Marines arrive in LA as tensions grow over immigration raids

Japan Times

a day ago

Marines deployed by President Donald Trump arrived in the Los Angeles area with orders to protect federal property and officers, as the city is gripped by tensions over anti-deportation protests.
Seven hundred troops from the 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines have made it to the greater LA area, a spokesperson for the U.S. Northern Command said, without disclosing their specific location. They will join about 2,100 members of the 79th Infantry Brigade Combat Team who are also in the area, including in Paramount and Compton, according to the spokesperson.
Marine Corps Commandant General Eric Smith told the Senate Armed Services Committee members on Tuesday that the deployed troops are trained in crowd control. They're equipped with "shields and batons,' but "do not have arrest authority,' he said, adding that they are there to support law enforcement, not replace it.
On Monday evening, Los Angeles police chief Jim McDonnell warned of significant challenges to law enforcement if troops were deployed without coordination with his department, adding that that he hadn't been formally notified of the Marines arrival in advance. The department declined to comment on Tuesday.
The extraordinary deployment of military forces comes after Los Angeles saw a fourth night of clashes between police and demonstrators rallying in response to increasingly aggressive raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. On Monday, largely peaceful daytime protests morphed into scattered skirmishes with police shooting less-lethal ammunition and some protesters throwing bottles.
Over the previous few days, some of the demonstrations — especially at night — have been marked by violence, destruction of property, looting, blocking of freeways and the burning of vehicles, including self-driving Waymo cars.
On Monday night, Los Angeles security personnel made 99 arrests during protests downtown, including 96 for failure to disperse, and one each for assault with a deadly weapon, resisting arrest and vandalism. The arrests add to the 31 made by police over the weekend.
So far, the National Guard troops in the city have only been guarding federal buildings and clashes have involved the police and demonstrators.
Trump and California Governor Gavin Newsom have repeatedly sparred over the response to the protests, with the state suing the administration for mobilizing the National Guard and Marines in the city. Newsom has accused the administration of sending in troops without providing food or water and saying more are being sent in while hundreds sit in federal buildings without orders.
Members of the clergy and other protestors place flowers at the feet of a California National Guardsman stationed outside federal buildings near the Metropolitan Detention Center in Los Angeles on Tuesday. |
AFP-JIJI
The president said on Tuesday that troops would remain in LA until "there's no danger' and indicated he had spoken directly with Newsom this week. "A day ago, called him up to tell him, got to do a better job,' Trump said. "He's done a bad job, causing a lot of death and a lot of potential death.'
Newsom denied he spoke with Trump. "There was no call. Not even a voice mail,' the governor said in a post on X.
Trump also said he would consider invoking the Insurrection Act to justify the use of the military in California.
"I mean, I could tell you there were certain areas of Los Angeles — you could have called it an insurrection,' he said. "It was terrible. But these are paid insurrectionists. These are paid troublemakers.'
It was a comment the president echoed while addressing troops at Fort Bragg in North Carolina on Tuesday, claiming protesters wearing armor and face shields are being financed by an unknown entity and that the Department of Justice will investigate.
A day earlier, Trump suggested that Newsom — a Democrat widely seen as a potential presidential contender in 2028 — could be arrested if he interferes with the federal immigration raids or response to the unrest.
Tensions remain high in the city as the immigration raids that set off the protests aren't letting up. Representative Jimmy Gomez, a Democrat whose district covers downtown Los Angeles, said ICE enforcement actions are expected to continue seven days a week for at least 30 days. Mayor Karen Bass has said there were at least five raids on Monday.
Newsom, speaking on the Pod Save America podcast released Tuesday, suggested the administration may intend to use the National Guard to support a broader immigration crackdown. "We're getting word that he's looking to operationalize that relationship and advance significantly larger-scale ICE operations in partnership and collaboration with the National Guard,' Newsom said.
Protests have been limited to a few parts of a city that spreads over several hundred square miles and is connected by a web of freeways. There have been no signs of unrest in areas such as Century City, Hollywood Hills and Santa Monica that are miles away from downtown, with businesses and residents largely unaffected.
Protesters face members of the California National Guard and US Customs and Border Protection agents holding up shields outside the Federal Building as people continue to protest in response to federal immigration operations in Los Angeles, on Tuesday. |
AFP-JIJI
However, incidents have started to spread beyond LA, with demonstrations against ICE popping up in New York City, San Francisco, Chicago and Washington. In Santa Ana, southeast of Los Angeles in Orange County, protesters faced off with law enforcement after immigration raids took place there.
Police also clashed with protesters in Dallas and Austin late Monday, with tear gas deployed to disperse a crowd near the Texas state Capitol building.
The Trump administration has argued the conditions in LA are spiraling and that federal forces are needed to support immigration agents and restore order.
The active-duty Marines in LA are setting up security posts and patrolling federal property as well as forming quick-reaction teams that can reinforce sites within minutes, according to the Northern Command. They're also backing up National Guard troops in the event of large protests.
The California National Guard soldiers are handling perimeter security, entry points and patrols, and supporting local agencies with medics, engineers and communications teams.
Bass said at a press conference on Tuesday that the Trump administration has given her and McDonnell, the LAPD chief, little to no information about the deployment. "We aren't being told pretty much anything,' she said.
A unified command being led by McDonnell includes the Sheriff's Department, California Highway Patrol and other local authorities and the city may impose a curfew if unrest grows, said Bass.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, testifying before Congress on Tuesday, pushed back on criticism and said the Trump administration is seeking to protect immigration agents and keep demonstrations from getting out of control.
ICE "has the right to safely conduct operations in any state and any jurisdiction in the country, especially after 21 million illegals have crossed our border under the previous administration,' Hegseth said.
Speaking alongside the defense secretary, Acting Pentagon Comptroller Bryn MacDonnell said the deployment is estimated to cost $134 million, which covers travel, housing and food.
U.S. law generally bars the use of the active-duty U.S. military — the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines — from carrying out domestic law enforcement. The deployment of the Marines adds to Trump's order over the weekend that directed the U.S. Northern Command to assume control of the National Guard and dispatch them to LA.
California and Newsom on Tuesday asked a federal judge in San Francisco to temporarily limit the mobilization in a way that would still let the troops physically protect federal courthouses, offices and personnel, but bar them from helping in federal law enforcement like immigration raids. In its request for an emergency order by early afternoon, attorneys for the state argued that the military deployment "creates imminent harm to state sovereignty' and "escalates tensions.'
In a 22-page lawsuit filed Monday, California and Newsom accused the president of "another unprecedented power grab' and asked for the National Guard troops to be transferred from Defense Department control "back to the rightful command' of the state.
U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer, who was appointed by Bill Clinton and is the brother of retired Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, will oversee the case.