Tensions are escalating in Los Angeles after protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement gripped the city on Sunday, with demonstrators clashing with law enforcement and setting vehicles on fire downtown.

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

Downtown Los Angeles has been declared an unlawful assembly area following protests that erupted this weekend over the Trump administration's immigration crackdown.

California National Guard troops arrived in Los Angeles on Sunday in a show of force following scattered clashes between immigration agents and protesters and amid a widening political divide between California and the Trump administration.

Police declared all of downtown Los Angeles to be an unlawful assembly area and ordered protesters to go home on Sunday night after a third day of violence hit demonstrations against President Donald Trump's immigration policy.

The Pentagon deployed about 700 Marines to Los Angeles on Monday to help National Guard members respond to immigration protests, officials said, as California prepared to sue President Donald