The National Guard arrives in Los Angeles as the raids continue

The Troops of the California National Guard arrived in Los Angeles on Sunday in a demonstration of force after dispersed clashes between immigration agents and demonstrators and in the midst of an extended political fracture between California and the Trump administration.

President Trump’s decision to activate nearly 2,000 guards has marked the first time since 1965 that a president deployed the State National Guard without asking the governor of this state. The decision was greeted by severe reprimands by state authorities and local officials, notably Governor Gavin Newsom, who said that the deployment “did not meet an unmet need, but to make a crisis”.

Sunday afternoon, the Newsom office sent an official letter to the Trump administration asking them to cancel their deployment of troops.

“It is currently not necessary that the National Guard will be deployed in Los Angeles, and do it in this illegal way and for such a long period, there is a serious violation of state sovereignty which seems intentionally designed to ignite the situation, while simultaneously deploying the state to deploy these staff and these resources where they are really necessary”, readings of the letter.

On Sunday afternoon, there were times tense in front of a federal detention center in downtown, with police officers pulling tear gas and less lethal bullets against the demonstrators.

Around 4 p.m., a swarm of demonstrators sank on the southern side of Highway 101, blocking traffic. The demonstrators were in a confrontation with dozens of officers aligned under the bridge on rue Los Angeles. The highway remains closed between Alameda and the 110 highway, according to LAPD.

But other areas that had experienced disorders in the past few days, including the Garment, Paramount and Compton district, seemed calm.

We did not know exactly how many troops were deployed in Los Angeles on Sunday afternoon. The combat team of the National Guard Infantry Brigade, based in San Diego, said 300 staff members were on the ground on Sunday to protect property and federal staff.

Trump administration officials seized isolated violence incidents to suggest that large parts of the are out of control. Trump Sunday taken on social networks To claim “violent and insurrectionists teeming and attack” federal police.

“An old-fashioned American city, Los Angeles, was invaded and occupied by illegal extraterrestrials and criminals,” he wrote, blaming democratic politicians for not having repressed earlier.

Although the civil servants have not said how long the measures to apply immigration will continue, Trump told journalists on Sunday: “We are going to have troops everywhere. We are not going to let it happen to our country.”

Many Californian officials, who have long disagreed with Trump, say that the president was trying to exploit the situation of his political advantage and sow unnecessary disorders and confusion.

The mayor of Los Angeles, Karen Bass, described the deployment of federalized troops a “chaotic escalation” and recalled that “Los Angeles will always remain with all those who call our city at home”.

While most demonstrators gathered peacefullySome have launched objects from the police, launched garbage and vehicles in fire and degraded federal properties with graffiti.

THE Immigration and customs application operation in Los Angeles in last week resulted in the arrest of 118 people, some of whom were found guilty of drug trafficking, aggression, cruelty to children, domestic violence and theft, according to the agency.

Deputy Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin and Republican politicians who support Trump’s immigration actions have qualified protests as riots intended to “keep the rapists, murderers and other violent criminals in the streets of Los Angeles”.

Sunday morning, the representative Maxine Waters (D-Los Angeles) addressed around two dozen soldiers of the National Guard displayed in front of the metropolitan detention center on Alameda Street. She had arrived at the center to find out about the employees of the California International Union service President David Huerta, who was injured and detained While documenting an immigration application raid in downtown Los Angeles on Friday.

“Who are you going to shoot?” Waters asked soldiers. “If you are going to shoot me, you better get straight.”

Remains of tear gas used by the police during demonstrations on Saturday dwelled in the air around the building, sometimes forcing the waters to cough. Waters, a frank critic of the president, qualified the deployment of troops from the National Guard An unnecessary escalation of tensions and accused Trump of “trying to make an example” in Los Angeles, a longtime sanctuary city.

Leonard Tunstad, a 69 -year -old Los Angeles resident, set up his bike to the edge of the loading platform where the troops were stationed and asked them if they really wanted to be faithful to a president who “had 34 crime convictions”. He said he felt forced to shout from the facts on Trump to the guards because he feared that young men were “indoctrinated against their own citizens”.

Tunstad said he thought that deployment was an excessive flagrant reaction from the Trump administration, noting that the city housed much noisy demonstrations that were processed by local police.

“It’s just a show. It’s just a show,” he said.

An agent of the Ministry of Internal Security approached one of the stronger demonstrators saying that he “did not want a rehearsal last night” and did not want to “become political”. He said to the demonstrators as long as they stick to the sidewalk and do not block access to vehicles at the loading quay, there would be no problem.

Later, the DHS and the Troops of the California National Guard pushed dozens of demonstrators in Alameda Street, hitting people with riot shields, pulling pellets in the ground and deployment of tear gas to open a path for a caravan of DHS, border patrol and military vehicles to enter the detention center.

Jose Longoria had a hard time breathing while clouds of tear gas were filled with Alameda Street. He pointed out a white section on his shoe, saying that a tear gas box had hit him at the foot, making him slightly Boign.

“We are not armed. We are simply protest. They act,” said Longoria about officers.

Julie Solis, 50, went back and forth along Alameda Street holding a Mexican flag and urging the crowd to make her voice heard, but to keep the scene peaceful. She said that she thought that the National Guard was only deployed to provoke an answer and make Los Angeles unruly to justify a new assault on the federal police.

“They want arrests. They want to see us fail. We must be peaceful. We have to be eloquent, ”she said.

The national guard troops were convened last time in Los Angeles and other cities in southern California in 2020, during the demonstrations of George Floyd. These deployments were authorized by Newsom.

However, the last time the National Guard was called upon by a president without a request from a state governor was 60 years ago when President Lyndon B. Johnson sent troops to Alabama to protect civil rights demonstrators.

Antonio Villaraigosa, former president of the California assembly and former mayor of Los Angeles, said that Trump’s decision was “intended to encourage more fear and chaos in our community”.

“Trump’s military-style military-style lags-style glaze raids in California have gone too far, have torn families and threaten public security,” he said in a statement. “Raids in stores and workplaces are wrong, just as it is wrong to separate families with raids in schools, diplomas and churches.”

In Paramount, a group of troops from the Camouflaged National Guard was parked in a business park with armored vehicles where a office of the Ministry of Internal Security is located.

Jessica Juarez walked along the Alondra boulevard with a trash bag full of tear gas cans on Sunday morning. Her voice became hoarse as she helped a group of volunteers to clean after clashes between demonstrators and the police the day before.

The United States prosecutor Bill Essayli told NBC in an interview that an officer had undergone a broken wrist and that others had been injured by rocks and coins of cement which were launched during the demonstration on Saturday. He said it was “an extremely violent crowd”, but the officials are not “discouraged”.

A acre smell was always suspended in the air of the grenades of gas and flash bang, the police fired on demonstrators on Saturday, while the burned asphalt marked the intersection outside a house depot in which the federal authorities had staged.

“I am proud of our community, the strength we have shown,” said Juarez, 40. “It is as if they put so much fear in Paramount and for what? These guys did not even clean up after themselves.”

Paramount images wrapped in smoke and flanked by police officers in riot equipment are unusual for this community of around 50,000 residents. In many ways, the city has become the starting point for climbing the federal response.

“How do you call other than an attack on Paramount and the people who live here?” The said resident and union organizer Alejandro Maldonado. “The inhabitants of the community resisted unfair immigration policies.”

For some, the fight between residents of Los Angeles and the federal government is similar to David and Goliath. “It really seems that they wanted to fight with the little guy,” said union organizer Ardelia Aldridge.

Seema Mehta staff writers, Rebecca Ellis And Brittny Mejia contributed to this report