Sawt Falasteen - Trump ratchets up threats over Los Angeles protests

Residents were ordered not to gather in the city's downtown where demonstrators had torched cars and security forces fired tear gas in violence that local officials stressed remained localized.

Trump posted that he had deployed National Guard troops "to deal with the violent, instigated riots" and "if we had not done so, Los Angeles would have been completely obliterated."

"The people are causing the problems are professional agitators and insurrectionists," he told reporters in Washington.

California's governor Gavin Newsom accused the president of deliberating stoking tensions by using the National Guard, a reserve military force usually controlled by state governors.

"This is exactly what Donald Trump wanted," Newsom said. "He flamed the fires."

The protests in Los Angeles, home to a large Latino population, were triggered by raids and dozens of arrests of what authorities say are illegal migrants and gang members.

On Monday morning, a heavy police presence stood watch over mostly deserted streets. A few protesters had remained overnight, with some lobbing projectiles and fireworks.

"You have the National Guard with loaded magazines and large guns standing around trying to intimidate Americans," protester Thomas Henning told AFP at the scene of the standoff Sunday.

Trump's border Tom Homan denied the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency had conducted any raids, describing them as arrests linked to cartels in Mexico and Colombia.

"It wasn't an immigration raid," he told MSNBC, saying it was an investigation into money laundering, tax evasion and customs fraud.

- 'What was the point?' -

But Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass told CNN that despite Trump's rhetoric, "this is not citywide civil unrest."

The immigration raids were designed to stir tensions, she said, while the troop deployment was "a recipe for pandemonium."

"It wasn't a drug den. It was a Home Depot. It was places where people are working. So what was the point of doing this?"

The United Nations warned against "further militarization" of the situation, in remarks likely to anger the White House.

At least five self-driving Waymo cars were torched Sunday, and local law enforcement used tear gas and smoke grenades to disperse protesters.

An Australian reporter was hit in the leg with a rubber bullet fired by a police officer on live television but was unharmed.

Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) officers kept demonstrators separated from armed National Guardsmen from the 79th Infantry Brigade Combat Team in helmets and camouflage gear.

At least 56 people were arrested over two days and three officers suffered minor injuries.

Police in San Francisco said about 60 people had been arrested in similar protests in the northern Californian city.

Asked on Sunday about invoking the Insurrection Act -- which would allow the military to be used as a domestic police force -- Trump said: "We're looking at troops everywhere. We're not going to let this happen to our country."

About 500 Marines were officially put in "a prepared-to-deploy status."

The National Guard is frequently used in natural disasters, and occasionally in civil unrest, but almost always with the consent of local authorities.

The former vice president and Trump's opponent in the 2024 election called it "a dangerous escalation meant to provoke chaos."

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum on Monday condemned the violence, while calling on the United States to respect migrant rights.

Sheinbaum urged Mexicans living in the United States "to act peacefully and not give in to provocations."

O.Salim--SF-PST