US deploys marines to Los Angeles as police break up fourth day of protests

The US military will temporarily deploy about 700 marines to Los Angeles until more national guard troops can arrive, marking another escalation in President Donald Trump's response to street protests over his aggressive immigration policies.

Tensions have been rising since Trump activated the national guard on Saturday after street protests erupted in response to immigration raids in southern California. It is the biggest flashpoint yet in the Trump administration's aggressive efforts to deport migrants living in the country illegally.

The announcement that marines would be deployed was made on the fourth day of protests. Late on Monday police began to disperse hundreds of demonstrators who gathered outside a federal detention centre in downtown LA where immigrants have been held.

National guard forces had formed a human barricade to keep people out of the building. Later a phalanx of LA police moved up the street, starting to push people from the scene and firing “less lethal” munitions such as gas canisters. Police had used similar tactics since Friday.

The LA police department said late on Monday afternoon that some protesters had started throwing objects at officers and the use of less lethal munitions had been authorised, adding in an X post: “Less lethal munitions may cause pain and discomfort.”

California sued the Trump administration to block deployment of the national guard and the marines on Monday, arguing it violates federal law and state sovereignty.

US marines have been deployed domestically for major disasters such as Hurricane Katrina and the September 11 2001, attacks, but it is extremely rare for military troops to be used for domestic policing.

For now, the Trump administration was not invoking the Insurrection Act, which would allow troops to directly participate in civilian law enforcement, according to a US official speaking on condition of anonymity.

The Pentagon confirmed on Monday that a contingent of 2,000 national guard troops would be doubled to 4,000. Trump said on Monday he felt he had no choice but to increase the level of force to prevent violence from spiralling out of control.

Trump also said he supported a suggestion by his border czar Tom Homan that California governor Gavin Newsom should be arrested over possible obstruction of his administration's immigration enforcement measures.

“I would do it if I were Tom. I think it's great,” Trump told reporters.

Democrats said Trump's decision to deploy military force to handle the protests amounts to an abuse of presidential power, and California's lawsuit claimed it was illegal.

“The level of escalation is completely unwarranted, uncalled for and unprecedented,” Newsom's press office said on X.

The protests so far have resulted in a few dozen arrests and some property damage, including self-driving Waymo vehicles that were set ablaze on Sunday night. The LA police department said five officers sustained minor injuries on Saturday and Sunday, as did five police horses used in crowd control.

Before police intervention on Monday, several hundred protesters chanted “free them all” outside the LA federal detention facility where immigrants have been held.

“What is happening affects every American, everyone who wants to live free, regardless of how long their family has lived here,” said Marzita Cerrato, 42, a first-generation immigrant whose parents are from Mexico and Honduras.

Some in the crowd punched and tossed eggs at a Trump supporter at the event, while others fired paintballs from a car at the federal building.

Protests also sprang up in at least nine other US cities on Monday, including New York, Philadelphia and San Francisco, according to local news outlets.

The Trump administration has argued Democratic former president Joe Biden's administration allowed far too many immigrants to enter the country and Democratic-run cities such as LA are improperly interfering with efforts to deport them. Trump has pledged to deport record numbers of people who are in the country illegally and to lock down the US-Mexico border, setting a goal of at least 3,000 daily arrests.

Trump can deploy marines under certain conditions of law or under his authority as commander in chief.

The last time the military was used for direct police action under the Insurrection Act was in 1992, when the California governor at the time asked president George Bush to help respond to LA riots over the acquittal of police officers who beat black motorist Rodney King.

More than 50 people were killed in the 1992 riots, which also caused $1bn (R17.bn) in damage over six days.

Federal law allows the president to deploy the national guard if the nation is invaded, if there is “rebellion or danger of rebellion,” or the president is “unable with the regular forces to execute the laws of the US”.

Reuters