Paramount, the Los Angeles neighborhood that was the birthplace of protests against deportations

"Are you going to war, with all those weapons?" a man asks the National Guard members who are watching him impassively, rifles in hand, from the other side of the gate.

We are in Paramount, south of Los Angeles, in the United States, where clashes occurred on Saturday (6/7) between agents of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service (ICE) and a group of protesters who arrived after news spread that deportation raids were taking place in the area.

Disturbances like this led US President Donald Trump to intervene after two days of isolated protests against immigration operations, ordering the deployment of 2,000 soldiers to help "restore law and order" in the Californian metropolis.

"This is a move that will only increase tension," said California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, anticipating what would happen a day later in downtown Los Angeles, with hundreds of protesters blocking access, officers trying to disperse them with tear gas and stun grenades, and vehicles on fire.

"You are doing your job, but we are not the enemy," the man standing at the gate shouts to the soldiers.

Perhaps his voice stands out among the dozens of people who gathered on Sunday to make it clear to the National Guard that its presence is not welcome.

But his sentiment is widely shared in this town of about 51,000 people, where about eight in 10 are of Latino origin — and 36 percent were born in another country, according to Census data.

"There are only working-class people here, because this neighborhood was built by immigrants," he says, as another neighbor waves a Mexican flag, two young men hold banners in protest of ICE and several cars honk as they pass by.

As they do every weekend, three of the immigrants who helped make Paramount the town it is today meet across the street to talk about family and current events.

Sitting in their work vehicles, Juan, Rogelio and Héctor's conversation last Sunday focused on how in this very spot, in the parking lot of the Home Depot store, tension between protesters and federal agents had erupted the day before.

"It seems that information came out that they were raiding right here," explains Juan, a 63-year-old Mexican who left Jalisco, Mexico, for the U.S. when he was 17.

"And this brought people who, in the confusion, ended up causing disturbances," he explains.

Some protesters threw Molotov cocktails and rocks. Windows were broken, and a car was set on fire. Police responded with pepper spray and rubber bullets. Anguish and fear gripped the neighborhood.

In a message sent to the BBC, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) denied that ICE carried out operations in the region on Saturday.

Although he reported that raids carried out in Los Angeles last week detained 118 undocumented immigrants — the harshest immigration blow against this city considered a "sanctuary" since Trump came to power with the promise of carrying out "the largest deportation in the history of the country."

In any case, the three friends say they are calm — "we don't have any problems, we have all our documents in order" — although they recognize that there are many neighbors without documentation who live in fear in the current context.

“That’s why you don’t see anyone here today,” adds Juan, who still prefers not to give his last name. “Usually, although more during the week, you can see 20 or 30 trucks of day laborers waiting here to be hired,” he explains.

One of the few who showed up on Sunday to offer work was Pedro, who asked to be identified by a pseudonym.

"Roofing, repairs, painting," reads the sign he taped to the windshield of his old blue pickup truck, parked discreetly on a street corner.

"Life here is very expensive, and my pension is not enough," says this Salvadoran who has been in the US for five decades and who, at 70 years old, is already at retirement age.

"That's why I have to come here every day to survive," he says.

He does this with the peace of mind of having regularized his immigration status in 2000, but he cannot avoid the anguish of seeing his neighbors suffer.

These are not the first protests to be held in Los Angeles. The city was one of the first in the country to take to the streets following the return of Trump and his anti-immigration agenda to the White House.

However, Pedro describes the protests of recent days as a “turning point”. “There is more anger, more rage. Many are coming out to protest because their parents or previous generations endured for too long in the shadows.”

"But this is not going to end here. The raids will continue. It is becoming unfeasible with this president," he says, adding that he is considering returning to El Salvador.

María Gutiérrez, who participated in the protests at Paramount on Saturday, said: “It’s about time we woke up,” she said. “These are my people.”

Born in Mexico, she tells the BBC she has lived in the US since she was a child, as she watches the National Guard and its military vehicles across the street in a fenced-off shopping complex.

"Everyone here has a family member or knows someone who is undocumented."

'Vibrant community'

Some neighbors sought comfort and shelter in the face of adversity at the Christian church they attend every Sunday, the Chapel of Change, located just a few meters from Home Depot and the scene of the clashes.

Around 200 people, most of them families of Hispanic origin, listen attentively to the sermon in which they are invited to embrace the faith.

"Here we seek unity and pray for everyone," Irene Ramírez, one of the church's pastors, told BBC News Mundo, the BBC's Spanish-language news service. She describes the community as "vibrant, united and family-oriented."

The church's lead pastor, Bryan Worth, agrees.

"Over the years, Paramount has become a very vibrant town," he tells the BBC.

"In the 1980s, Paramount was known as one of the worst small towns in the country, but civic leaders, education leaders, and those of us in church leadership came together to transform the community, to make it more united and more peaceful overall," he says.

"I never thought the scenes they showed on TV would happen here," laments Dora Sanchez, who helps at the church.

"It's all very shocking," she adds.

Hours after this conversation, and as the afternoon wore on, tension rose on the streets of downtown Los Angeles, a few dozen miles north of Paramount.

And the friction between the federal and state governments deepened.

Faced with Newsom's call to withdraw the National Guard from the streets and harsh criticism from Democratic governors, who emphasize that the measure is "an alarming abuse of power", Trump remains firm in his position.

"Violent and unruly mobs are harassing and attacking our federal agents in an attempt to disrupt our deportation operations. But these unlawful disturbances only strengthen our resolve," he wrote on the Truth Social platform.

"Order will be restored, undocumented immigrants will be expelled, and Los Angeles will be free."