Trump deploys 700 Marines in LA amid protests

US President Donald Trump has ordered the deployment of 700 Marines, along with another 2,000 National Guard troops to Los Angeles, escalating military presence in the area. However, the police said military presence created logistical challenges for safely handling protests.

Trump doubled the number of Guard troops being deployed soon after the first wave of 2,000 began arriving on Sunday, amid the most violent outbreaks during four days of protests driven by anger over the president's stepped-up enforcement of immigration laws that critics say are breaking apart migrant families.

On Monday, demonstrations were far less raucous, with thousands peacefully attending a rally at City Hall and hundreds protesting outside a federal complex that includes a detention centre where some immigrants are being held following workplace raids across the city.

The protests in Los Angeles, a city of 4 million people, have largely been centred in several blocks of downtown. At daybreak on Tuesday, guard troops were stationed outside the detention centre but there was no sign of the Marines.

Trump has described Los Angeles in dire terms that Mayor Karen Bass and Newsom say are nowhere close to the truth. They say he is putting public safety at risk by adding military personnel even though police say they don't need the help.

Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell said in a statement he was confident in the police department's ability to handle large-scale demonstrations and that the Marines' arrival without coordinating with the police department would present a “significant logistical and operational challenge” for them.

Newsom called the deployments reckless and “disrespectful to our troops” in a post on the social platform X.

“This isn't about public safety,” Newsom said. “It's about stroking a dangerous President's ego.” The protests began Friday after federal immigration authorities arrested more than 40 people across the city. The smell of smoke hung in the air downtown Monday, a day after crowds blocked a major freeway and set self-driving cars on fire as police responded with tear gas, rubber bullets and flash-bang grenades.

Protests against the immigration raids spread Monday to other cities nationwide, including San Francisco and Santa Ana, California, and Dallas and Austin, Texas.

California pushes back against presence of federal troops California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a lawsuit over the use of National Guard troops following the first deployment, telling reporters that Trump had “trampled” the state's sovereignty.

“We don't take lightly to the president abusing his authority and unlawfully mobilising California National Guard troops,” Bonta said. He sought a court order declaring Trump's use of the Guard unlawful and asking for a restraining order to halt the deployment.

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

US officials said the Marines were being deployed to protect federal property and personnel, including immigration agents. A convoy of 10 to 15 buses with blacked-out windows and escorted by sheriff's vehicles, left the base at Twenty-nine Palms in the desert east of Los Angeles late Monday and headed toward the city, stopping around overnight at Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach, south of downtown Los Angeles.

Despite their presence, there has been limited engagement so far between the Guard and protesters while local law enforcement implements crowd control.

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 Centre for Justice.