Roughly 500 National Guard soldiers in Los Angeles have been trained to assist ICE agents during immigration operations, with limited authority to detain protesters.

On Tuesday, the X page for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) posted photos of California National Guardsmen on the scene of a detention being carried out by an ICE agent with the caption "Photos from today's ICE Los Angeles immigration enforcement operation."

The Trump administration has paused Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids on most farms, hotels and restaurants amid complaints from such employers.

The Trump administration has tried to portray the demonstrations in California against its anti-immigrant raids as chaos at a scale worthy of sending in the national guard. The Los Angeles Police chief is pushing back.

Military troops are protecting federal immigration enforcement agents as they conduct sweeps for illegal immigrants in California. On Tuesday, the Trump administration detailed the role National Guardsmen are playing to provide cover for Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents as they target illegal immigrants in Los Angeles.

Charlamagne tha God criticized the Trump administration's decision to deploy National Guard toops to Los Angeles County amid escalating anti-ICE protests in California.

HOW WE GOT HERE: The protests erupted after Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) officers on Friday carried out raids in three locations across L.A., where dozens of people were taken into custody. Newsom called the raids “chaotic federal sweeps” that aimed to fill an “arbitrary arrest quota.”

The former vice chief of the National Guard has denounced President Donald Trump’s deployment of troops in Los Angeles as “bad for all Americans concerned about freedom of speech and states’ rights.” Trump made the extraordinary decision to send 2,