Los Angeles, California - Los Angeles police began arresting people in the city's downtown late Tuesday as a partial curfew was imposed on the fifth day of protests against President Donald Trump's assault on immigrant communities.

The demonstrations, which began Friday, prompted Trump to take the extraordinary step of sending in troops, over the objection of the state governor.

Ann hour into the overnight curfew only a handful of protesters were left downtown, with police making several arrests as they warned stragglers to leave.

Though city and state authorities have bristled at Trump's intervention, they have themselves deployed law enforcement officers to violently suppress the protests.

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Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said she had issued the curfew "to stop the vandalism, to stop the looting" and the LAPD later announced it was conducting "mass arrests."

One square mile area will be off-limits from 8:00 PM and 6:00 AM PT (0300 for everyone apart from residents, journalists and emergency services, Bass said.

One protester told AFP that roundup of migrants in a city with large immigrant and Latino populations was the root of the unrest.

"I think that obviously they're doing it for safety," she said of the curfew. "But I don't think that part of the problem is the peaceful protests. It's whatever else is happening on the other side that is inciting violence."

Protests against immigration arrests by federal law enforcement have also sprung up in cities around the country, including New York, Atlanta, Chicago, San Francisco, and Austin.

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Donald Trump has ordered 4,000 National Guard troops to Los Angeles, along with 700 active-duty Marines, in an authoritarian response widely condemned. He continued to use violent rhetoric in a speech at Fort Bragg in North Carolina.

Photos issued by the Marine Corps showed men in combat fatigues using riot shields to practice crowd control techniques at the Naval Weapons Station Seal Beach.

Late Tuesday, Texas Governor Greg Abbott said his state would also deploy its National Guard "to locations across the state to ensure peace & order" after solidarity protests.