Hundreds of U.S. Marines stationed at the Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center in Twentynine Palms are being mobilized to Los Angeles.
Approximately 700 Marines are being activated to respond to the Los Angeles area after anti-ICE protests grew violent Sunday night, as originally reported by CNN and later confirmed to KTLA.
A senior official told Nexstar’s NewsNation that 500 active-duty Marines would be deployed to L.A. to “help protect federal agents and buildings.”
A release by the Department of Defense issued after that initial report confirmed that the number of Marines being deployed was even higher, with as many as 700 being mobilized to help federal agents in L.A.
“U.S. Northern Command has activated the Marine infantry battalion that was placed in an alert status over the weekend,” the release from the U.S. Northern Command of the DoD reads. “2nd Battalion, 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division will seamlessly integrate with the Title 10 forces under Task Force 51 who are protecting federal personnel and federal property in the greater Los Angeles area.”
CNN Pentagon correspondent Natasha Bertrand described the move as a “significant escalation of the president’s use of the military as a show of force against these protesters.”
Bertrand said it’s unclear what role the Marines will serve when they arrive in L.A.
“The rules of engagement, we are told, are still being finalized. The Department of Defense lawyers are looking at the kind of rules of engagement these Marines will have as they encounter protesters possibly on the streets of Los Angeles,” Bertrand said.
The decision to deploy Marines to L.A. comes as city and state leaders have repeatedly pushed back on the federal government exerting force and assuming administrative control over military operations in the city without consulting them.
Both California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass have called the deployment of the National Guard into the city as an unnecessary escalation and an act of political theater.
Bass held a press conference Sunday night in which she blamed President Donal Trump for needlessly increasing tensions in the city, as demonstrators took to the street to protest immigration enforcement operations taking place at various locations in Los Angeles.
“What we’re seeing in Los Angeles is chaos that is provoked by the administration,” Bass said in the Sunday press conference. “This is about another agenda, this isn’t about public safety.”
On Monday, Newsom’s Office filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration seeking the return of command for the California National Guard back to the governor.
Also on Monday, Trump voiced his support for the California governor to be arrested, although on what charges were not immediately clear.
“I think his primary crime is running for governor, because he’s done such a bad job,” Trump told reporters Monday afternoon in Washington, D.C.
Commenting on the president’s decision to mobilize the Marines, Newsom wrote on social media:
“U.S. Marines have served honorably across multiple wars in defense of democracy. They are heroes. They shouldn’t be deployed on American soil facing their own countrymen to fulfill the deranged fantasy of a dictatorial President. This is un-American.”
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