The protests began Friday after Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents carried out coordinated raids across Los Angeles, detaining dozens of workers at warehouses and other worksites. The arrests sparked immediate backlash, with demonstrators converging outside federal buildings, blocking freeways, and in some cases clashing with police.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom said President Donald Trump is “pulling a military dragnet” across Los Angeles during a brief public address on Tuesday.

Soldiers mobilized by President Trump protected ICE agents on their raids in Los Angeles. The state of California said the deployment was illegal.

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Tuesday defended the administration's mobilization of the National Guard and members of the Marine Corps to Los Angeles amid ongoing immigration protests.

Hegseth was angered by his exclusion and resigned from the Guard. That experience remains with him as he attempts to reshape the military, and its role in society, in line with Trump's worldview. As he has written: “My trust for this Army is irrevocably broken.”

The state of California is suing the Trump administration for deploying the state’s National Guard to quell immigration protests in Los Angeles. MSNBC Political Analyst Cornell Belcher and Patrick Gaspard of the Center for American Progress join The Weeknight to discuss Trump's military response to the L.

President Trump issued a memo authorizing the National Guard to post up in Los Angeles, but California Gov. Gavin Newsom has called it "illegal."

Monday's protests were largely calmer than Sunday's clashes. California officials insist that the 4,000 National Guards troops and 700 active duty Marines en route to L.A. are an unnecessary abuse of power by Trump.