An initial 2,000 Guard troops ordered by Trump started arriving Sunday, which saw the most violence during three days of protests driven by anger over Trump’s stepped-up efforts to arrest illegal immigrants.
Trump's efforts to return the city to law and order has been met with defiance from Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom called the deployments reckless.
The protests began Friday after federal immigration authorities arrested more than 40 people across the city. The smell of smoke hung in the air downtown Monday, one day after crowds blocked a major freeway and set self-driving cars on fire as police responded with tear gas, rubber bullets and flash-bang grenades.
Additional protests against immigration raids continued into the evening Monday in several other cities including San Francisco and Santa Ana, California, and Dallas and Austin, Texas.
California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a lawsuit over the use of National Guard troops following the first deployment, telling reporters that Trump had “trampled” the state’s sovereignty.
Trump said the city would have been “completely obliterated” if he had not deployed the Guard.
U.S. officials said the Marines were being deployed to protect federal property and personnel, including immigration agents. A convoy of 10 to 15 buses with blacked-out windows and escorted by sheriff’s vehicles, left the base at Twentynine Palms in the desert east of Los Angeles late Monday and headed toward the city, stopping around 1 a.m. at Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach, around 20 miles south of downtown Los Angeles.
Despite their presence, there has been limited engagement so far between the Guard and protesters while local law enforcement implements crowd control.
