A battalion of 700 active-duty U.S. Marines are being deployed to Los Angeles, the US military confirmed on Monday, to protect federal property and federal immigration agents from violent and organized anti-ICE agitators.
“Due to increased threats to federal law enforcement officers and federal buildings, approximately 700 active-duty U.S. Marines from Camp Pendleton are being deployed to Los Angeles to restore order,” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth posted on social media at 5:24 p.m. “We have an obligation to defend federal law enforcement officers – even if Gavin Newsom will not.”
Hundreds of anti-ICE agitators have taken to the streets in the past several days, where they have assaulted immigration officers, slashed tires, torched vehicles and and defaced public buildings. President Trump called in around 2,000 National Guard troops to LA on Sunday to quell the violence.
At 6:41 p.m., the U.S. Northern Command clarified on X that the 700 Marines would be coming from the Marine Corps Combat Center in Twentynine Palms, California and will work with the Title 10 forces under Task Force 51 who have been protecting federal personnel and federal property in the Los Angeles area.
U.S. Northern Command said in an updated statement that there are now “approximately 1700 soldiers from the 79th Infantry Brigade Combat Team, a California National Guard unit in a Title 10 status, in the greater Los Angeles area.”
The activation of the Marines is intended to provide Task Force 51 with adequate numbers of forces to provide continuous coverage of the area in support of the lead federal agency.
Task Force 51 is U.S. Army North’s Contingency Command Post, which provides a rapidly deployable capability to partner with civil authorities and DoD entities in response to a Homeland Defense and Homeland Security Operations. It is commanded by Maj. Gen. Scott M. Sherman.
Task Force 51 is comprised of approximately 2,100 National Guard soldiers in a Title 10 status and 700 active-duty Marines. Task Force 51 forces have been trained in de-escalation, crowd control, and standing rules for the use of force.
Governor Gavin Newsom’s press office released a statement calling the mobilization of marines “completely unwarranted, uncalled for, and unprecedented”.
“Trump is escalating this situation even further – deploying active duty Marines, the ‘best of the best,’ against their own countrymen in an American city,” the office said. “Completely unnecessary and only inflames the situation more.”
In a statement, LAPD chief Jim McDonnell said the department had not received “any formal notification” about the marines and said the “arrival of federal military forces in Los Angeles – absent clear coordination – presents a significant logistical and operational challenge for those of us charged with safeguarding this city”.
Another 2,000 National Guard troops are reportedly being sent to Los Angeles, in addition to the 2,000 troops President Trump previously deployed.
Trump made clear on Monday that he would not hesitate to send more troops.
“If I didn’t get involved, if we didn’t bring the guard in – and we would bring more in if we needed it, because we have to make sure there’s going to be law and order – you had a disaster happening … they were overwhelmed, you saw what was happening,” the president said at a White House business roundtable.
“It’s lucky for the people in Los Angeles and in California that we did what we did. We got in just in time. It’s still simmering a little bit, but not very much.”
Newsom, meanwhile, called Trump’s deployment of national guard troops an “unmistakable step toward authoritarianism”, as well as “illegal and immoral”.
“Every governor, red or blue, should reject this outrageous overreach,” he said in a statement. “This is beyond incompetence. This is him intentionally causing chaos, terrorizing communities, and endangering the principles of our great democracy.”
Rob Bonta, the California attorney general, announced earlier on Monday that the state would file a lawsuit against the Trump administration for “unlawfully” federalizing the state’s national guard and deploying its troops to quell the riots.
In an X post Monday afternoon, Newsom claimed that the besieged city “didn’t have a problem until Trump got involved.”
The governor urged Trump to “rescind his order” and “return control to California.”
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller called Newsom out for his disingenuous post.
“Didn’t have a problem? Your state is a criminal sanctuary for millions of illegal alien invaders, cartel killers, foreign terrorists, transnational gangs and insurrectionist mobs,” Miller pointed out on X.
“Huge swaths of the city where I was born now resemble failed third world nations. A ruptured, balkanized society of strangers. When our courageous ICE officers, fighting to rescue your communities, came under violent organized attack you and the LA Mayor left them, unforgivably, to fend for themselves,” he continued.
“When the rioters swarmed, you handed over your streets, willingly. You still refuse to arrest and prosecute the arsonists, seditionists and insurrectionists. This Administration is fighting to save the city and the citizens you have left to struggle and suffer,” Miller wrote.
With tensions remaining high, LA Police and National Guard troops held the line Monday evening as night fell.