California has asked a court for a restraining order to prevent US troops being deployed on the streets of Los Angeles after President Donald Trump sent in Marines and the National Guard.
"Sending trained warfighters onto the streets is unprecedented and threatens the very core of our democracy," Governor Gavin Newsom said.
Mr Newsom said Mr Trump "is behaving like a tyrant, not a president", adding that the state has asked "the court to immediately block these unlawful actions".
The move comes after the president said his deployment of Marines and other soldiers to Los Angeles was preventing the city from "burning to the ground" as a result of protests against an immigration crackdown.
"If I didn't 'SEND IN THE TROOPS' to Los Angeles the last three nights, that once beautiful and great city would be burning to the ground right now," Mr Trump posted on Truth Social, claiming that the so-far sporadic street unrest posed the same threat as a recent wildfire that destroyed entire neighborhoods in the city.
Los Angeles has experienced days of public protests since the Trump administration launched a series of immigration raids on Friday.
State officials said Mr Trump's response was an overreaction to mostly peaceful demonstrations.
About 700 Marines are in a staging area awaiting deployment to specific locations, a US official said.
The Marines do not have arrest authority and will protect federal property and personnel, according to military officials.
There are approximately 2,100 Guard troops in greater Los Angeles, with more on the way, the official said.
The troop deployments are estimated to cost about $134million, a senior Pentagon official said.
Bryn MacDonnell, who is performing comptroller duties at the Pentagon, told politicians the cost included travel, housing and food for troops.
"Think of how much veteran nutrition assistance and housing (the Trump administration) could be providing instead of dishonoring these troops using them as pawns," Mr Newsom wrote onX, referring to the deployments' cost.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass told KABC that more than 100 people had been arrested yesterday, but that the majority of protesters were non-violent.
"Let me be clear: ANYONE who vandalised Downtown or looted stores does not care about our immigrant communities," Ms Bass later wrote on X, adding: "You will be held accountable."
Mr Trump has justified his decision to deploy active military troops to Los Angeles by describing the protests as a violent occupation - a characterisation that Mr Newsom and Ms Bass have said is grossly exaggerated.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, the president said Los Angeles would be "burning right now" if not for the deployments and that National Guard troops would remain until there is no danger.
Mr Trump also left open the possibility of invoking the centuries-old Insurrection Act, which would allow the military to take part directly in civilian law enforcement, saying one could argue that parts of the city were already seeing an insurrection.
Mr Newsom accused the president of sending troops to deliberately inflame the situation for political reasons, calling it "a blatant abuse of power".
The protests since Friday have been largely peaceful and mostly concentrated in downtown Los Angeles.
But there have been clashes, with some demonstrators throwing rocks and other objects at officers, blocking an interstate highway and setting cars ablaze.
Several businesses were looted, including an Apple store and a CVS pharmacy. Police have responded by firing projectiles such as pepper balls, as well as flash-bang grenades and tear gas
The Los Angeles Police Department said it arrested at least 50 people over the weekend on charges, including attempted murder with a Molotov cocktail and assaulting an officer.
Trump's Marine deployment escalated his confrontation with Mr Newsom, who filed a lawsuit yesterday asserting that the president's activation of National Guard troops without the governor's consent was illegal.
The announcement that marines would be deployed was made on the fourth straight day of protests.
The National Guard deployment was the first time in decades that a president did so without a request from a sitting governor.
The use of active military to respond to civil disturbances is extremely rare.
"This isn't about public safety," Mr Newsom wrote on X, adding: "It's about stroking a dangerous president's ego."
The top Democrat on the Senate Armed Services Committee, Senator Jack Reed, said he was "gravely troubled" by Mr Trump's deployment of active-duty Marines.
"Since our nation's founding, the American people have been perfectly clear: we do not want the military conducting law enforcement on US soil," he said.
US Marines are trained for conflicts around the world - from the Middle East to Africa - and are also used for rapid deployments in case of emergencies, such as threats to US embassies.
They are known as the first American forces to establish and beachhead in US military interventions, and as the last forces to leave any occupation.
In addition to combat training, which includes weapons training, some units also learn riot and crowd control techniques.
Though military forces have been deployed domestically for major disasters such as Hurricane Katrina and the attacks of 11 September 2001, it is extremely rare for troops to be used domestically during civil disturbances.
Even without invoking the Insurrection Act, Mr Trump can deploy marines under certain conditions of law or under his authority as commander in chief.
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 President George HW Bush to help respond to Los Angeles riots over the acquittal of police officers who beat black motorist Rodney King.
The immigration raids are part of Mr Trump's sweeping crackdown, which Democrats and immigrant advocates have said are indiscriminately breaking up families.
Meanwhile, US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem pledged to carry out even more operations to round up suspected immigration violators, extending a crackdown that provoked the protests.
Trump officials have branded the protests as lawless and blamed state and local Democrats for permitting upheaval and protecting undocumented immigrants with sanctuary cities.
The military and federal enforcement operations have further polarised the US's two major political parties as Mr Trump, a Republican, threatened to arrest California's Democratic governor Gavin Newsom for resisting the federal crackdown.
Read more: Irish immigrant priest, 90, joins LA protests in solidarity
Hundreds of demonstrators gathered yesterday outside a federal detention centre in downtown Los Angeles where immigrants have been held, chanting "free them all" and waving Mexican and central American flags.
National Guard forces formed a human barricade to keep people out of the building. Police dispersed the crowd using gascanisters and arrested some protesters.
At dusk, officers had running confrontations with protesters who had scattered into the Little Tokyo section of the city.
Mr Newsom contends it is his charge as governor to call in the National Guard, labelling Mr Trump's" action as "an unmistakable step toward authoritarianism".
Mr Trump in turn said he supported a suggestion by his border czar Tom Homan that Mr Newsom should be arrested over possible obstruction of his administration's immigration enforcement measures. "I would do it if I were Tom. I think it's great," Mr Trump told reporters.
The protests so far have resulted in a few dozen arrests and some property damage.
Watch: LA protesters set off fireworks and face off with police
"What is happening affects every American, everyone who wants to live free, regardless of how long their family has lived here," said Marzita Cerrato, 42, a first-generation immigrant whose parents are from Mexico and Honduras.
Protests also sprang up in at least nine other US cities, including New York, Philadelphia and San Francisco, according to local news outlets.
Mayor says 'chaos' in LA started at Washington DC
In Austin, Texas, police fired non-lethal munitions and detained several people as they clashed with a crowd of several hundred protesters.
Before the Los Angeles dispersal, several hundred protesters outside a detention centre chanted "free them all," flew Mexican and Central American flags, and directed sometimes-vulgar insults toward federal officers.
Watch: Reporter safe after being hit by rubber bullet amid unrest in LA
At dusk, officers had running confrontations with protesters who had scattered into the Little Tokyo section of the city.
As people watched from apartment patios above street level, and as tourists huddled inside hotels, a large contingent of LAPD and officers and sheriffs deputies fired several flash bangs that boomed through side streets along with tear gas.
Homeland Security said its Immigration and Customs Enforcement division had arrested 2,000 immigration offenders per day in recent days, far above the 311 daily average in fiscal year 2024 under former president Joe Biden.
"We conducted more operations today than we did the day before and tomorrow we are going to double those efforts again," Ms Noem said.
"The more that they protest and commit acts of violence against law enforcement officers, the harder ICE is going to come after them."
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass opposed the clampdown, sating "This is a city of immigrants."
Ms Noem countered that, "They are not a city of immigrants. They're a city of criminals."
