The situation in Los Angeles have calmed down after “probably one of the most volatile nights” in the city, Hilda Solis, chair pro tem of the Los Angeles County board of supervisors, told CNN today.

“There was a kind of a emergency situation where people needed to be removed or told to leave the city of Los Angeles because so much destruction and chaos was going on. That has since been lifted,” Solis said. “There’s still a major freeway, on-ramps, off-ramps and road closures. People are coming back into the city to work, but it’s very, it’s very measured.”

On the deployment of National Guard troops, Solis said, “Yes, you’re correct in saying that the governor and our local law enforcement did not ask for the National Guard to be deployed. So that is a point of contention.”

Solis said Los Angeles County Sheriff Robert Luna has the authority to “call on our local police departments, that surround our cities, our city of Los Angeles, so those can also be made available” if needed. She added “If there are more disruptions as we saw last evening that they may have to make a formal request for National Guard, but that should come through our protocols that the sheriff understands and so does LAPD and they work through.”

Solis also urged demonstrators: “Don’t feed into this narrative that we don’t care, that we’re going to hurt each other and hurt our city. We don’t want that to happen. Definitely we want to have calm.”

Based on the Los Angeles Police Department’s size, California Gov. Gavin Newsom is going to need reinforcements from other state departments to help protect federal personnel and property in the aftermath of protests over the weekend, CNN legal analyst John Miller said.

“The LA County Sheriff, LAPD, California Highway Patrol and other jurisdictions are going to really have to set up a unified command to reach the kind of numbers that you’re going to need to deal with this,” Miller said Monday on The Situation Room with Wolf Blitzer and Pamela Brown.

“You have immigration demonstrators, worked in with anti-government demonstrators, mixed in with some anarchist groups and anti-government groups that lurk in the back of the crowds and egg them on – and are probably responsible for more of the violence than the actual demonstrators who were there for protesting immigration,” Miller said.

Additionally, community outreach to protest groups is needed to decipher “who are the people behind the violence and the trouble” and “who are the core demonstrators concerned with the issue who want to protest peacefully,” Miller said. Those agencies will then need to decide how to work with some groups and handle others, he explained.

Trump’s border czar Tom Homan tried to clarify today that he wasn’t calling for the arrest of California Gov. Gavin Newsom over the weekend.

“I’ve said it many times. You can protest, get your First Amendment rights, but when you cross that line, you put hands on (an) ICE officer, or you destroy property, you impede law enforcement or you knowingly harbor or conceal it in any way, that’s a crime, and that, the Trump administration is not going to tolerate,” Homan told Fox News.

Homan went on to recount his interview with NBC News over the weekend. “The reporter asked me, well, could govern Governor Newsom or Mayor (Karen) Bass be arrested? I said, well no one’s above the law — if they cross the line and commit a crime, absolutely they can.”

“There was no discussion about arresting Newsom,” Homan said.

Homan told NBC News on Saturday that immigration enforcement would continue in Los Angeles despite criticism from Democratic leaders and warned that anyone obstructing federal operations, including Newsom and Bass, could face arrest.

In response, the California governor challenged Homan to follow through. “He knows where to find me,” Newsom told MSNBC on Sunday.

Gavin Newsom, the Democratic Governor of California, has again suggested he’ll sue President Donald Trump for calling the National Guard into the state.

He first suggested he’d sue the president yesterday, when he said the state would file a lawsuit Monday against what he described as an “illegal, immoral and unconstitutional” deployment of the National Guard.

This morning in a post on social media, the governor said Trump “flamed the fires and illegally acted to federalize the National Guard,” when he signed a presidential memorandum on Saturday activating the officers.

“The order he signed doesn’t just apply to CA. It will allow him to go into ANY STATE and do the same thing. We’re suing him,” he wrote in a post on X.

The level of violence across Los Angeles following anti-immigration enforcement protests is “disgusting,” LAPD police chief Jim McDonnell said late Sunday.

Twenty-seven people were arrested in the city yesterday. Some of the alleged crimes include throwing a Molotov cocktail at an officer and ramming a motorbike into a police line, McDonnell said in a news conference.

