US braces for more protests

Hundreds of US Marines were undergoing refresher training in riot and crowd control just outside of Los Angeles and will move into the city soon, a military official said, as protests over President Donald Trump’s immigration raids spread from California to other parts of the country.

Trump’s decision to dispatch National Guard troops and Marines to Los Angeles over the objections of California’s governor has sparked a national debate on the use of the military on US soil.

The governor of Texas, Republican Greg Abbott, said he will deploy the National Guard on Wednesday ahead of planned protests in San Antonio and other parts of the state, making him the first governor to take that step.

Police in Austin, Texas, fired tear gas and pepper balls in a standoff with demonstrators on Monday.

Protesters marched in New York, Atlanta and Chicago on Tuesday night, chanting anti-US Immigration and Customs Enforcement slogans and at times clashing with law enforcement, while downtown Los Angeles spent its first night under a mandatory curfew after five days of demonstrations.

The protests are likely to expand on Saturday, when several activist groups have planned hundreds of anti-Trump demonstrations across the country. That day, tanks and other armored vehicles will rumble down the streets of Washington, DC, in a military parade marking the U.S. Army's 250th anniversary and coinciding with Trump's 79th birthday.