WASHINGTON 

The US Senate’s top Democrat on Tuesday decried President Donald Trump's decision to deploy the National Guard in response to immigration protests in Los Angeles, California.

"Trump is desperately seeking a distraction," Chuck Schumer said on the Senate floor. “His order to deploy the National Guard and Marines – our own troops on Americans – is not just outrageous and provocative; it's a dangerous authoritarian overreach that threatens the very fabric of our democracy.”

Schumer said Trump’s actions do not show leadership but rather "provocation."

Trump decided to deploy the National Guard over the week, defying objections from California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass, who have warned that doing so only serves to inflame tensions caused by the president's mass deportation raids. Roughly 4,000 National Guardsmen and 700 US Marines have been deployed under Trump's orders.

The president said the National Guard would remain in Los Angeles "until there's no danger," but later claimed to have "stopped the violence in LA."

"The only consequence of Donald Trump's orders sending troops to Los Angeles is chaos, and Americans don't like it. Instead of de-escalating, Donald Trump is pouring fuel into a fire, hoping for an explosion to distract from what he's really doing," Schumer said.

The top Democrat called on Trump to call back the National Guard and the Marines "immediately."

Protests erupted on Friday after Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents raided local businesses and detained hundreds of people suspected of living in the US illegally. The Trump administration has continued to carry out the raids in defiance of community opposition.

Critics of the raids say ICE is going after law-abiding undocumented migrants, a vital part of the community and the local economy, rather than the criminals that Trump pledged to deport while campaigning last year to return to the White House.