Approximately 700 Marines have been deployed to Los Angeles as a response to the ongoing protests there — despite strong opposition voiced by California politicians.
“Donald Trump’s decision to deploy Marines to Los Angeles is an astounding overreach of authoritarian power. The state of California has not requested the National Guard, much less the Marines, but Trump is sending them anyway,” said Democratic Rep. Mike Levin, who represents parts of San Diego and Orange County.
Levin sent a letter Monday morning to Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth demanding answers regarding the potential deployment of Camp Pendleton troops.
Camp Pendleton is part of Levin’s district.
Levin expressed his disapproval of the activation of the Marines in the letter to Hegseth and in a statement following the deployment announcement. Levin explained that Marines are “trained to be lethal; they are not trained for law enforcement.”
“We deploy them in defense of our homeland and in support of our national interest; we do not put warfighters on the ground in American cities to repress civilians,” Levin wrote.
Levin asked for Trump to de-escalate the situation and return troops to their bases. This follows the lawsuit recently filed by California against Trump’s activation of the National Guard.
Troops were deployed to the area on Monday.
The Marines deployment follows the earlier federal deployment of roughly 2,000 California National Guard soldiers to the L.A. and surrounding areas.
On Sunday afternoon, United States Northern Command had confirmed that approximately 500 Marines from Twentynine Palms were “on standby” for protests against immigration raids in Los Angeles.
Protests began Friday in response to increased, violent immigration raids across the city. The protests continued through the weekend and are ongoing. As tensions grow, law enforcement has used tear gas, rubber bullets, and flash bangs against mostly peaceful protesters.
On Saturday night, the National Guard was placed under federal command by the Trump administration, and the first troops began to arrive Sunday morning.
Both Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass said at the time that they believed local law enforcement could handle the situation, and asked the president to not deploy the National Guard.
Despite their comments, the Trump administration deployed roughly 2,000 National Guard soldiers for 60 days. Currently, there are about 300 members of the National Guard on the ground in the greater Los Angeles area, including Compton and Paramount. The remainder of the troops are still to arrive.
The activation of the Marines is intended to provide Task Force 51 with more numbers, according to a press release from U.S. Northern Command.
Task Force 51 is the U.S. Army North’s Contingency Command Post that is rapidly deployable and has been trained in de-escalation and crowd control.
Prior to deployment, the Twentynine Palms Marines were in a “prepared to deploy status should they be necessary to augment and support the DoD’s protection of federal property and personnel efforts,” according to a release from U.S. Northern Command.
U.S. Northern Command would not offer any further comment on the deployment of the Marines.
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