New Delhi, June 10 -- US President Donald Trump has said he may invoke the Insurrection Act, a rarely used law that allows for active-duty military deployment on US soil, amid ongoing protests in Los Angeles over mass immigration arrests.

"If there's an insurrection, I would certainly invoke it. We'll see," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office on Tuesday. "Last night was terrible, and the night before that was terrible."

The law, rooted in legislation from 1807, allows the President to bypass the Posse Comitatus Act, which bars the military from engaging in domestic law enforcement.

The Pentagon has confirmed that 700 US Marines are being deployed to Los Angeles, joining 2,000 National Guard troops mobilised over the weekend. The mo...