LOS ANGELES – President Donald Trump ordered active-duty US Marines and 2 000 more National Guard troops into Los Angeles yesterday vowing those protesting immigration arrests would be “hit harder” than ever.

Trump’s extraordinary mobilisation of 700 full-time professional military personnel — and thousands of National Guard troops — came on the fourth day of street protests triggered by dozens of immigration arrests in a city with huge foreign-born and Latino populations.

California Governor Gavin Newsom slammed the move, posting on X that US Marines “shouldn’t be deployed on American soil facing their own countrymen to fulfill the deranged fantasy of a dictatorial President. This is un-American.”

The deployment came after demonstrators took over streets in downtown LA on Sunday, torching cars and looting stores in scenes that saw law enforcement responding with tear gas and rubber bullets.
yesterday’s demonstrations unfolded largely peacefully, however, after weekend protests triggered by dozens of arrests of people authorities said were illegal migrants and gang members.

“Pigs go home!” demonstrators shouted at National Guardsmen outside a federal detention centre. Others banged on the sides of unmarked vehicles as they passed through police containment lines.

One small business owner whose property was graffitied was supportive of the strongarm tactics.

“I think it’s needed to stop the vandalism,” she told AFP, declining to give her name.

Others were horrified.

“They’re meant to be protecting us, but instead, they’re like, being sent to attack us,” Kelly Diemer, told AFP. “This is not a democracy anymore.”

In the nearby city of Santa Ana, about 50 kilometres southwest of Los Angeles, law enforcement fired tear gas and flash-bang grenades on protesters chanting against the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency as darkness fell. – Nampa/AFP