Pentagon draws up rules on possible use of force by Marines deployed to LA protests
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon was scrambling Monday to establish rules to guide U.S. Marines who could be faced with the rare and difficult prospect of using force against citizens on American soil, now that the Trump administration is deploying active duty troops to the immigration raid protests in Los Angeles.
U.S. Northern Command said it is sending 700 Marines into the Los Angeles area to protect federal property and personnel, including federal immigration agents. The 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines are coming from Twentynine Palms, California, and will augment about 2,100 National Guard soldiers in LA responding to the protests.
The forces have been trained in deescalation, crowd control and standing rules for the use of force, Northern Command said.
But the use of the active duty forces still raises difficult questions.
The Marines are highly trained in combat and crisis response, with time in conflict zones like Syria and Afghanistan. But that is starkly different from the role they will face now: They could potentially be hit by protesters carrying gas canisters and have to quickly decide how to respond or face decisions about protecting an immigration enforcement agent from crowds.
According to a U.S. official, troops will be armed with their normal service weapons but will not be carrying tear gas. They also will have protective equipment such as helmets, shields and gas masks.
When troops are overseas, how they can respond to threats is outlined by the rules of engagement. At home, they are guided by standing rules for the use of force, which have to be set and agreed to by Northern Command, and then each Marine should receive a card explaining what they can and cannot do, another U.S. official said.
For example, warning shots would be prohibited, according to use-of-force draft documents viewed by The Associated Press. Marines are directed to deescalate a situation whenever possible but also are authorized to act in self-defense, the documents say.
The AP reviewed documents and interviewed nine U.S. officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss details not yet public, about the guidance being determined for the Marines.
The Pentagon also is working on a memo with clarifying language for the Marines that will lay out the steps they can take to protect federal personnel and property. Those guidelines also will include specifics on the possibility that they could temporarily detain civilians if troops are under assault or to prevent harm, the first U.S. official said.
Those measures could involve detaining civilians until they can be turned over to law enforcement.
Having the Marines deploy to protect federal buildings allows them to be used without invoking the Insurrection Act, one U.S. official said.
The Insurrection Act allows the president to direct federal troops to conduct law enforcement functions in national emergencies. But the use of that act is extremely rare. Officials said that has not yet been done in this case and that it's not clear it will be done.
President George H.W. Bush used the Insurrection Act to respond to riots in Los Angeles in 1992 after the acquittal of white police officers who were videotaped beating Black motorist Rodney King.
If their role expands if the violence escalates, it is not clear under what legal authority they would be able to engage, said Elizabeth Goitein, a senior director of the Liberty and National Security Program at the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU Law.
'If in fact those Marines are laying hands on civilians, doing searches, then you have pretty powerful legal concerns,' Goitein said. 'No statutory authority Trump has invoked so far permits this.'
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth tweeted late Saturday that he was considering deploying the Marines to respond to the unrest after getting advice earlier in the day from Gen. Dan Caine, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, according to one of the U.S. officials.
Still, the tweet, which was posted to Hegseth's personal X account and not to his official government account, caught many inside the Pentagon by surprise. As late as Monday, the military's highest offices were still considering the potential ramifications.
But the Marine Corps were asking broader questions, too: Do they send more senior, experienced personnel so as not to put newer, less experienced troops at risk of potentially making a judgment call on whether to use force against a civilian?
What's lawful under a domestic deployment — where troops may end up in a policing role — is governed by the Fourth Amendment in the U.S. Constitution, which forbids seizure of persons, including temporarily restraining them, unless it could be considered reasonable under the circumstances.
Troops under federal authorities are in general prohibited from conducting law enforcement on U.S. soil under the Posse Comitatus Act.