“This violence that I’ve seen is disgusting. It’s escalated now since the beginning of this incident. What we saw the first night was bad. What we’ve seen subsequent to that is getting increasingly worse and more violent. Tonight we had individuals out there shooting commercial grade fireworks at our officers. That can kill you,” he said.

The police chief added officers had adapted their operations to arrest those responsible and hold them accountable, but did say the LAPD was “overwhelmed as far as the number of people out there engaged in this type of activity.”

He thanked police officials and the LAPD’s partner agencies for taking care of the community, which he said they do “night in and night out.”

Later in the same news conference, McDonnell said he believed those responsible for the violence were not the same as those protesting against immigration-enforcement activity.

“When I look at the people who are out there doing the violence, that’s not the people that we see during the day who are legitimately out there exercising their First Amendment rights to be able to express their feelings about the immigration enforcement issue,” he said.

Protests rocked the Los Angeles area over the weekend in response to the Trump administration’s intensified immigration crackdown, prompting clashes between demonstrators and police and leading to dozens of arrests.

Here’s what we know about the law enforcement response:

Protests in and around Los Angeles erupted on Friday after at least 44 people were arrested by federal immigration agents earlier in the day. The arrests come amid President Donald Trump’s crackdown on immigration, which has involved waves of raids and deportations across the country.

About 300 National Guard members are on the ground after Trump ordered the deployment, dismissing California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s objections. It’s the first time a president has called in the National Guard without a state’s request or consent in decades.

“Law enforcement presence is not letting up,” CNN’s Marybel Gonzalez said. Earlier, Gonzalez reported “more enforcements arrived on the scene, including an armored vehicle from a sheriff’s department. Los Angeles Police Department are also here blocking the street and right behind them, we’re seeing a line of national guardsmen patrolling the area.” In response to the unrest and the arrest of dozens over the weekend, authorities have declared all of Downtown Los Angeles an unlawful assembly area.

CNN observed police deploying flash-bangs and tear gas to break up crowds, with some hitting protesters, while some demonstrators were seen setting fire to self-driving cars. Police arrested 27 people on Sunday in Los Angeles. Meanwhile, around 60 people, including some under the age of 18, were arrested Sunday in San Francisco after protests outside the Immigration Services building turned violent, authorities said.

Videos captured during the overnight hours show the continued protests that unfolded in downtown Los Angeles.

Protesters can be seen smashing the windows of vehicles and spray-painting city buses near Chinatown and downtown Los Angeles. Other protesters faced off with officers that lined portions of the streets in tactical gear.

On Sunday evening, Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell said he believed those responsible for the violence were not those protesting against ICE-enforcement activity.

“When I look at the people who are out there doing the violence, that’s not the people that we see during the day who are legitimately out there exercising their first amendment rights to be able to express their feelings about the immigration enforcement issue,” he said.

Protesters smash windows, spray paint city buses during overnight hours in Los Angeles

00:42 - Source: CNN

Protesters smash windows, spray paint city buses during overnight hours in Los Angeles

00:42

Video credit: RMG News

Mayor of Paramount, California, John Moreno says the last 24 hours have “thankfully” been “calm and quiet” after a series of anti-immigration enforcement protests across the city on Friday.

But, he noted that the National Guard equipment and troops were guarding the Department of Homeland Security office.

Moreno added that the presence of the National Guard officers in a “small town like Paramount,” might promote “fear and uncertainty.” He said he hoped the officers would not have to help police protesters.

“We want a community that is harmonious, that will call on law enforcement if they need help. That’s where… it does have a ripple down effect on us.”

The mayor said he believed in the public’s right to protest, but urged those participating to: “Do it peacefully.”

“We are a country that’s built on freedom of speech however when it comes to vandalising and causing disruption to private property, that’s uncalled for. That will not be tolerated by our LA County Sheriffs department.”

As authorities and demonstrators enter a fourth day of protests in Los Angeles, intelligence experts believe protesters are motivated by immigration raids, deployment of the National Guard and agitators who fit profiles of “professional rioters,” who continually seek out confrontation with law enforcement, according to a senior law enforcement source who said intelligence analysts conducted assessments of the crowds on Sunday.

