700 Marines arrive in LA as Trump deploys 4,000 Guard troops over protests

New Straits Times

a day ago

LOS ANGELES: Hundreds of US Marines arrived in the Los Angeles area on Tuesday under orders from President Donald Trump, who has also activated 4,000 National Guard troops to quell protests in the city despite objections from California Governor Gavin Newsom that the deployments are politically motivated.
The city has seen days of public protests since the Trump administration launched a series of immigration raids on Friday. State officials said Trump's response was an extreme overreaction to mostly peaceful demonstrations.
About 700 Marines were in a staging area awaiting deployment to specific locations, a US official said.
The Marines do not have arrest authority and will protect federal property and personnel, according to military officials. There were approximately 2,100 Guard troops in greater Los Angeles on Tuesday, with more on the way, the official said.
The troop deployments are estimated to cost about US$134 million, a senior Pentagon official said on Tuesday. Bryn MacDonnell, who is performing comptroller duties at the Pentagon, told lawmakers the cost included travel, housing and food for troops.
"Think of how much veteran nutrition assistance and housing (the Trump administration) could be providing instead of dishonouring these troops using them as pawns," Newsom wrote on X, referring to the deployments' cost.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass emphasised at a press conference that the unrest has been limited to a few downtown blocks.
She drew a distinction between the majority of demonstrators protesting peacefully in support of immigrants and a smaller number of agitators she blamed for violence and looting. Bass said the agitators would be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
She said she planned to call Trump on Tuesday.
"I want to tell him to stop the raids," she said. "I want to tell him that this is a city of immigrants."
Trump has justified his decision to deploy troops by describing the protests as a violent occupation, a characterisation that Newsom and Bass have said is grossly exaggerated.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, the president said LA would be "burning right now" if not for the deployments, and that Guard troops would remain until there is no danger.
Trump left open the possibility of invoking the centuries-old Insurrection Act, which would allow the military to take part directly in civilian law enforcement, saying one could argue that parts of the city were already seeing an insurrection.
The protests since Friday have been largely peaceful, but there have been scattered clashes, with some demonstrators throwing rocks and other objects at officers, blocking an interstate highway and setting cars ablaze. Police have responded by firing projectiles such as pepper balls, as well as flash-bang grenades and tear gas.
The Los Angeles Police Department said it arrested more than 100 people on Monday, including 14 for looting. In all, state and local police have arrested more than 180 people since Saturday on charges including assaulting an officer and attempted murder with a Molotov cocktail.
CLEANING UP
Business owners in the Little Tokyo neighbourhood - where some of the most intense clashes between police and protesters occurred late on Monday - were washing graffiti off storefront windows and sweeping up litter on Tuesday.
Every building on Little Tokyo's main streets was hit with graffiti, with the exception of a public defender's office that stood untouched.
A store owner who did not want to give her name, fearing reprisals, said it was frustrating that the neighbourhood full of immigrants was paying the price of the protests against federal immigration agents.
Frank Chavez, 53, manager of an office building in the neighbourhood, was sweeping glass shards from an entrance door that had been shattered after midnight by a young masked man wielding a skateboard, according to security video that Chavez showed a Reuters reporter.
"I agree with what the protesters are defending - they're standing up for the Latino community," Chavez said. "But there are a few carrying out vandalism and violence, and that must be stopped."
Chavez and other business owners said they did not support the LA immigration raids and felt Trump's response to the protests was only fanning the flames.
TRUMP ESCALATES CONFRONTATION WITH NEWSOM
Trump's Marine deployment escalated his confrontation with Newsom, who filed a lawsuit on Monday asserting that Trump's activation of Guard troops without the governor's consent was illegal. The Guard deployment was the first time in decades that a president did so without a request from a sitting governor.
The use of active military to respond to civil disturbances is extremely rare.
"This isn't about public safety," Newsom wrote on X on Monday. "It's about stroking a dangerous President's ego."
US Marines are trained for conflicts around the world - from the Middle East to Africa - and are also used for rapid deployments in case of emergencies, such as threats to US embassies.