US cities brace for more protests as parts of Los Angeles placed under curfew

Several US cities braced for protests on Wednesday against President Donald Trump's sweeping immigration raids as parts of the country's second largest city Los Angeles spent the night under curfew in an effort to quell five days of unrest.

The governor of Texas, Republican Greg Abbott, said he will deploy the national guard this week ahead of planned protests. Protesters and police in Austin clashed on Monday.

Trump's extraordinary measures of sending national guard troops and marines to quell protests in LA has sparked a national debate on the use of military on US soil and pitted the Republican president against California's Democrat governor.

“This brazen abuse of power by a sitting president inflamed a combustible situation, putting our people, our officers and even our national guard at risk. That's when the downward spiral began,” California governor Gavin Newsom said in a video address on Tuesday.

“He again chose escalation. He chose more force. He chose theatrics over public safety. Democracy is under assault.”

Newsom, widely seen as preparing for a presidential run in 2028, and the state of California sued Trump and the defence department on Monday, seeking to block the deployment of federal troops. Trump has suggested Newsom should be arrested.

Hundreds of marines arrived in the LA area on Tuesday under orders from Trump, after he also ordered the deployment of 4,000 national guard troops to the city. Marines and national guard troops are to be used in the protection of government personnel and buildings and not in police action.

LA mayor Karen Bass said the deployments were not necessary as police could manage the protests, most of which have been peaceful and limited to about five streets.

However, due to looting and violence at night she imposed a curfew over one square mile of the city's downtown area starting on Tuesday night. The curfew will last several days.

Police said many groups stayed on the streets in some areas despite the curfew and “mass arrests” were initiated. Police earlier said 197 people had been arrested on Tuesday, more than double the total number of arrests to date.

Democratic leaders have raised concerns over a national crisis in what has become the most intense flashpoint yet in the Trump administration's efforts to deport migrants living in the country illegally, and then crack down on opponents who take to the streets in protest.

Trump, voted back into office last year largely for his promise to deport undocumented immigrants, used a speech honouring soldiers on Tuesday to defend his decision.

He told troops at the army base in Fort Bragg, North Carolina: “Generations of army heroes did not shed their blood on distant shores only to watch our country be destroyed by invasion and third-world lawlessness.

“What you're witnessing in California is a full-blown assault on peace, on public order and on national sovereignty, carried out by rioters bearing foreign flags,” Trump said, adding his administration would “liberate Los Angeles”.

Demonstrators have waved the flags of Mexico and other countries in solidarity with migrants rounded up in a series of intensifying raids.

Homeland security said on Monday its immigration and customs enforcement (ICE) division had arrested 2,000 immigration offenders per day recently, far above the 311 daily average in fiscal year 2024 under former president Joe Biden.

Protests have also taken place in New York, Atlanta and Chicago, where demonstrators shouted at and scuffled with officers. Some protesters climbed onto the Picasso sculpture in Daley Plaza, while others chanted ICE should be abolished.

Texas governor Abbott said late on Tuesday he will deploy the national guard, which “will use every tool and strategy to help law enforcement maintain order”.

“Texas national guard will be deployed to locations across the state to ensure peace and order. Peaceful protest is legal. Harming a person or property is illegal and will lead to arrest,” Abbott posted on X.

South Texas organisations are expected to hold anti-ICE rallies on Wednesday and Saturday, CNN reported local media as saying.

About 700 marines were in a staging area in the Seal Beach area about 50km south of Los Angeles on Tuesday, awaiting deployment to specific locations, an official said.

California attorney-general Rob Bonta told Reuters the state was concerned about allowing federal troops to protect personnel, saying there was a risk that could violate an 1878 law that generally forbids the US military, including the national guard, from taking part in civilian law enforcement.

“Protecting personnel likely means accompanying ICE agents into communities and neighbourhoods, and protecting functions could mean protecting the ICE function of enforcing the immigration law,” Bonta said.

Immigration and customs enforcement on Tuesday posted photos on X of national guard troops accompanying ICE officers on an immigration raid. Trump administration officials have vowed to redouble the immigration raids in response to the street protests.

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 former president George HW Bush to help respond to LA riots over the acquittal of police officers who beat black motorist Rodney King.

Reuters