Large-scale social movements can certainly be vulnerable to groups who seek to capitalize on the chaos for their own ends, said Aldon Morris, a professor emeritus of sociology and African American studies at Northwestern University. But time and again, authorities have leveled the broad accusation to undermine or stifle protests.

So what is an “outside agitator” or “professional rioter?” It’s a term that has been used broadly to describe a number of different groups in an effort to undermine protest movements throughout the country.

The “outside agitator” label was also frequently evoked during the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s, implying that protesters participating in demonstrations were driven by the nefarious agendas of shadowy “others,” as opposed to being motivated by their own concerns.

“This is a problem for law enforcement because what you have are opportunists,” CNN’s Kyung Lah said Sunday. “Just based on previous protests that we’ve covered, tempers get extremely short. There aren’t a lot of bathrooms, people get hungry. Opportunists come in, agitators come in,” she said.

And while it may be totally unclear who the “professional rioters” or agitators are and their motivations, here are 5 reasons why experts say we should be wary of the familiar trope:

Learn more about the label’s history here and more on the “outside agitator” narrative here.

This post has been updated with additional information.

The expansive crowds that were in downtown Los Angeles on Sunday have mostly dispersed after the Los Angeles Police Department declared the district an “unlawful assembly area,” reports CNN’s Marybel Gonzalez.

“Law enforcement presence is not letting up,” Gonzalez said. “Moments ago, more enforcements arrived on the scene, including an armored vehicle from a sheriff’s department. Los Angeles police department are also here blocking the street and right behind them we’re seeing a line of national guardsmen patrolling the area.”

Gonzalez is reporting from the downtown Los Angeles area, near the Metropolitan Detention Center — the building at the heart of the protests.

Gonzalez added that she has heard and seen a Los Angeles police helicopter keeping watch over the area.

At least 27 people were arrested in the Los Angles area on Sunday. Some of the alleged crimes include throwing a Molotov cocktail at a police officer and ramming a motorcycle into a police line.

While the Los Angeles police department has asked businesses to report any looting, Gonzalez said there are not many reports of specific looting incidents.

“What we can see in the downtown area is a lot of destruction of property, of some vehicles and profanities graffitied along the freeway and streets,” she said.

The anti-immigration enforcement protests in Los Angeles have been largely centered around three key areas this weekend.

Here’s a reminder of the key locations:

The protests that rocked Los Angeles this weekend are just the latest in a long, rich history of public demonstrations in the second-biggest city in the US.

Here’s a look back at some of the most well-known and consequential ones.

Lauren Tomasi, a US correspondent for CNN-affiliate Nine News in Australia, was hit by a rubber bullet fired by police during her live broadcast. Tomasi was left sore but otherwise unharmed, according to the network.

Australian reporter covering LA protests hit by rubber bullet

00:31 - Source: CNN

Australian reporter covering LA protests hit by rubber bullet

00:31

Around 60 people, including people under the age of 18, were arrested Sunday in San Francisco after protests outside the Immigration Services building turned violent, authorities said.

Hundreds of protesters gathered outside ICE’s offices to rally against the agency’s raids and deportations across California and the US, CNN affiliate KGO reported.

The demonstration, initially peaceful, escalated into a tense standoff with San Francisco police officers in riot gear.

“The whole thing about going after immigrants and people who are undocumented, the most vulnerable of our populations that is so wrong.”

The protests began near Sansome and Washington streets — close to the city’s Financial District — around 7:01 p.m., where San Francisco Police officers were monitoring the demonstration, the department said.

The gathering escalated as some protesters, according to police, vandalized property, committed assaults, and caused other damage. Authorities declared the event an “unlawful assembly,” leading many to leave, though some stayed behind.

Two officers were injured, and one was taken to the hospital for treatment of non-life-threatening injuries, police said.

