What's happening in LA? Trump's controversial immigration crackdown explained

By Elissa Steedman for ABC News

US President Donald Trump deployed 2000 California National Guard troops to Los Angeles streets on Saturday night.

The extraordinary measure is the latest escalation in a tense immigration debate the nation has been grappling with since before the election.

Here's a look at what's happening in Los Angeles and what led to the protests.

What is happening?

In short, protests are continuing in Los Angeles for a third straight day. You might have heard them being referred to as ICE protests on social media.

They began on Friday after immigration agents from ICE made dozens of arrests across the city over alleged immigration violations.

On Sunday, 300 national guard troops were also deployed to guard a federal detention centre in downtown Los Angeles where those arrested were being held.

• Recap what happened with RNZ's live blog.

What is ICE?

ICE, which stands for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, is a law enforcement agency under the Department of Homeland Security.

It is responsible for enforcing the country's immigration laws.

Why are these arrests being protested?

It is not uncommon for ICE to arrest people it believes are in the US illegally.

But this spate of arrests comes as part of the Trump administration's controversial immigration crackdown.

Trump has vowed to deport record numbers of illegal immigrants during his second term, and the White House has set ICE a goal to arrest at least 3000 migrants each day.

Because of that pressure, people who were legally living in the US have been caught up in ICE raids.

One of the more notable cases was the arrest of 238 men accused of being Venezuelan gang members, who were not given a day in court before they were deported to a mega-prison in El Salvador.

The arrest raids were also carried out in a public manner, which Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said would "sow terror" in the community.

They occurred at a hardware store, where street vendors and day labourers were swept up, a garment factory and a warehouse.

"I am deeply angered by what has taken place," Bass said in a statement.

"These tactics sow terror in our communities and disrupt basic principles of safety in our city.

"We will not stand for this."

Why does Trump want to crack down on immigration?

Securing the border was one of Trump's key election promises.

During the presidential campaign, he argued illegal immigrants were responsible for a crime wave and described people who cross illegally into the US as "animals" who are "poisoning the blood" of the nation.

While he was able to point to a handful of high-profile crimes allegedly committed by illegal immigrants, there was no data publicly available to verify the claim.

Data from Texas, the only state that tracks crimes by immigration status, shows considerably lower felony arrest rates among people in the US illegally, compared to legal immigrants or citizens.

But a perceived crime wave is not the only argument in favour of an immigration crackdown.

The US is grappling with cost-of-living and housing crises, too, which many citizens say is only worsened by a mass influx of illegal immigrants competing for the same resources.

Brenda Lee, a resident of Brooklyn, New York, told Foreign Correspondent last year she would vote for Trump because of his hardline immigration policies.

"There's people that are having a hard time, you know, making ends meet," she said.

"The rents are so high, we have a housing crisis, we have so many issues.

"So it's like, we come first because we pay taxes."

Why was Los Angeles targeted?

Since Trump returned to office this year, ICE agents have been particularly active in California, New York and Illinois, according to analysis published by Axios last week.

These states are considered "blue" because they reliably vote in favour of the Democratic Party in presidential elections.

California is home to the country's largest immigrant population.

About 10.6 million of its residents were born overseas, which makes up 22 per cent of the nation's foreign-born population.

According to the Pew Research Center, 1.8 million immigrants in California, or about 17 percent of the total number, were undocumented in 2022.

In a post on Truth Social, Trump said Los Angeles had been "invaded" by "illegal aliens and criminals".

What is the national guard?

It's a section of the military that can be used as reserves for the army and air force.

Each state has its own unit, which answers to the relevant state governor and the president.

While the national guard has assisted with crowd control in the past, Trump's call to deploy the California National Guard is considered a rather historic move.

That is because he did so without the governor's approval - something no president has done since 1965 when President Lyndon B Johnson sent troops to protect a civil rights march in Alabama.

California Governor Gavin Newsom has formally requested the Trump administration withdraw the troops, arguing their presence is "inflaming tensions".

"Indeed, the decision to deploy the National Guard, without appropriate training or orders, risks seriously escalating the situation," his office wrote to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.

- ABC