What to know about the protests over Trump's immigration crackdown in LA and other cities

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Police made a handful of arrests on the second night of the curfew in downtown Los Angeles on Wednesday as mayors urged the Trump administration to withdraw the military and stop the immigration raids.

There were no signs of the 700 Marines the president deployed to the city. Maj. Gen. Scott Sherman, who is overseeing Trump's troop deployment, said the Marines were undergoing civil disobedience training at a Navy facility in Orange County. The Marines will wrap up their training and are expected to be on the streets of Los Angeles as early as Thursday evening, Sherman said. Some 2,000 Guard soldiers are already trained and many have gone out to do protest security duty, while another 2,000 are expected to join them later.

About 500 of the Guard troops deployed to the protests have been trained to accompany agents on immigration operations, he said.

Sherman initially said National Guard troops had temporarily detained some civilians. He later said he was incorrect, and that he had based his comments on photos and footage he had seen that turned out to not be a representation of Guard members in Los Angeles.

So far, nearly 400 LA protesters have been detained or arrested since Saturday, according to police.

Protests over the immigration crackdown have been held in major cities throughout the U.S. in recent days. Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass joined fellow Democratic mayors across the country Wednesday in calling for an end to the raids, which she called a provocation by the White House.

Although critics accuse Trump of manufacturing the crisis for political gain and sowing chaos, the president said on social media that Los Angeles would have been "completely obliterated" if he hadn't sent Guard members there over the weekend.

Here are some things to know about the protests, troop deployments and showdowns between local, state and federal officials:

LA police respond quickly to control demonstrators

Police moved in swiftly before the second night of the curfew took effect to move demonstrators away from a federal building.

In one instance, police on horseback charged at a group, hitting them with wooden rods and pushing them out of a park in front of City Hall. Officers also fired crowd control projectiles.

The curfew from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. is in a roughly 1-square-mile (2.5-square-kilometer) section of the sprawling city of about 4 million people.

Earlier Wednesday, U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli announced charges against two people accused of throwing Molotov cocktails toward police. No officers were hit, though police said two officers were hurt during Tuesday night’s protests.

Raids spark protests elsewhere

Although the crackdown and protests have been most prominent in Los Angeles, demonstrators have been rallying against the immigration crackdown in other major cities, including Dallas and Austin, Texas, Chicago, Denver and New York, where thousands rallied and multiple arrests were made.

New York City police took 86 people into custody during protests around lower Manhattan’s Foley Square overnight Tuesday into Wednesday. Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said the vast majority of demonstrators were peaceful.

Demonstrators critical of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency returned to lower Manhattan on Wednesday evening.

“No Kings” rallies critical of Trump are planned nationwide Saturday to coincide with the president’s scheduled military parade in Washington.

Republican support for the crackdown

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, said states “don’t have the right to just simply opt out of federal immigration law.”

Officers with the Texas Public Safety Department said the Texas National Guard was present at a protest in downtown San Antonio on Wednesday.

Republican Gov. Greg Abbott had refused to disclose details of his mobilization of Texas National Guard troops ahead of planned protests in the city. He had not said if he or the president mobilized them.

What's behind the demonstrations?

The protests, which started Friday in downtown Los Angeles before spreading Saturday to the neighboring cities of Compton and Paramount, have been driven by anger over Trump's stepped-up enforcement of immigration laws.

The area presents a ripe target for the raids, as an estimated 10% of Los Angeles County residents aren't in the country legally.

Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff and chief architect of Trump’s immigration policies, said late last month that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement should make at least 3,000 arrests a day. That would mark a dramatic increase from Jan. 20 to May 19, when the agency made an average of 656 arrests a day.

Immigrant advocates say the workers being detained, including some in the garment district, do not have criminal histories and are being denied due process. Advocates for car wash workers said that only two of 26 people detained since the weekend – 25 workers and a customer - had been located. One of unaccounted for workers was Jaslyn Hernandez's father, who was supposed to watch her graduate Wednesday.

“We have not been able to find him and it’s not fair,” Hernandez said.

Newsom clashes with Trump

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, has asked a court to put an emergency stop to the military helping federal immigration agents. The judge set a hearing for Thursday, giving the administration several days to continue those activities.

The Trump administration called the lawsuit a “crass political stunt endangering American lives” in its official response on Wednesday.

The change moves troops closer to engaging in law enforcement actions like deportations as Trump has promised as part of his crackdown. The Guard can temporarily detain people who attack officers, but any arrests would be made by law enforcement.

ICE said in a statement that the troops were providing security at federal facilities and protecting federal officers.

Newsom, in a public address Tuesday, called Trump’s actions the start of an “assault” on democracy.

“California may be first, but it clearly will not end here. Other states are next. Democracy is next,” he said.

Meanwhile, press freedom advocates suggest that journalists covering the protests might be being targeted. Reporters Without Borders said Wednesday that there have been at least 35 attacks on journalists — 30 from law enforcement — since the demonstrations began.

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This story has been corrected. The commander of the troops deployed to Los Angeles initially told the AP that National Guard members had already detained some civilians. He later said his information was incorrect, and Guard members have not detained civilians.

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Associated Press writers Jim Vertuno in Austin, Texas, David Collins in New York, Jason Dearen, Jaimie Ding, Jake Offenhartz and Dorany Pineda in Los Angeles, Eliott Spagat in San Diego, Maryclaire Dale in Philadelphia and Lolita C. Baldor in Washington contributed.