Tensions between the Trump administration and California intensified this weekend as President Donald Trump decided to deploy 2,000 National Guard members to the Los Angeles area, a move the state’s Democratic leaders cast as an unnecessary escalation amid protests over the administration’s immigration policies.

Demonstrators gathered in a tense city following two days of skirmishes between protesters and federal officers over immigration operations that prompted the White House’s rare move to deploy troops without first being asked by the state.

The move appeared to be the first time in decades that a state’s national guard was activated without a request from its governor.