LOS ANGELES — The Pentagon has formally deployed about 700 Marines to Los Angeles to help National Guard members respond to immigration protests, U.S. Northern Command announced Monday.

The Marines were to be deployed from their base at Twentynine Palms in the Southern California desert.

The California attorney general said the president’s actions had “trampled” the state’s sovereignty.

“We don’t take lightly to the president abusing his authority and unlawfully mobilizing California National Guard troops” state Attorney General Rob Bonta told reporters. He planned to seek a court order declaring that Trump’s use of the Guard was unlawful and ask for a restraining order to halt the deployment.

The streets of the sprawling city of 4 million people were quiet Monday morning, but the smell of smoke hung in the air downtown, one day after crowds blocked off a major freeway and set self-driving cars on fire as police responded with tear gas, rubber bullets and flash-bang grenades.

The law enforcement presence was heavy, with police cars blocking the street in front of the federal detention facility that was a focus of the protests.

Bonta accused Trump of fanning protesters’ anger with his announcement of the deployment, saying he set off Sunday’s clashes with law enforcement in downtown Los Angeles. “This was not inevitable,” he said.

While much of the city was spared from any violence, clashes swept through several downtown blocks and a handful of other places. It could take days to clear the debris from burned cars and to clean off or paint over graffiti sprayed on City Hall and other buildings near the detention facility. Sunday was the third and most intense day of demonstrations against Trump’s immigration crackdown in the region, as the arrival of the first 300 Guard troops spurred anger and fear among many residents.

Trump said Monday that the city would have been “completely obliterated” if he had not deployed the Guard.

Later, at a White House event, he added that state leaders “were afraid to do anything.”

U.S. officials said about 1,000 National Guard members were in the city under federal orders by midday Monday. The full 2,000 members authorized by the president were expected to be on the ground by the end of the day. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss the details of military operations.

Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, said he also plans to file suit Monday against the Trump administration to roll back the National Guard deployment, which he called “an illegal act, an immoral act, an unconstitutional act.”

“We are suing Donald Trump. This is a manufactured crisis. He is creating fear and terror to take over a state militia and violate the U.S. constitution,” Newsom said Monday in a post on X

The governor, who was was in Los Angeles meeting with local law enforcement and officials, also told protesters that they were playing into Trump’s plans and would face arrest for violence or property destruction.

“Trump wants chaos and he’s instigated violence,” he said. “Stay peaceful. Stay focused. Don’t give him the excuse he’s looking for.”