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CBS News
24 minutes ago
- CBS News
Downtown L.A. curfew goes into effect after California Gov. Gavin Newsom addresses ICE protests
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As the news spread throughout L.A., anxiety for family and friends ramped up and protests started again. By night, several dozen lawbreakers became violent and destructive, they vandalized property, they tried to assault police officers," Newsom said. "This situation was winding down and was concentrated in just a few square blocks downtown. But that, that's not what Donald Trump wanted." "What we're witnessing is not law enforcement — it's authoritarianism. What Donald Trump wants most is your fealty, your silence, to be complicit in this moment," Newsom said. "Do not give into him." Los Angeles police and protestors face off in Downtown L.A. on Tuesday, June 10, 2025 in Los Angeles, CA. Jason Armond Curfew issued During an evening press conference, Bass said that since demonstrations have continued to escalate into violence, resulting in dozens of arrests and more than 20 businesses looted, she would impose a curfew. "The curfew will be in place tonight from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m.," she said. "We certainly expect for it to last for several days." It runs for one-square mile in the downtown area from the 5 Freeway to the 110 Freeway and from the 10 Freeway to where the 110 Freeway and 5 Freeway merge. "The city of Los Angeles is a massive area, 502 square miles," Bass said. "The area of downtown, where the curfew will take place, is one square mile ... Some of the imagery of the protest, of the violence gives the appearance as though this is a citywide crisis and it is not." Protesters gather in front of California National Guard soldiers and LAPD officers guarding the Edward R. Roybal Federal building as protests continue in Los Angeles on June 10, 2025 in Los Angeles, California. / Getty Images Demonstrations continue Tuesday Dozens gathered once again Tuesday, but police were quick to close in on the growing crowd near the Metropolitan Detention Center. With the CBS Los Angeles helicopter overhead, multiple people were seen being detained and loaded onto buses by officers. At around 4 p.m. a small crowd moved towards the 101 Freeway, briefly entering southbound lanes before they were met by the California Highway Patrol. Some officers stopped traffic as others formed a skirmish line to prevent the pedestrians from moving further into the road. Despite law enforcement blocking offramps and onramps for the thoroughfare, the crowd was able to gain entry through a hole that had been cut in a chainlink fence. On Sunday, hundreds of demonstrators flooded the same stretch of freeway, where they clashed with CHP officers. At around 7:30 p.m. CBS News Los Angeles reporters said that tensions again escalated outside of the Edward R. Roybal Federal Building, where people in the crowd began hurling projectiles towards a line of National Guard troops stationed out front. When the curfew went active 30 minutes later, dozens of LAPD officers arrived outside of the building, which prompted much of the crowd to begin leaving the area. Still, dozens of people attempted to hang around, resulting in their arrests. It's unclear exactly how many people were taken into custody. With the CBS News helicopter overhead, a group of dozens were seen still moving through the area, some stopping to tag the side of buildings and Metro buses. By 11 p.m. most of the people who had previously gathered downtown appeared to have left the area. A crowd of protesters outside of the Edward R. Roybal Federal Building in downtown Los Angeles on June 10, 2025. KCAL News How it started The protests began Friday night after several immigration raids took place in the Westlake District, downtown and South LA. The CBS News Los Angeles helicopter flew over the locations where crowds quickly formed, and protesters attempted to prevent federal agents from placing individuals into vans. One of the 45 people arrested that day was local union leader David Huerta. The protests that took place over the weekend were declared unlawful assemblies and people were ordered to disperse and clear the area. In each case there were small pockets of the demonstrations that turned chaotic, which included hundreds of people converging on the 101 Freeway to block traffic on Sunday afternoon. That same day, several Waymo vehicles were torched to the ground by one group of people. The day prior, hundreds of demonstrators clashed with law enforcement in Paramount and Compton. Reporters on the ground saw as law enforcement and troops dressed in riot gear attempted to clear crowds by using tear gas, beanbag rounds and flash bangs into crowds to try and disperse people. Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem posted on X that people who "lay a hand" on law enforcement officers will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. So far, nearly 400 people have been arrested in the series of demonstrations, Newsom said on Tuesday. Protesters gathered in downtown Los Angeles on June 10, 2025, marking the fifth consecutive day of anti-ICE protests. KCAL News National Guard and military in Los Angeles The Marines began arriving in the LA area on Tuesday morning, a defense official said, joining the thousands of National Guard troops already in the area to respond to the protests. Acting Defense Department comptroller Bryn MacDonnell testified before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense and said the deployment of the National Guard will cost about $134 million. On Tuesday, California Attorney General Rob Bonta asked a federal judge to provide a temporary restraining order to stop Mr. Trump, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and the U.S. Department of Defense from using the military and the National Guard to patrol the region and protect federal officers and facilities. The day before Bonta filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration, arguing the orders are unlawful and exceed the federal government's authority under the Tenth Amendment. "President Trump's order calling federalized National Guard troops into Los Angeles — over the objections of the Governor and local law enforcement — is unnecessary and counterproductive. It's also deeply unfair to the members of the National Guard who are hard at work every day protecting our state, preparing for and responding to emergencies, and training so that, if called, they can fight our nation's wars," Bonta said. Bass blamed the unrest in LA on the federal government's involvement, saying that before immigration enforcement actions last week, the city was "peaceful." During a speech at Fort Bragg on Tuesday, Mr. Trump called the protests "a full-blown assault on peace, on public order and a national sovereignty. He said that if it weren't for his calling in the National Guard, L.A. would be "burning to the ground right now" and that the majority of the demonstrations were allegedly "carried out by rioters bearing foreign flags with the aim of continuing a foreign invasion of our country" and that he would "liberate" L.A. Democratic California Sen. Alex Padilla spoke with CBS News' Major Garrett on Tuesday regarding the actions of immigration enforcement and the several days of protests. He said that while the majority of the demonstrations have been peaceful, "the folks that show up after dark and are involved with the looting and the vandalism ... we denounce that." He called the ongoing situation a "crisis of Donald Trump's making." 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24 minutes ago
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Yahoo
25 minutes ago
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Five takeaways from New Jersey's primaries for governor: How the candidates are handling Trump and more
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Here are five takeaways from Tuesday's primaries: Sherrill won as many Democratic voters were weighing which candidate would be most electable and as each Democratic candidate pitched a different path forward for the party. Sherrill's victory suggests some Democratic voters want to dust off the party's successful playbook from the 2018 midterm elections, when she flipped a longtime Republican-held House seat. In that campaign and in her primary run this year, Sherrill stressed her background as a Navy helicopter pilot and a former federal prosecutor and pitched 'ruthless competence' as a counter to Trump. 'It just seems so obvious to me what the path forward is. It's effectively govern,' Sherrill recently told NBC News. 'And this is what I've been doing since 2018 when I first ran, right? ... I say to people, 'What's keeping you up at night?'' 'I tell people it's not maybe the sexiest tagline, but ruthless competence is what people in New Jersey want to see in government,' Sherrill added later. 'And that's what I've always provided, and that's what I think stands in stark contrast to the most incompetent federal government we've probably ever seen in this nation.' Still, while Sherrill won with over a third of the vote, the results revealed a fractured party. Two candidates who pitched themselves as more progressive, Newark Mayor Ras Baraka and Jersey City Mayor Steve Fulop, won a combined 36% of the vote. Two of the more moderate candidates, U.S. Rep. Josh Gottheimer and former state Senate President Steve Sweeney, got 20% combined, while teachers union president Sean Spiller won 10%. After having come just 3 percentage points shy of defeating Murphy in 2021, Ciattarelli made one thing clear in his bid four years later: He's all in on Trump. Like many prominent Republicans, Ciattarelli wasn't always on board — he criticized Trump as a 'charlatan' in 2015. And while he embraced Trump during his previous bid for governor, he didn't campaign with him. That led Ciattarelli's opponents, including his top competitor, former radio host Bill Spadea, to try to frame him as insufficiently loyal to Trump. (Spadea had voiced criticism of Trump before he fell back in line.) But Trump's endorsement of Ciattarelli cemented his front-runner status, helping hasten the end of the campaign. And in a nod to Ciattarelli's past criticism, Trump tried to inoculate him from any attempt to undercut his Trump bona fides. 