Donald Trump’s border tsar says he will “flood the zone” with arrest squads in liberal sanctuary cities as he punches back against protests that have rocked Los Angeles for days.

In an interview with The Telegraph, Tom Homan said the protesters will do nothing to slow the pace of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detentions.

“If they think they’re going to shut ICE operations down, they’re wrong,” he said, after returning to Washington DC from California, where he had seen the protests up close.

“What they’re going to see is an increase in ICE operations especially in sanctuary cities.”

Last week the Department of Homeland Security issued a list of 500 cities, counties and states it said obstructed the Trump administration’s deportation plan by protecting illegal immigrants.

Mr Homan said he already had teams operating across places including New York and Chicago, where local law enforcement did not share immigration status of people in detention.

“We’re going to send massive teams, we are going to flood the zone,” he said.