LOS ANGELES — After hours of peaceful protests in downtown Los Angeles on Friday, tensions escalated outside the Metropolitan Detention Center with law enforcement pushing into a crowd of about 200 people and spraying a chemical agent on demonstrators.

Amid the unrest, the city went on tactical alert shortly after 5 p.m., according to the Los Angeles Police Department.

“Federal Authorities are taking debris, bottles and other objects,” the department wrote on X. “Federal Authorities have declared an Unlawful Assembly at the Detention Center and they have deployed pepper balls and tear gas.”

The department later issued a dispersal order for the area of Alameda Street between Union Station and First Street. As of 6:30 p.m., the LAPD said arrests were being made.

“Peaceful protest is a constitutional right. I urge Angelenos to exercise that right safely and not give this administration an excuse to escalate,” Mayor Karen Bass wrote on X. “Los Angeles stands together.”

Mario Zermeno was part of the crowd protesting outside of the detention center where demonstrators held up flags and signs with anti-immigration enforcement messaging and made noise with bullhorns.

At one point several protesters ran away from the building when officers began pushing into the crowd and spraying an irritant, witnesses said.

One unmasked officer yelled to protesters to back up and pushed the young adults at the front of the crowd with the palm of his hand, causing one woman to stumble.

Before officers blocked off Aliso Street, a bus was stranded in a crowd of protesters. The driver walked out as one protester began to spray paint anti-Immigration and Customs Enforcement slogans on the bus windows.

Irene Alvarez waved a sign above the 101 Freeway that read “End ICE Brutality” as police made an effort to separate the hundreds of protesters into smaller groups in front of the Metropolitan Detention Center.

“I’m standing in solidarity with everything that’s going on in the world, standing here for my immigrant parents, standing here for my immigrant neighbors that came from nothing to something, that came for a better life,” Alvarez said. “What’s this better life that we’re dealing with?”

Alvarez said many protesters simply wanted to go home to their families without causing any trouble. She said she believed the threat of police was energizing the crowd to become more rambunctious.

From a window above the center’s entrance, two officers set up tables as shields and shot what appeared to be nonlethal rounds into the crowd, which had grown in size and extended back across the street.

A group of young women stood eyes wide and their mouths agape as they watched police position themselves on the building’s rooftop. An officer on the roof took aim at protesters near the middle of the crowd with an orange nonlethal rifle and shot at least five rounds. A green and yellow irritant was deployed, which created a large cloud around gas-masked demonstrators.

Protesters darted out of the crowd, covering their eyes and ears as police detonated sound cannons. Yamilet Segundo, 19, told her friends that it might be time to leave.

“I told my friends we should come out after school to use our voice, but I wasn’t expecting to see this,” Segundo said. “It’s honestly really sad to see that it reached this point. I’m kind of nervous now because it seems like it’s getting violent.”

Phil Swift, 22, leaned his head back as his friend poured water into his burning eyes. He had been at the front of the crowd when LAPD officers who had been holding a line to deter protesters sprayed tear gas directly into his eyes, he said.

“It’s burning and I can’t even open my eyes,” Swift said.

The situation, which began shortly before 5 p.m., was the first signs of escalation in what had been calm demonstrations earlier in the day that had drawn thousands to downtown Los Angeles.

By 7 p.m., the scene in front of the Metropolitan Detention Center had started to calm down. About 40 to 50 protesters remained, standing in front of a line of officers that stretched across Alamada Street.

Soon after, police declared an unlawful assembly, prompting some of the protesters to peel off from the group.

Clashes were also reported in Long Beach Friday in the area of the Pike Outlets.

“Objects were thrown at officers, prompting the declaration of an unlawful assembly,” the Long Beach Police Department said in a statement.

Crowds dispersed following the declaration, according to the department. No arrests were reported.

Earlier on Friday, the scene in downtown Los Angeles was markedly different.

Outside City Hall it was a scene of collective anger over the families, fruit vendors, gardeners, day laborers and others who have been targeted for deportation under the Trump administration and a protest against the violence accompanying the nationwide immigration actions over the past few weeks. But the moment was also punctuated by something unexpected: a tinge of hope.

“The protest is student led, it’s young, it’s Black, brown, white, Asian,” Xavi Moreno said. “Everybody is here across the country, and I hope it sends a loud message that we’re done, and it doesn’t stop today.”

Moreno stood by an immigrant vendor as he handed out signs that read “ICE out of our streets.” By 1 p.m. the steps of City Hall and Spring Street were awash with protesters of all ages, including some students who participated in a Los Angeles Unified districtwide walkout.

The nationwide protests and walkouts come after similar demonstrations in Minneapolis, where two U.S. citizens, Renee Good, a 37-year-old mother, and Alex Pretti, also 37, an ICU nurse, were fatally shot.

While much national focus has been on Minneapolis, tensions have also escalated in Southern California this month as daily immigration operators continue across the region. The scope of the sweeps appears to be down from last summer’s operations but continue to occur from street corners in Boyle Heights to downtown L.A.’s Fashion District.

Those protesting the immigration actions have found themselves at odds with federal agents, at times in confrontations that have resulted in gunfire and serious injury.