'Jack, who after getting to know and understand MAGA, has gone ALL IN, and is now 100% (PLUS!),' Trump wrote in a Truth Social post announcing his backing. Tuesday's result suggests that Trump's seal of approval was good enough for most GOP primary voters. By late Tuesday evening, Ciattarelli was carrying all of the state's 21 counties. Ciattarelli's vote share was at 67% by late Tuesday evening, compared with just 22% for Spadea. State Sen. Jon Bramnick, who had been critical of Trump, had won just 6%, followed by two other candidates who had each won less than 3% of the vote. Ciattarelli thanked Trump in his victory speech for his 'endorsement and strong support,' making a joke about his being a 'part-time New Jersey resident.' (Trump owns a home and a golf course in Bedminster.) But Ciattarelli spent most of his speech focused on a general election argument, not on shoring up his base — indicative of the line he'll have to walk in a state Trump lost three times, even after the improvement he showed last year. Both parties are grappling with antiestablishment sentiment, wondering how to handle it, channel it or just avoid getting run over by it. But Tuesday's results were also a reminder that political institutions still have some staying power. New Jersey's traditional political machines were dealt a blow last year following a lawsuit from Democrat Andy Kim during his Senate run, when a court ordered that county parties could no longer give advantageous ballot positions to their preferred candidates. That diminished the sway those parties had Tuesday, but they still demonstrated some power. Ciattarelli was the only Republican who competed for county party endorsements. Fulop didn't compete for Democratic county party endorsements, and Gottheimer sat some out, as well. Some county parties split between the candidates, with Sherrill earning the most endorsements from 10 of the 21 counties. While Sherrill was carrying 15 of the state's 21 counties late Tuesday, Gottheimer was winning his home county, Bergen, which endorsed him. Sweeney, the only candidate from South Jersey, fared far better in the six counties that backed him. He was winning 40% of the vote in Gloucester County while garnering 7% of the statewide vote. The county party endorsements were no guarantee of victory: The Essex County Democrats, for example, endorsed Sherrill. But as of late Tuesday evening, she was trailing Baraka in Essex County, where he is mayor of Newark, the state's largest city. Even in that instance, though, the party endorsement may have helped Sherrill cut Baraka's margins in his home base. Tuesday night's victory speeches were also important table-setters, indicative of how each party is looking to frame the general election. And New Jersey's general election this year may foreshadow much of what we see on the campaign trail around the country in the 2026 midterms. Outside of a quick thanks to Trump, Ciattarelli kept his focus tightly on Sherrill and New Jersey Democrats in his victory speech. He criticized her as 'Phil Murphy 2.0,' arguing that she has 'enabled every extremist and costly idea Phil Murphy has put forth,' and he even revived a key criticism of Murphy from his 2021 campaign. He also criticized Sherrill's focus on Trump as a deflection. 'Mark my words: While we focus on these key New Jersey issues, my Democratic opponent will do everything in her power. Trust me ... if you took a shot every time Mikie Sherrill says 'Trump,' you'd be drunk off your ass every day between now and Nov. 4,' he said. 'But every time you hear her say 'Trump,' I want you to know what it really means: What it really means is Mikie doesn't have a plan to fix New Jersey,' he continued. During her victory speech, Sherrill leaned heavily on her biography but also emphasized a dual mandate — a fight against New Jersey Republicans and also against Trump, a recipe that Democrats have successfully leaned on in past midterm elections. Calling Ciattarelli a 'Trump lackey' who shouldn't lead the state, Sherrill criticized 'Trump and MAGA Republicans in D.C. [who] want to raise your taxes and take away your health care and education dollars.' 'This country is too beautiful to be beholden to the cruelty and self-interest that Jack and Trump are trying to hoist on her,' she said. 'The future is built on hard work and hope, and here in New Jersey, we're known for our grit, our tenacity — maybe a little bit for how loud we are — but it's going to take a strong voice to cut through the noise from Washington and deliver for the people,' she said. 'So I stand here tonight doing just that. And as a mom of four teenagers, you guys know I'm not going to put up with the incompetent, whiny nonsense coming from aggrieved MAGA Republicans.' Tuesday's results showed how money matters in campaigns — and how it has its limits. On the Democratic side, Sherrill won despite having been outspent by some of her opponents whose outside groups dropped millions of dollars on the race. The largest outside spender was Working New Jersey, a super PAC funded by the state's teachers union, which Spiller leads. The group had spent a whopping $35 million on the race as of May 27, according to the latest campaign finance reports, while Spiller's campaign had spent $342,000. As of late Tuesday, Spiller had about 10% of the primary vote. Gottheimer and Fulop were also boosted by outside groups that spent millions of dollars on the airwaves. (Gottheimer drained his congressional account to fund the outside group supporting him.) Sherrill got support on the airwaves from One Giant Leap PAC, which spent less than either Gottheimer's or Fulop's groups but spent most of its funds in the final weeks of the race. Ciattarelli and an aligned outside group, Kitchen Table Conservatives, outspent the other Republicans. And Ciattarelli touted his strong fundraising as proof that he would be a formidable general election candidate. This article was originally published on