Tensions in Los Angeles intensify as Trump calls in National Guard to quell protests

Tensions in Los Angeles intensified on Sunday as US President Donald Trump called in the National Guard to help quell a third day of protests over his immigration crackdown.

Thousands of people took to the streets of the city, blocking off a major highway and setting cars on fire in response to the extraordinary deployment.

The Guard was deployed specifically to protect federal buildings, including the downtown detention centre where protesters concentrated.

Law enforcement officers on Sunday used tear gas, rubber bullets, and flash bangs to control the crowds, many of who had dispersed by the evening.

The State’s Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, said the presence of the troops was “unlawful” and accused Trump of violating California’s sovereignty.

In a post on X, he described the deployment of about 300 National Guardsmen as the “acts of a dictator not a president”.

It is the first time a US leader has called in the National Guard without a state’s request or consent in decades. Newsom said he would sue the Trump administration over the move.

Sunday’s protests in Los Angeles, centred in several blocks of downtown, were the most intense day of demonstrations.

Police arrested some 27 people as they declared all of LA's downtown an unlawful assembly area, paving the way for further detentions.

Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass blamed the increasingly aggressive protests on Trump’s decision to deploy the Guard, calling it a move designed to enflame tensions. They’ve both urged protesters to remain peaceful.

“What we’re seeing in Los Angeles is chaos that is provoked by the administration,” she said in a press conference on Sunday. “This is about another agenda, this isn’t about public safety.”

But Jim McDonnell, the LA Police Department chief, said the protests were following a similar pattern for episodes of civil unrest, with things ramping up in the second and third days.