed officers firing tear gas canisters as they moved into the street, scattering protesters. Pushing and shoving erupted when demonstrators approached a line of National Guard troops and began shouting at them.

Dozens of National Guard members, dressed in riot gear and positioned behind plastic shields, were stationed outside the federal facility.

Reporting from the midst of the chaos, Rob Reynolds, Al Jazeera’s senior correspondent, said: “Police arrested a lot of people very publicly. There was tear gas deployed, percussion, grenades, non-lethal baton rounds, and so forth.”

“What makes this situation so tense and has resulted in so much confrontation and physicality is the presence of the National Guard. Even though they’re not out here fighting people pushing them around, their presence here has enraged a certain number of Angelinos, and they are determined to make their feelings about the National Guard and President Trump’s actions known as dramatically as they can,” he said.

A third day of clashes 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 protests 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.

Trump accused of inflaming tensions

Trump spoke briefly on the tarmac before departing to Camp David on Sunday: “I don’t believe there’s an insurrection, but we will have troops everywhere,” he said, adding that more cities could see deployments if protests expand. “We’re not going to let this country be torn apart.”

When asked what conditions would lead him to deploy active-duty Marines, Trump said: “The bar is what I think it is. If we see danger to our country and our citizens, we will be very strong in terms of law and order.”

On his Truth Social account, the president accused protesters of “attacking our Federal Agents” and directed his cabinet to take “all necessary action” to stop what he called “Migrant riots”.

“Order will be restored, the Illegals will be expelled, and Los Angeles will be set free,” he posted.

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.

Earlier  in the day Reynolds noted, “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”.

Meanwhile, Newsom urged residents to remain peaceful. “Don’t give Donald Trump what he wants,” he wrote on X. “Speak up. Stay calm. Do not use violence and respect law enforcement.”

Newsom, who has long been at odds with Trump, condemned the move as “inflammatory” and warned it would only make the situation more combustible.

“They want a spectacle. Don’t give them one,” Newsom posted on X.

He accused the administration of using heavy-handed tactics to provoke unrest and distract from its controversial immigration agenda.

Trump has denounced the protests as “a form of rebellion”.

Alexandra Miller, an immigration justice attorney at VECINA, a non-governmental organisation working on immigrant legal needs, said the raids by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) are “incredibly concerning”, with local communities afraid of what they should do to defend their area.

“I think that’s exactly the point of the raids … to create a massive public fear tactic to undermine communities into demonstrating the force of the administration,” Miller told Al Jazeera.

While the US government has the authority to enforce immigration laws, the way that it is being handled is “disproportionate to the needs and priorities” that the government should have, Miller said.

The last deployment of the National Guard in Los Angeles was in 1992, during the rioting triggered by the brutal police beating by white officers of Black motorist Rodney King, which was caught on video.

In Compton, another site of protest, a vehicle was set alight Saturday, while in Paramount, hundreds of demonstrators rallied near a doughnut shop as police erected barriers of barbed wire. The protests extended into the night, with crowds also returning to federal buildings in central Los Angeles.

In a further escalation, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth warned that active-duty Marines based at Camp Pendleton were on high alert and could be mobilised if unrest continues.

Progressive Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders said the Trump order captured  “a president moving this country rapidly into authoritarianism” and “usurping the powers of the United States Congress”.

Several Republican leaders voiced their support for the involvement of the National Guard.