Who are the people protesting in Los Angeles?

Estrellazul Corral joined protests outside the Los Angeles Metropolitan Detention Center every day this weekend to demand justice for the dozens of migrants detained by armed ICE agents in armored vehicles who targeted jobsites in the city’s predominately Latino communities.

Estrellazul Corral joined protests outside the Los Angeles Metropolitan Detention Center every day this weekend to demand justice for the dozens of migrants detained by armed ICE agents in armored vehicles who targeted jobsites in the city’s predominately Latino communities. After hours of peaceful demonstrations, Corral, a social worker focused on the city’s unhoused and undocumented population, said the National Guard began to push back. “They threw tear gas at us, and we were doing what they were telling us to do,” she said. “Then people just got really upset and angry. And I think that’s where you see things starting to escalate.” As the sun set Sunday evening, CNN correspondents documented how the demonstrations descended into violence. Some protesters torched self-driving cars. Some rained rocks down on police sheltering under a highway overpass after marchers shut down traffic. Others spray painted anti-law enforcement slogans on a downtown federal building. At least 21 people were arrested Sunday, the Los Angeles Police Department said. The raids are in keeping with the Trump administration’s hardline approach to illegal immigration. But President Trump’s decision to federalize and deploy the National Guard against American citizens — the first time a US president has used such power since 1992, when riots erupted after the White officers who beat Black motorist Rodney King were acquitted — sparked a swift backlash that later grew violent. Indeed, the protests appeared divided into separate groups: progressive citizens who felt called to defend the rights of the undocumented, and protesters who appeared determined to drag the city into violent chaos.