Tensions in Los Angeles escalated Sunday as thousands of protesters took to the streets in response to President Donald Trump’s extraordinary deployment of the National Guard, blocking off a major freeway and setting self-driving cars on fire as law enforcement used tear gas, rubber bullets, and flash bangs against the crowd.

It was the third day of demonstrations against Trump’s immigration crackdown in the region, as the arrival of around 300 federal troops spurred anger and fear among some residents. Sunday’s protests in Los Angeles, a city of 4 million people, were centered in several blocks of downtown.

Starting in the morning, National Guard troops stood shoulder to shoulder, carrying long guns and riot shields outside the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown Los Angeles. Protesters shouted “shame” and “go home.” After some closely approached the National Guard members, another set of uniformed officers advanced on the group, shooting smoke-filled canisters into the street.

Minutes later, the Los Angeles Police Department fired rounds of crowd-control munitions to disperse the protesters, who they said were assembled unlawfully. Much of the group then moved to block traffic on the 101 freeway until state patrol officers cleared them from the roadway by late afternoon, while southbound lanes remained shut down.

Nearby, at least four self-driving Waymo cars were set on fire, sending large plumes of black smoke into the sky and exploding intermittently as the electric vehicles burned. By evening, police had issued an unlawful assembly order shutting down several blocks of downtown Los Angeles.

Flash bangs echoed out every few seconds into the evening.

Newsom: A ‘breach of state sovereignty’

The presence of the Guard was “inflaming tensions” in the city, according to a letter sent to Trump by Gov. Gavin Newsom on Sunday afternoon. He formerly requested Trump remove the guard members, which he called a “serious breach of state sovereignty.”

“What we’re seeing in Los Angeles is chaos that is provoked by the administration,” said Mayor Karen Bass in an afternoon press conference. “This is about another agenda, this isn’t about public safety.”

Trump has said the National Guard was necessary because Newsom and other Democrats have failed to stanch recent protests targeting immigration agents.

Their deployment appeared to be the first time in decades that a state’s national guard was activated without a request from its governor, a significant escalation against those who have sought to hinder the administration’s mass deportation efforts.

Many protest sweeps and deportations

The arrival of the National Guard followed two days of protests that began Friday in downtown Los Angeles before spreading on Saturday to Paramount, a heavily Latino city south of the city, and neighboring Compton.

As federal agents set up a staging area Saturday near a Home Depot in Paramount, demonstrators attempted to block Border Patrol vehicles, with some hurling rocks and chunks of cement. In response, agents in riot gear unleashed tear gas, flash-bang explosives and pepper balls.

Tensions were high after a series of sweeps by immigration authorities the previous day, as the weeklong tally of immigrant arrests in the city climbed above 100. A prominent union leader, David Huerta, the president of the Service Employees International Union of California, was detained by federal agents Friday while protesting an immigration raid at a work site in downtown Los Angeles. Video of the incident shows Huerta being knocked down and lying with his head on the curb. He was hospitalized and released Friday, the union said in a statement, but remained in custody.

Federal officials said Huerta had been deliberately blocking a law enforcement vehicle and had been arrested for interfering with federal officers. He is expected to be arraigned in federal court Monday.

The union, however, said Huerta was arrested while acting as a peaceful “community observer” at the raids. Union leaders across the country released statements demanding his release, as did prominent Democratic elected officials including Newsom and U.S. Rep. Hakeem Jeffries of New York, the House minority leader.

Zander Calderon, 36, who was born and raised in northeast Los Angeles, said he knew several people who had received deportation orders and one neighbor who had self-deported. “This is a real threat. This is not just talk,” he said, wearing a red, green and white poncho, matching the colors of the Mexican flag, with an image of the Virgin Mary. “What I fear the most is, I fear that we will lose freedom, we will live in a dictatorship,” he said.

Earlier deployments

The recent protests remain far smaller than past events that have brought the National Guard to Los Angeles, including the Watts and Rodney King riots, and the 2020 protests against police violence, in which Newsom requested the assistance of federal troops.

The National Guard was last federalized in 1992, Goitein said, when President George H.W. Bush sent troops to Los Angeles to control riots after police officers were acquitted in the beating of Rodney King. That deployment was requested by the Republican governor of California at the time, Pete Wilson.

“For the federal government to take over the California National Guard, without the request of the governor, to put down protests is truly chilling,” said Erwin Chemerinsky, the dean of the law school at the University of California, Berkeley. “It is using the military domestically to stop dissent.”

The last time the National Guard was activated without a governor’s permission was in 1965, when President Lyndon B. Johnson sent troops to protect a civil rights march in Alabama, according to the Brennan Center for Justice.

Hegseth threatens to send Marines

In a directive Saturday, Trump invoked a legal provision allowing him to deploy federal service members when there is “a rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States.”

He said he had authorized the deployment of 2,000 members of the National Guard.

Trump told reporters as he prepared to board Air Force One in Morristown, N.J., Sunday that there were “violent people” in Los Angeles “and they’re not gonna get away with it.”

Asked if he planned to send U.S. troops to Los Angeles, Trump replied: “We’re gonna have troops everywhere. We’re not going to let this happen to our country. We’re not going to let our country be torn apart like it was under Biden.” He didn’t elaborate.

Newsom called Trump on Friday night and they spoke for about 40 minutes, according to the governor’s office. It was not clear if they spoke Saturday or Sunday.

In a statement Sunday, Assistant Homeland Security Secretary Tricia McLaughlin accused California’s politicians and protesters of “defending heinous illegal alien criminals at the expense of Americans’ safety.”

In a signal of the administration’s aggressive approach, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth also threatened to deploy active-duty Marines “if violence continues” in the region.

About 500 Marines stationed at Twentynine Palms, about 125 miles east of Los Angeles were in a “prepared to deploy status” Sunday afternoon, according to the U.S. Northern Command.

Trump suggested deploying U.S. military forces in a similar manner during his first term, to suppress outbreaks of violence during the nationwide protests over the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis. He opted against doing so at the time, but he has repeatedly raised the idea of using troops to secure border states.

In 2020, in the final days of Trump’s first presidential term, military helicopters were used to rout peaceful protesters demonstrating against police violence near the White House. Civilian law enforcement officers carried out operations on the ground.

Trump and his aides have often lamented that not enough was done by Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz to quell protests that followed the death of Floyd in 2020.

During a campaign rally in 2023, Trump made clear that he was not going to hold back during a second term. “You’re supposed to not be involved in that, you just have to be asked by the governor or the mayor to come in — the next time, I’m not waiting,” Trump said.

Former Vice President Kamala Harris, who lives in Los Angeles, said the immigration arrests and Guard deployment were designed as part of a “cruel, calculated agenda to spread panic and division.”

This report includes information from the New York Times.