LOS ANGELES >> Los Angeles leaders set a downtown curfew Tuesday on the fifth day of protests against President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown as his use of the National Guard escalated, and the California governor, in a televised speech, accused Trump of drawing a “military dragnet” across the nation’s second largest city.

Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom urged Americans to stand up to Trump, calling it a “perilous moment” for democracy and the country’s long-held legal norms.

“California may be first, but it clearly won’t end here,” Newsom said, speaking to cameras from a studio in Los Angeles. “Other states are next. Democracy is next.”

“Democracy is under assault right before our eyes — the moment we’ve feared has arrived,” he added.

Also Tuesday, Newsom asked a court to put an emergency stop to the military helping federal immigration agents, with some guardsmen now standing in protection around agents as they carried out arrests. He said the move by Trump would only heighten tensions and promote civil unrest. The judge chose not to rule immediately, giving the administration several days to continue those activities before a hearing Thursday.

Newsom said Trump had “inflamed a combustible situation” by taking over California’s National Guard, and by calling up 4,000 troops and 700 Marines.

The moves put troops closer to engaging in law enforcement actions like deportations, as Trump has promised as part of the administration’s immigration crackdown. The Guard has the authority to temporarily detain people who attack officers but any arrests ultimately would be made by law enforcement.

The activations came over the objections of city and state leaders, though the Marines have not yet been spotted in Los Angeles and Guard troops have had limited engagement with protesters.

Newsom said Trump’s immigration crackdown has gone well beyond arresting criminals and that “dishwashers, gardeners, day laborers and seamstresses” are among those being detained.

8 p.m. curfew

As the curfew approached, several groups gathered downtown, with some saying they planned to ignore it and others chanting calls for the gathering to remain peaceful. Officials said the curfew was necessary to stop vandalism and theft by agitators looking to cause trouble.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said in a news conference that she had declared a local emergency and that the curfew will run from 8 p.m. Tuesday until 6 a.m. Wednesday.

“We reached a tipping point” after 23 businesses were looted, Bass said.

The curfew will be in place in a 1 square mile section of downtown. The city of Los Angeles encompasses roughly 500 square miles.

The curfew doesn’t apply to residents who live in the designated area, people who are homeless, credentialed media or public safety and emergency officials, according to Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell.

McDonnell said “unlawful and dangerous behavior” had been escalating since Saturday.

“The curfew is a necessary measure to protect lives and safeguard property following several consecutive days of growing unrest throughout the city,” McDonnell said.

Insurrection Act

Trump left open the possibility of invoking the Insurrection Act, which authorizes the president to deploy military forces inside the U.S. to suppress rebellion or domestic violence or to enforce the law in certain situations. It’s one of the most extreme emergency powers available to a U.S. president.

“If there’s an insurrection, I would certainly invoke it. We’ll see,” he said from the Oval Office.

Later the president called protesters “animals” and “a foreign enemy” in a speech at Fort Bragg, N.C., ostensibly to recognize the 250th anniversary of the U.S. Army.

Trump has described Los Angeles in dire terms that Bass and Newsom say are nowhere close to the truth.

Violent, and then subdued

The protests began Friday after federal immigration raids arrested dozens of workers in Los Angeles. Protesters blocked a major freeway and set cars on fire over the weekend, and police responded with tear gas, rubber bullets and flash-bang grenades.

The demonstrations have been mostly concentrated downtown in the city of 4 million. Thousands of people have peacefully rallied outside City Hall and hundreds more protested outside a federal complex that includes a detention center where some immigrants are being held following workplace raids.

On Tuesday, a few dozen protesters gathered peacefully in front of the federal complex, which was quickly declared an unlawful assembly. Police issued a dispersal order and corralled the protesters, telling members of the media to stay out to avoid getting hurt. Officers with zip ties started making arrests.

McDonnell said that police had made 197 arrests on Tuesday, including 67 who were taken into custody for unlawfully occupying part of the 101 freeway.

Several businesses were broken into Monday, though authorities didn’t say if the looting was tied to the protests.

The vast majority of arrests have been for failing to disperse, while a few others were for assault with a deadly weapon, looting, vandalism and attempted murder for tossing a Molotov cocktail. Seven police officers were reportedly injured, and at least two were taken to a hospital and released.

Demonstrations have spread to other cities in the state and nationwide, including Dallas and Austin, Texas, Chicago and New York City, where a thousand people rallied and multiple arrests were made.

The New York demonstrators rallied near a large government building that houses federal immigration offices and the city’s main immigration court, which has become a flash point as the Trump administration ramps up the arrest of migrants in courthouses.

Shortly after 6 p.m., hundreds moved into streets that snake through the lower Manhattan. They raised bright yellow signs that said “ICE out of NYC” in Spanish and English.

In Washington

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth suggested in a hearing Tuesday that the use of troops inside the U.S. will continue to expand.

The Pentagon said deploying the National Guard and Marines in Los Angeles costs $134 million.

Trump said the city would have been “completely obliterated” if he had not deployed the Guard.

The 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.

This report contains information from the New York Times.