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