US Northern Command sets up task force for Los Angeles mission
The announcement from the command clarifies several details left vague on Saturday when President Donald Trump and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced they were sending National Guard troops into Los Angeles.
'As USNORTHCOM's land component command, U.S. Army North stood up Task Force 51, with a two-star general, as the ground command and control element over the Title 10 forces,' NORTHCOM's announcement said.
NORTHCOM confirmed that roughly 2,000 California National Guard soldiers were under federal control as part of the task force.
Trump ordered that National Guard members be federalized and sent to Los Angeles to 'temporarily protect' Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents as well as other federal personnel ICE and other United States Government personnel who are performing Federal functions, including the enforcement of Federal law, and to protect Federal property, at locations where protests against these functions are occurring or are likely to occur based on current threat assessments and planned operations. Trump gave the order by invoking Title 10 of the U.S. Code on Armed Services, which says that National Guard troops can be federalized 'there is a rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority.'
As of Sunday afternoon local time, 300 members of the California Army National Guard's 79th Infantry Brigade Combat Team were in Los Angeles County. They were deployed to the cities of Compton and Paramount, as well as a federal complex in Downtown Los Angeles. It is unclear when additional National Guard troops will arrive, and what units will be participating in Task Force 51.
NORTHCOM also confirmed that roughly 500 Marines from 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines, based out of the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms, California are 'in a prepared to deploy status should they be necessary to augment and support' the federal military mission. Hegseth had previously said on Saturday that 500 Marines from Camp Pendleton were on standby.
The protest started on Friday, in response to immigration raids that detained several dozen people in Los Angeles County. Federal agents in tactical gear retreated when faced with protesters in Downtown Los Angeles and local law enforcement engaged with protests outside the Metropolitan Detention Center next to the Edward R. Roybal Federal Building that night. Protests continued on Saturday, June 7, with Trump announcing that he was mobilizing 'at least 2,000 National Guard personnel.'
On Sunday, National Guard troops in Downtown Los Angeles were mostly standing inside and around a loading dock at the federal complex. They briefly, along with police, surged into Alameda Street on the complex's eastern side, using riot shields and tear gas to push people back so that DHS and Border Patrol vehicles could enter the complex. As protests and a march reached the area in the afternoon, local Los Angeles police blocked roads along the way, firing tear gas and less than lethal weapons at protesters.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has criticized the decision to federalize the California National Guard. On Sunday afternoon he formally requested that the Trump administration rescind its order and return the California National Guard to his control. In his letter he argued that '[t]here is currently no need for the National Guard to be deployed in Los Angeles.'
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