



AUSTIN, Texas — Protests over federal immigration enforcement raids and President Donald Trump’s move to mobilize the National Guard and Marines in Los Angeles are spreading nationwide and are expected to continue into the weekend.
While many demonstrations against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency have been peaceful, with marchers chanting slogans and carrying signs, others have led to clashes with police, hundreds of arrests and the use of chemical irritants to disperse crowds.
In Texas, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott posted on social media that an unspecified number of National Guard troops “will be deployed to locations across the state to ensure peace & order.”
Activists say they will hold even larger demonstrations in the coming days, with “No Kings” events across the country Saturday to coincide with Trump’s planned military parade in Washington, D.C.
The Trump administration said immigration raids and deportations will continue regardless.
In New York City, police detained more than 80 people during protests in lower Manhattan’s Foley Square on Tuesday evening and early Wednesday.
Protesters shouted and waved signs that included “ICE out of NYC” as they rallied near an ICE facility and federal courthouses. Police estimated about 2,500 people participated. Some protesters jumped over metal barricades and clashed with officers who wrestled them to the ground. Video shows demonstrators throwing items at law enforcement vehicles.
Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said most of the demonstrators were peaceful and that just a few caused the disorder requiring police intervention.
“We want to maintain everyone’s right to protest peacefully in this city and in this country, but we will not tolerate chaos and disorder or violence,” Tisch said Wednesday morning on Fox 5 New York.
Police said they took 86 people into custody, including 52 who were released with criminal court summonses for minor crimes and 34 who were charged with assault, resisting arrest and other crimes.
A protest was planned for Wednesday night in downtown San Antonio outside the historic Alamo. San Antonio police Chief William McManus said his department urges peaceful demonstration but will respond “if something goes south and it turns violent.”
Mayor Ron Nirenberg said he did not ask the governor to deploy the Texas National Guard to the city and city leaders said they did not know how many troops had been sent, where they would be stationed or what they would do. Another protest is planned Saturday in San Antonio.
“I want to acknowledge the anger and frustration that’s out there with the federal government’s crude interpretations of immigration law and cruel approach to human rights,” Nirenberg said. “Exercise your right to free speech, but I urge you to keep it lawful and peaceful.”
About 150 protesters gathered outside the Federal Detention Center in Philadelphia on Tuesday afternoon and marched to ICE headquarters then back to the detention center.
Police ordered a group marching along a major road to disperse and when protesters ignored the orders officers arrested 15 of them. Several officers used force during the arrests and their conduct will be reviewed, police said, without detailing what kind of force was used. Two officers suffered minor injuries.
In San Francisco, about 200 protesters gathered outside the city’s immigration court Tuesday after activists said several people were arrested there.
Protests in the city Sunday and Monday swelled to several thousand demonstrators, and more than 150 people were arrested after some vandalized buildings and damaged cars, police vehicles and buses. Police said two officers suffered injuries.
In Seattle, about 50 people gathered outside the immigration court in downtown on Tuesday, chanting with drums and holding up signs that said, “Free Them All; Abolish ICE” and “No to Deportations.” Protesters blocked building entrances until police arrived.
Mathieu Chabaud, with Students for a Democratic Society at the University of Washington, said they were there in solidarity with the Los Angeles protesters, “and to show that we’re opposed to ICE in our community.”
Legal advocates who normally attend the immigration court hearings as observers and to provide support to immigrants were not allowed inside. Security guards also turned journalists away from the usually public hearings.
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson says the city’s police have responded appropriately in managing crowds at immigration protests in recent days.