THOUSANDS of people protested in Southern California on Sunday against planned deportations by President Donald Trump.

Some protesters blocked a major motorway in down-town Los Angeles for several hours.

Protesters gathered in the morning on LA’s historic Olvera Street, which dates to Spanish and Mexican rule, before marching to City Hall. They called for immigration reform and carried banners bearing legends such as “Nobody is illegal.”

By the afternoon, protesters had blocked all lanes of US 101, causing traffic to back up in both directions and on nearby streets. 

The demonstrators sat down in lanes, while a cordon of California Highway Patrol (CHP) officers stood by.

It took more than five hours for the motorway to fully reopen, CHP Lieutenant Matt Gutierrez said on Sunday evening.

The CHP and the Los Angeles Police Department said there were no reports of arrests.

To the east, huge public support was reported for the hundreds of people protesting in the city of Riverside. 

Passing motorists honked and yelled out in support of demonstrators waving flags at an intersection, the Southern California News Group reported.

In Texas, around 2,000 demonstrators gathered in down-town Dallas on Sunday in a pair of protests against recent arrests by the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement.