Police said they detained more than 200 people from Tuesday through Wednesday morning — the vast majority for failing to disperse. Two officers were injured, though officials said there were fewer clashes between police and demonstrators than on previous nights.
Protests over the immigration crackdown have been held in major cities throughout the U.S. in recent days. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass and hundreds of other Democratic mayors issued a call Wednesday for an end to the raids and federal troop presence in Los Angeles.
Although critics accuse Trump of manufacturing the crisis for political gain and sowing chaos, the president said on social media that Los Angeles would have been "completely obliterated" if he hadn't sent Guard members there over the weekend.
Here are some things to know about the protests, troop deployments and showdowns between local, state and federal officials:
LA police quickly enforce downtown curfew
Police wasted no time in enforcing the 8 p.m.-6 a.m. curfew for downtown Los Angeles on Tuesday, making arrests in the roughly 1-square-mile (2.5-square-kilometer) section of the sprawling city of about 4 million people. They deployed officers on horseback and used crowd-control projectiles to break up a group of hundreds demonstrating against the immigration crackdown.
Members of the National Guard stood watch behind plastic shields, but didn't appear to take part in the arrests.
Hours later, many of the protesters had dispersed, although smaller, sporadic confrontations continued. Officials said the curfew was necessary to stop vandalism and theft by opportunists who looted businesses after peaceful protesters left on previous nights.
On Wednesday, U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said two people had been charged with throwing Molotov cocktails at police. No officers were hit, according to Essayli, who said their "community must be kept safe for peaceful protests.”
Raids spark protests elsewhere
Although the crackdown and protests have been most prominent in Los Angeles, demonstrators have been rallying against the immigration crackdown in other major cities, including Dallas and Austin, Texas, Chicago, Denver and New York, where thousands rallied and multiple arrests were made.
New York City police said they took 86 people into custody during protests around lower Manhattan’s Foley Square overnight Tuesday into Wednesday. Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said the vast majority of demonstrators were peaceful.
“No Kings” rallies critical of Trump are planned nationwide Saturday to coincide with the president’s scheduled military parade in Washington.
Republican support for the crackdown
Many Republican state and local officials have spoken out in support of the immigration crackdown.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who has often clashed with Newsom, said states “don’t have the right to just simply opt out of federal immigration law.”
In Texas, where police in Austin used chemical irritants to disperse several hundred demonstrators Monday, Republican Gov. Greg Abbott’s office said Texas National Guard troops were “on standby” in areas where demonstrations are planned.
Guard members were also deployed to San Antonio, where a protest was scheduled Wednesday night near the Alamo, in the heart of the city’s downtown.
However, Democratic Mayor Ron Nirenberg said the city did not ask for the federal help. And Police Chief William McManus said he had gotten no information on how those troops will be used.
“We are prepared for a peaceful demonstration, but we are also prepared if something goes south and it turns violent,” McManus said.
Unlike in Los Angeles, where Trump took the rare step of deploying troops despite the objections of California Gov. Gavin Newsom, Abbott announced the deployment of his state's National Guard troops and made no mention that the order came from anyone but him.
What's behind the demonstrations?
The protests, which started Friday in downtown Los Angeles before spreading Saturday to neighboring the neighboring cities of Compton and Paramount, have been driven by anger over Trump's stepped-up enforcement of immigration laws that critics say are tearing apart migrant families.
The area presents a ripe target for the raids, as an estimated 10% of Los Angeles County residents aren't in the country legally.
Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff and chief architect of Trump’s immigration policies, said late last month that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement should make at least 3,000 arrests a day. That would mark a dramatic increase from Jan. 20 to May 19, when the agency made an average of 656 arrests a day.
Immigrant advocates say the workers being detained, including some in the garment district, do not have criminal histories and are being denied due process. Advocates for car wash workers said that only two of 26 people detained since the weekend – 25 workers and a customer - had been located. One of unaccounted for workers was Jaslyn Hernandez's father, who was supposed to watch her graduate Wednesday.
“We have not been able to find him and it’s not fair,” Hernandez said.
Newsom clashes with Trump
Newsom has asked a court to put an emergency stop to the military helping federal immigration agents, with some guardsmen now standing in protection around agents as they carry out arrests. The judge set a hearing for Thursday, giving the administration several days to continue those activities.
The change moves troops closer to engaging in law enforcement actions like deportations as Trump has promised as part of his administration's immigration crackdown. The Guard has the authority to temporarily detain people who attack officers, but any arrests would be made by law enforcement.
ICE said in a statement that the troops were providing security at federal facilities and protecting federal officers.
In a public address Tuesday, Newsom called Trump’s actions the start of an “assault” on democracy.
“California may be first, but it clearly will not end here. Other states are next. Democracy is next,” he said.
Meanwhile, press freedom advocates suggest that journalists covering the protests might be being targeted. Reporters Without Borders said Wednesday that there have been at least 35 attacks on journalists — 30 from law enforcement — since the demonstrations began.
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Associated Press writers Jim Vertuno in Austin, Texas, David Collins in New York, Jason Dearen, Jaimie Ding, Jake Offenhartz and Dorany Pineda in Los Angeles, Eliott Spagat in San Diego, Maryclaire Dale in Philadelphia and Lolita C. Baldor in Washington contributed.
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