A separate Pride parade in support of LGBTQ rights – also under assault by the Trump administration – is expected in Hollywood, with organisers posting on Instagram that they were working with local law enforcement to keep the celebrations safe.
“Trump is sending 2000 National Guard troops into LA County – not to meet an unmet need, but to manufacture a crisis,” Newsom posted on X.
“He’s hoping for chaos so he can justify more crackdowns, more fear, more control. Stay calm. Never use violence. Stay peaceful.”
Newsom’s warning came after Los Angeles was rocked by two days of confrontations, during which federal agents fired flash-bang grenades and tear gas toward crowds angry at the arrests of dozens of migrants.
Pepper spray could be smelled from overnight clashes, AFP reporters in downtown Los Angeles said, while some scuffles between protesters and federal law enforcement were seen in the neighbourhood of Compton.
‘Escalation’
Republicans lined up behind Trump to dismiss the pushback by Newsom and other local officials against the National Guard deployment.
“I have no concern about that at all,” Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson said, accusing Newsom of “an inability or unwillingness to do what is necessary”.
As for threats by Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth at the weekend to send in active-duty Marines on top of the Guard troops, Johnson said he did not see that as “heavy-handed”.
“We have to be prepared to do what is necessary,” he argued.
Some Los Angeles residents felt otherwise, however.
“I certainly wouldn’t say I feel safer,” 39-year-old Jason Garcia told AFP.
“I was in the military, and I know that this escalation of force just keeps getting higher.”
‘Unacceptable’
The National Guard – a reserve military – is frequently used in natural disasters, and occasionally in instances of civil unrest, but almost always with the consent of local authorities.
It is the first time since 1965 that a President has deployed a National Guard without a request by a state governor, the former head of Human Rights Watch, US activist Kenneth Roth, posted on X.
But guardsmen are “specifically trained for this type of crowd situation”, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said.
Trump has delivered on a promise to crack down hard on undocumented migrants – who he has likened to “monsters” and “animals” – since taking office in January.
Raids by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency in other US cities have triggered small-scale protests in recent months, but the Los Angeles unrest is the biggest and most sustained against Trump’s immigration policies so far.
A CBS News poll taken before the Los Angeles protests showed a slight majority of Americans still approved of the immigration crackdown.
Masked and armed immigration agents carried out high-profile workplace raids in separate parts of Los Angeles on Friday and Saturday, attracting angry crowds and setting off hours-long standoffs.
An AFP photographer saw fires and fireworks light up the streets during clashes, while a protester holding a Mexican flag stood in front of a burnt-out car.
The stand-off demonstrated “Trump’s authoritarianism in real time”, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders posted on X.
“Conduct massive illegal raids. Provoke a counter-response. Declare a state of emergency. Call in the troops,” he wrote, adding: “Unacceptable.”
-Agence France-Presse