The group eventually made its way to Market and Kearny streets, where protesters damaged buildings and an SFPD patrol car. A smaller group later gathered on Montgomery Street and refused to leave after being ordered to disperse. Police moved to detain people they say didn’t comply. Police said it recovered one firearm at the scene.

The investigation remains ongoing, and authorities have not released additional details.

Police are urging businesses and residents in Downtown Los Angeles to report “any vandalism, damage or looting,” hours after police said they were investigating possible looting in the city’s Financial District.

On X, the LAPD said reporting the incidents will allow the department to officially document damage that occurs during the ongoing protests.

“Please photograph all vandalism and damage prior to clean up,” the LAPD wrote.

A British news photographer is recovering from emergency surgery after being struck by a non-lethal round while covering protests against Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Los Angeles, PA Media, the UK’s national news agency, reported on Monday.

Nick Stern was documenting a standoff on Saturday between protesters and police outside a Home Depot in Paramount, a city in Los Angeles County known as a hiring site for day laborers, when a 14mm “sponge bullet” tore into his thigh, the agency reported.

After receiving first aid from a medic who urged him to seek hospital care, Stern says he passed out from the pain. He is now recovering at Long Beach Memorial Medical Center.

Stern, who emigrated to the United States in 2007, said he typically makes himself “as visible as possible” while working in hostile environments. “That way you’re less likely to get hit because they know you’re media.”

He says he sustained “substantial” bruising after being struck by another round during the George Floyd protests in 2020.

“I intend, as soon as I am well enough, to get back out there,” he said. “This is too important, and it needs documenting.”

It’s just past midnight in Los Angeles after a long Sunday of clashes between protesters and law enforcement, which at times turned violent.

Video shot by CNN shows police walking down the street firing rubber bullets:

Police advance, shoot flashbangs

00:26 - Source: CNN

Police advance, shoot flashbangs

00:26

Video shows motorcyclists burst through police line

00:56 - Source: CNN

Video shows motorcyclists burst through police line

00:56

Many groups have dispersed, though some scattered demonstrators remain in the city, and police are still on the streets in large numbers.

Here’s what you need to know:

A total of 27 arrests were made in downtown Los Angeles on Sunday, LAPD Police Chief Jim McDonnell told reporters at a nighttime news conference.

The alleged crimes include throwing a Molotov cocktail at an officer and ramming a motorbike into a police line, McDonnell said.

Seventeen of the arrests on Sunday were made by the California Highway Patrol while clearing protesters from the 101 Highway, while the LAPD made 10 arrests during scuffles downtown, the police chief said.

On Saturday, McDonnell said, 29 arrests were made for alleged failure to disperse.

“Our job is not to divide communities or to politicize law enforcement. Our job is simply to keep everyone safe,” McDonnell said.

Pablo Alvarado, co-executive director of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network, has condemned the presence of ICE agents in Pasadena, California, and called for peaceful protests to protect vulnerable immigrant communities.

Activist who called for protests over ICE raid reacts to violent escalation

03:41 - Source: CNN

Activist who called for protests over ICE raid reacts to violent escalation

03:41

“The community began coming to protest the presence of those ICE agents who had already questioned the workers who clean the rooms of the hotel.”

Alvarado described a groundswell of support from residents, saying people from “all walks of life” stood with the workers to demand ICE agents leave the city.

The protests, which drew large crowds, delivered a clear message, according to Alvarado. “We don’t want to see your armored vehicles, men in masks come into our communities to pick people up, to rip families apart. The message was loud and clear: This is the moment we need to protest peacefully.”

Pasadena Mayor Victor Gordo condemned federal immigration actions, calling them “un-American, immoral, and wrong,” vowing to protect immigrant communities from family separations. Gordo confirmed the presence of federal agents in the city but added that they were not there for enforcement purposes.

“That’s part of the fear that’s being instilled by the [Trump] administration,” Gordo told CNN’s Brian Abel. “It’s wrong for people to live in fear … in their own homes, in their own communities.”

While Alvarado acknowledged the justified anger among protesters, he urged nonviolence.

“The anger is justifiable. The violence, in my view, is not,” he said. “Every time that there is violence, the most vulnerable communities pay the price.