TENSIONS in Los Angeles escalated on Sunday as thousands took to the streets in response to President Donald Trump’s extraordinary deployment of the National Guard.

Protesters blocked off a major freeway and set self-driving cars on fire as police used tear gas, rubber bullets and flash bangs to control the crowd.

Many protesters dispersed as evening fell and police declared an unlawful assembly as officers arrested people who didn’t leave. 

Some of those remaining threw objects at police from behind a makeshift barrier that spanned the width of a street and others hurled chunks of concrete, rocks, electric scooters and fireworks at California Highway Patrol officers and their vehicles parked on the closed southbound 101 Freeway. 

Sunday’s protests in Los Angeles, a sprawling city of 4 million, were centred in several blocks downtown. It was the third and most intense day of demonstrations against President Trump’s immigration crackdown in the region, as the arrival of around 300 troops spurred anger and fear among many residents.

Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell said officers were “overwhelmed” by the remaining protesters, whom he said included “regular agitators who show up at demonstrations to cause trouble.”

On Sunday afternoon, Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom published a letter calling on President Trump to remove the guard members, calling their deployment a “serious breach of state sovereignty.”

The deployment appeared to be the first time in decades that a state’s National Guard was activated without a request from its governor.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said: “What we’re seeing in Los Angeles is chaos that is provoked by the administration.”

Federal agents arrested immigrants in LA’s fashion district, in a Home Depot car park and at several other locations on Friday.