Trump deploys troops in Los Angeles amid protests
Protesters have taken to the streets in a Los Angeles suburb after immigration authorities made arrests.
US President Donald Trump on Saturday sent 2,000 National Guard troops to a suburb of Los Angeles in California to deal with growing demonstrations against immigration authorities.
This is reported by the AFP news agency.
Angry protesters have gathered for the second day in a row in the suburb of Paramount, where demonstrations have turned into clashes between protesters and police officers.
The demonstrations come after immigration authorities ICE arrested 44 people in various locations around the city. According to ICE, the arrests were made for immigration violations.
Tear gas and stun grenades
On Saturday, several protesters gathered near a hardware store that is being used as a meeting place for federal immigration authorities, according to local television station Fox 11. They were met by officers wearing gas masks.
According to several media outlets, the police have used tear gas and stun grenades against the demonstrators.
Since Trump was sworn in as US president again in January, he has cracked down hard on illegal immigrants, whom he wants deported. On Sunday night Danish time, the president sent 2,000 members of the National Guard to the Los Angeles suburb.
Very unusual
It is highly unusual for a president to deploy the National Guard without a state governor having requested it, says foreign editor at Kristeligt Dagblad, Sidsel Nyholm, to DR.
The last time this happened was in 1965, when President Lyndon B. Johnson sent soldiers to Alabama to protect civil rights protesters.
California borders Mexico and has many immigrants, both legal and illegal.
Sidsel Nyholm estimates that the demonstrations could spread.
– It is very likely that it will spread, because anger has built up in parts of the population against Donald Trump in the past few months, says Sidsel Nyholm to DR.
