US President Donald Trump on Monday ordered the deployment of another 2,000 National Guard troops along with 700 marines to Los Angeles.

An initial 2,000 troops, ordered by Mr Trump, started arriving on Sunday, which saw the most violence during three days of protests, driven by anger over the president’s stepped-up enforcement of immigration laws that critics say are breaking apart migrant families.

Monday’s demonstrations were far less raucous, with thousands peacefully attending a rally at City Hall and hundreds protesting outside a federal complex that includes a detention centre where some immigrants are being held following workplace raids across the city.

Mr Trump has described Los Angeles in dire terms that Mayor Karen Bass and California Governor Gavin Newsom say are nowhere close to the truth. They say he is putting public safety at risk by deploying military personnel that they don’t need.

Los Angeles police chief Jim McDonnell said he was confident in the police department’s ability to handle large-scale demonstrations, and that the marines’ arrival without co-ordinating with the police department presented a “significant logistical and operational challenge” for them.

Governor Newsom said: “This isn’t about public safety. It’s about stroking a dangerous president’s ego.”

The protests began on Friday in central Los Angeles after federal immigration authorities arrested more than 40 people across the city. 

On Sunday the crowds blocked a major motorway and set self-driving cars on fire as police responded with tear gas and rubber bullets.

Additional protests against immigration raids continued into the evening on Monday in several other cities including San Francisco and Santa Ana in California and Dallas and Austin in Texas.

California attorney-general Rob Bonta filed a lawsuit over the use of National Guard troops following the first deployment, telling reporters Mr Trump had “trampled” on the state’s sovereignty.

Mr Trump said on Monday that the city would have been “completely obliterated” if he had not deployed the National Guard.