Earlier this month, Homeland Security officers blinded two protesters by shooting a less-lethal projectile at close range during a demonstration in Santa Ana. Days later, a federal agent opened fire at a man, who the Department of Homeland Security said rammed agents with his vehicle while attempting to evade arrest, during an operation in South Los Angeles.

The demonstrations starting Friday call for people to stay home from work and school and refrain from shopping. The sweeping “ICE Out Everywhere” protests are planned to continue Saturday.

Organizers hope the “national shutdown” will convince the Trump administration to stop sending immigration agents to cities across the country or, at least, tone down the heated interactions with protesters. They also hope the actions will pressure the federal government to cut funding for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to nationalshutdown.org, a website sponsored by various student groups, labor organizations and religious coalitions.

Teens at high schools across the region walked out of their classes — some in solidarity with protesters and others to join the demonstrations themselves. Along a barrier in front of Los Angeles City Hall, students in backpacks carried signs that called for “full rights for all immigrants” as well as justice for Keith Porter Jr., a man fatally shot by an off-duty ICE agent in Northridge last month.

One of these students, 16-year-old Neven McGarvey of Ramon C. Cortines School of Visual and Performing Arts, said he decided to leave school in the early afternoon to support his classmates, some of whom are the children of immigrants.

“I think protesting like this would make them feel like a part of us,” McGarvey said. “I feel like we have to protest against this.”

He and a row of classmates shouted chants disparaging the mobilization of ICE on cities across the U.S. and responded loudly to honks of support from passersby. Students walking up from nearby schools were handed signs and took position on the steps of City Hall.

Twenty feet from the archways of the municipal building, Dan Egan led the crowd of protesters in a series of chants: “ICE out of L.A.!” and “Our streets!”

The young Australian Canadian says he’s been living in the United States for 12 years and sees the recent “decline of humanity” as his main concern for the country. Demonstrating, Egan said, is part of his duty as a citizen.

“We probably got like 5,000, 6,000 people out here and it does my heart good,” Egan said. “I hope we can sustain this effort.”

President Donald Trump has called the protesters “paid agitators and insurrectionists,” but offered no proof to support claims that those rallying have been paid.

Egan laughed when asked about Trump’s claims. “I would pay money to protest Trump,” he said. “You don’t need to pay people to come out on the streets. L.A. is angry and you can feel it today.”

Meanwhile, chants rippled across the crowd of Angelenos, some of whom waved American and California flags and banners from Mexico and Palestine. Women adorned their hair in ribbons and men wore Dodgers caps to shield their faces from the sun, the crowd representing an array of identities that make up Los Angeles.

Beba Bonilla, 37, a teacher in Los Angeles, wore braids that hung down the back of her shirt that read “F— ICE” in bold letters. Bonilla said she felt it was her duty to show up for the immigrants who are too afraid to leave their homes.

“I took a personal necessity day because, as a teacher, I just felt so strongly that I had to be here and join the nation,” Bonilla said. “My parents are immigrants and the only way I got my master’s was because of their sacrifices.”

There were signs this week that the outcry from the public and lawmakers might move the needle. Trump’s border adviser, Tom Homan, announced Thursday that federal authorities would wind down immigration crackdowns in Minnesota, but only if agents were given access to jails to seize undocumented immigrants for deportation.

But that hasn’t appeased protesters at demonstrations throughout Los Angeles County.

In Long Beach, roughly 3,000 middle and high school students walked out on Friday, according to the Long Beach Unified School District. Honks and cheers from passing cars drowned out all other sounds on Santa Fe Avenue as students crowded the sidewalk.

Federico, a freshman at Cabrillo High School who declined to give his last name, said he wanted to join the demonstration — his first — to support his parents who are undocumented and fearful they could be targeted for deportation.

“I want to be a voice for them,” he said, as he carried a Mexican flag on his shoulders.

Several businesses, including Silver Lake sports bar Untamed Spirits and Canyon Coffee in Echo Park, said on social media that they will be closed Friday for the general strike. Others have vowed to donate a portion of proceeds to organizations in support of immigrants.

The temporary work stoppages have even affected Hollywood television productions. Sources confirmed to Variety that producers postponed filming “Grey’s Anatomy” on Friday after crew members said they would not be showing up for work. Filming for the show’s 22nd season will continue on Saturday, according to the outlet.

Across the country at a protest in Minneapolis, signs held by protesters on Friday included lots of expletives, urging people to resist, to end the “ICE age” and get federal agents out of Minnesota.

“Abolish ice! No one is illegal!” Terresa Hardaway, a graphic design professor at the University of Minnesota and creative director of Blackbird Revolt, a social justice-based design studio, chanted.

Despite Trump’s comments that the administration would deescalate in Minnesota, Hardaway said she hasn’t seen any meaningful changes.

“We are still under occupation by a federally backed institution that is harming our community, that is stealing and abducting our neighbors,” she said. Still, she said, the city remains united.

Jaylani Hussein, the executive director of Minnesota’s chapter of Council on American-Islamic Relations, said Minneapolis is on the front line of the fight for democracy, noting that George Floyd was killed just a few blocks from where Good was killed.

“I want you to know, they chose the right community to bring this fight to,” he told a cheering crowd. “We have been fighting for the last six years and we have been ready for this moment. ICE may have not been ready for us.”

(Staff writers Kate Sequeira and Seema Mehta contributed to this report.)

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