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.

Gavin Newsom asked the Trump administration on Sunday to rescind its move to deploy 2,000 California National Guardsmen to Los Angeles to subdue immigration protests, accusing the White House of illegally overriding his authority and intentionally inflaming tensions with protesters.

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office, in a letter to the Trump administration, called the deployment of troops “unlawful” and a “serious breach of state sovereignty.”