'No Kings' protests: Tensions rise in LA as crowd hurls concrete, police allege

There are currently 4,100 California National Guardsmen and 700 Marines in the greater Los Angeles area after President Donald Trump ordered them to protect federal buildings and federal law enforcement as protests opposed to ICE raids increased over the weekend.

Most of the attention has been focused on the crowd control assistance that these troops could provide around federal buildings, but Trump's memo calling up National Guardsmen also said they would "temporarily protect ICE and other United States Government personnel who are performing Federal functions, including the enforcement of Federal law."

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 Posse Comitatus Act prevents active-duty U.S. military personnel from carrying out domestic law enforcement duties though that restriction can be lifted when a president invokes the Insurrection Act, which President Trump has not done.

In the photos, the National Guardsmen were armed with rifles but it was unclear if they were loaded with ammunition. ABC News has previously reported that while the federalized troops are carrying weapons, their guns will not have ammunition loaded in the chamber, according to U.S. officials. But they will carry ammunition as part of their regular uniforms that can be used in the rare case of needed self-defense.

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A Wednesday morning crash in the Boyle Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles was being investigated as a possible assault with a deadly weapon involving federal agents who left the scene, authorities said.

The collision was reported at 10:47 a.m. in the 3700 block of Whittier Boulevard, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles Police Department told Los Angeles ABC station KABC.

No serious injuries were immediately reported.

Aerial video from KABC's chopper AIR7 showed LAPD officers and Los Angeles Fire Department firefighters at the crash site. No marked federal vehicles were visible.

Police did not specify which agency the agents involved in the crash worked for.

The ICE raids are stoking a great deal of fear and anxiety in Santee Alley, the open-air shopping mart in downtown Los Angeles' Fashion District.

That's where much of the work is done by migrant laborers - documented or otherwise.

One man who works in the area told our sister station ABC7 in Los Angeles many of his co-workers are not showing up for work out of fear of being arrested.

The ICE raids are stoking a great deal of fear and anxiety in Santee Alley, where much of the work is done by migrant laborers.

"I can't seem to figure out what's going on with a lot of my sewers, so my business is actually being affected by this situation... like real-time, right now," said Jared Lamar. "Everybody is enraged at this point and (that's) because people are being taken out of their homes. What are they supposed to do?"

Amidst all that turmoil, shoppers are also staying away.

Santee Alley is usually bustling, even on a week day. It was virtually empty on Tuesday.

In downtown Los Angeles Tuesday night, 203 people were arrested for failing to disperse and 17 were arrested for curfew violation, the LAPD said.

Another three people were arrested for possession of a firearm, one person was arrested for assault with a deadly weapon on a police officer and one was arrested for discharging a laser at an LAPD airship, police said.

Two LAPD officers were hurt, police said.

The arrests came after LA Mayor Karen Bass issued an overnight curfew for about 1 square mile of downtown.