Los Angeles residents and experts say that the National Guard's presence in Los Angeles in response to immigration protests is reminiscent of a longstanding dynamic in the state and around the country.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Tensions in Los Angeles escalated Sunday as thousands of protesters took to the streets in response to President Donald Trump’s extraordinary deployment of the National Guard, blocking off a major freeway and setting self-driving cars on fire as law enforcement used tear gas, rubber bullets and flash bangs to control the crowd.

A relative state of calm in Los Angeles began to crumble early Sunday afternoon as demonstrators confronted federal authorities guarding a downtown detention facility where chaos erupted as National Guard soldiers deployed tear gas on an increasingly agitated crowd.