A federal judge ruled Thursday that President Donald Trump unlawfully federalized thousands of National Guard troops to Los Angeles and ordered the administration to return control of the troops to California.

The ruling came amid rising tensions between Trump and California Gov. Gavin Newsom over federal military intervention in the state. Newsom had filed a motion for a temporary restraining order that would limit the activities of 4,000 Guard members and 700 Marines to protecting federal buildings in a small area of downtown where most protests against federal immigration raids have taken place.

"His actions were illegal – both exceeding the scope of his statutory authority and violating the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. He must therefore return control of the California National Guard to the Governor of the State of California forthwith," U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer wrote in his 36-page ruling.

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US immigration officials carried out further “enforcement activity” in California’s agricultural heartland and the Los Angeles area as the conflict between the state and Donald Trump’s administration intensified on Wednesday.

Immigrant advocacy groups reported multiple actions across the state, where an estimated 255,700 farm workers are undocumented, and said agents pursued workers through blueberry fields and staged operations at agricultural facilities.

The raids have been sharply criticized by advocacy groups and local officials, who said they were “outraged and heartbroken by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) activities targeting immigrant families”.

“When our workforce’s lives are in fear, the fields will go unharvested, the impact is felt not only at the local level, but it will also be felt at the national level,” said Jeannette Sanchez-Palacios, the mayor of Ventura, a coastal city just north of Los Angeles. “Everything will be affected and every American who is here and relies on the labor of these individuals will be affected.”

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All members of the Fulbright Foreign Scholarship Board resigned Wednesday, citing alleged political interference by members of the Trump administration.

In a statement posted to Substack, the dozen former board members said they “voted overwhelmingly” to resign “rather than endorse unprecedented actions that we believe are impermissible under the law, compromise U.S. national interests and integrity, and undermine the mission and mandates Congress established for the Fulbright program nearly 80 years ago.”

The prestigious program — which awards a select group of scholars and academics the opportunity to continue research abroad each year — is managed by the State Department, where career officials conduct a yearlong search for applicants, who are ultimately approved by the independent Fulbright board.

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Organizers with the “No Kings” movement are planning some 1,500 demonstrations across the country to protest the upcoming military parade Saturday.

One notable location, however, is missing from that list: Washington, D.C., where the military parade will take place.

Protest organizers have framed the move as a rejection of the spectacle, which will mark the 250th birthday of the U.S. Army as well as the 79th birthday of President Trump.