Lack of coordination over military deployment poses ‘significant' challenge as immigration protests continue

Los Angeles Times

a day ago

Hundreds of Marines are expected to stand guard in Los Angeles on Tuesday following another night of unrest in downtown Los Angeles that resulted in arrests and a handful of businesses burglarized.
The deployment of 700 active-duty U.S. Marines comes despite California officials insistence that federal help isn't necessary and is actually escalating tensions between authorities and protesters. L.A. Police Chief Jim McDonnell said the deployment poses a 'significant' challenge to law enforcement's efforts to protect the city.
McDonnell said Monday afternoon that his department had not received any formal notification that the Marines would be arriving in L.A.
'The possible arrival of federal military forces in Los Angeles — absent clear coordination — presents a significant logistical and operational challenge for those of us tasked with safeguarding this city,' he said. 'The Los Angeles Police Department, alongside our mutual aid partners, have decades of experience managing public demonstrations, and we remain confident in our ability to do so effectively and professionally.'
L.A. Mayor Karen Bass also decried the deployment saying, 'We didn't need the National Guard, why on earth? What are they [Marines] going to do?'
There have been intense but isolated clashes between protesters and law enforcement for several days as immigration arrests continue across Southern California.
Monday's protests were largely calmer than Sunday's melees, which left a trail of foam bullets around the city's center, buildings vandalized, Waymo's set ablaze and many protesters injured from the munitions.
Local officials have urged protesters to remain peaceful.
Assemblymember Mark González, who represents downtown, said the violence and destruction in Little Tokyo and parts of downtown is 'completely unacceptable.'
'Tagging historic landmarks, launching fireworks at officers, and terrorizing residents is not protest — it's destruction,' he said. 'If you're out here chasing clout while our neighbors are scared and storefronts are boarded up — you're not helping, you're harming. You're playing right into Trump's hands and undermining the very movement you claim to support.'
The Marines are expected to join the roughly 1700 California National Guard soldiers in Los Angeles to help protect federal agents and buildings. On Monday evening, a military convoy was seen traveling from Twentynine Palms toward Los Angeles.
As midnight approached in downtown, officers used less-lethal munitions and tear gas as they clashed with a few dozen people who remained in downtown Los Angeles. Earlier in the day, a crowd of several hundred rallied in front of the federal building.
Officers moved in the late afternoon to push the throng away from the buildings that had been the focus of Sunday's protests and steadily pushed them into Little Tokyo, with the crowd thinning with each push.
A few dozen protesters remained scattered around Little Tokyo around 10 p.m. Officers were shooting flash-bangs and less-lethal munitions, while the protesters tried to erect a barrier with recycling bins.
At least one car window was shattered, sending glass shards shooting into the crowd.
In Orange County, where protesters gathered in front of federal buildings in downtown Santa Ana, police used tear gas, pepper balls and rubber bullets to clear crowds following reports of protesters throwing objects at police.
'What began as a lawful assembly around the Civic Center Plaza, has escalated into objects being thrown towards officers and other members of the public, posing a risk to public safety, property, and the well-being of our community,' the Santa Ana Police Department said in a statement on X.
Immigration enforcement agents were spotted Monday at a courthouse and library in Whittier, Home Depots in Huntington Park and Santa Ana and businesses in Fountain Valley, according to officials and media reports.
In an interview with Jesse Watters on Fox News on Monday, 'border czar' Tom Homan said that Immigration and Customs Enforcement raids will continue in Los Angeles, in part because of so-called 'sanctuary city' policies that restrict how local law enforcement can cooperate with federal immigration agents.
'ICE ain't leaving,' Homan said, adding that the agency had more than 100 teams working in L.A. on Monday.'We're gonna flood the zone,'
'And based on what L.A. is doing now, we're going to continue to flood the zone. We're gonna be there tonight, we're gonna be there tomorrow, we're going to be there every day in the next four years, arresting public safety threats and illegal aliens. We're not gonna apologize for doing it.'
Staff writers Seema Mehta and Laura J. Nelson contributed to this report