Tensions in Los Angeles have escalated as thousands of protesters took to the streets in response to US President Donald Trump’s deployment of the National Guard.

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

Many protesters dispersed as evening fell on Sunday local time, and police declared an unlawful assembly, a precursor to officers moving in and making arrests of people who don’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 were centred in several blocks of downtown, much like Saturday’s protests.

It was the third and most intense day of demonstrations against Mr Trump’s immigration crackdown in the region, as the arrival of around 300 National Guard troops spurred anger and fear among many residents.

The National Guard was deployed specifically to protect federal buildings, including the downtown detention centre where protesters concentrated.

Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell said officers were “overwhelmed” by the remaining protesters.

He said they included regular agitators who show up at demonstrations to cause trouble.

How the day unfolded

Starting in the morning, the troops stood shoulder to shoulder, carrying long guns and riot shields as protesters shouted “shame” and “go home”. After some closely approached the National Guard members, another set of uniformed officers advanced on the group, shooting smoke-filled canisters into the street.

Minutes later, the Los Angeles Police Department fired rounds of crowd-control munitions to disperse the protesters, who they said were assembled unlawfully.

The US Correspondent for 9News Australia, Lauren Tomasi, was hit by a rubber bullet fired by an LAPD officer while reporting live from the scene in downtown LA.

Mr Trump told reporters soon after that he was watching the protests “very closely” and warned protesters if “they spit, we hit”.

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Much of the group then moved to block traffic on the 101 freeway until state patrol officers cleared them from the roadway by late afternoon.

Nearby, at least four self-driving Waymo cars were set on fire, sending large plumes of black smoke into the sky and exploding intermittently as the electric vehicles burned.

By evening, police had issued an unlawful assembly order shutting down several blocks of downtown Los Angeles.

Flash bangs echoed out every few seconds into the evening.

California governor and Trump exchange blows

California’s Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom requested Donald Trump remove National Guard members in a letter on Sunday afternoon.

He called their deployment a “serious breach of state sovereignty” and added Mr Trump’s acts were “of a dictator, not a president”.

Mr Newsom was in Los Angeles meeting with local law enforcement and officials.

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

Along with Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, Mr Newsom blamed the increasingly aggressive protests on Mr Trump’s decision to deploy the additional forces.

The pair called it a move designed to inflame tensions but urged protesters to remain peaceful.

“What we’re seeing in Los Angeles is chaos that is provoked by the administration,” Ms Bass said in an afternoon press conference on Sunday local time.

“This is about another agenda, this isn’t about public safety.”

Mr Newsom, meanwhile, has repeatedly said that California authorities had the situation under control.

He mocked Mr Trump for posting a congratulatory message to the National Guard on social media before troops had even arrived in Los Angeles, and said on MSNBC that the president never floated deploying the troops during a Friday phone call.

He called Trump a “stone cold liar.”

The admonishments did not deter the administration, nor Mr Trump.

“It’s a bald-faced lie for Newsom to claim there was no problem in Los Angeles before President Trump got involved,” White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in a statement.

And the president said “we have an incompetent Governor (Newscum) and Mayor (Bass) who were, as usual, unable to to handle the task,” Mr Trump posted on Truth Social.

LA Police Department chief pushes back on Trump

Jim McDonnell, the LAPD chief, said the protests were following a similar pattern for episodes of civil unrest, with things ramping up to another level now.

He pushed back against claims by the Trump administration that the LAPD had failed to help federal authorities when protests broke out Friday after a series of immigration raids.

His department responded as quickly as it could, and had not been notified in advance of the raids and therefore was not pre-positioned for protests, he said.

In response, Mr Trump said that Mr McDonnell is a “highly respected LAPD Chief” but added he and the LAPD can’t “let these thugs get away with this”.

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The arrival of the National Guard followed two days of protests that began Friday in downtown Los Angeles before spreading on Saturday to Paramount, a heavily Latino city south of the city, and neighbouring Compton.

The week-long tally of immigrant arrests in the LA area climbed above 100 on Sunday, federal authorities said.

Asked if he planned to send US troops to Los Angeles, Mr Trump said: “We’re going to have troops everywhere.”

About 500 marines stationed at Twentynine Palms, about 200 kilometres east of Los Angeles were in a “prepared to deploy status” on Sunday afternoon, according to the US Northern Command.

Mr Trump said he had authorised the deployment of 2,000 members of the National Guard.

AP/Reuters