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Only 250 National Guard members will remain in Los Angeles after the Pentagon announced Thursday it would be canceling the deployment of additional troops as anti-ICE protests in the city have quieted down.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered 1,350 National Guard members to leave the city, while a couple hundred will stay to protect federal personnel and property, chief Pentagon spokesperson Sean Parnell said in a statement to The Associated Press.
Roughly 4,000 National Guard soldiers and 700 Marines were sent to LA in June to gain control over riots against immigration raids in the city. The federal move was made despite objections from state and local leaders, including Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom, who filed a lawsuit in an attempt to end the federal deployment.
Half of the National Guard troops were withdrawn about two weeks ago and the Marines were ordered to leave a few days later.
Los Angeles mayor Karen Bass wrote on X Wednesday night that the departure of more troops was “another win for Los Angeles,” adding: “We will continue this pressure until ALL troops are out of L.A.”
“These troops have families and jobs,” she wrote in a separate X post on Thursday. “They could’ve been responding to actual danger or helping communities prepare for fire threats. Instead, they were forced to guard two office buildings for months.”
National Guard troops were mostly in the city protecting two federal buildings – the ICE office and detention facility downtown. Some have also been shielding federal agents while they carry out immigration raids.
California leaders argued that the federal deployment was unnecessary and escalated tensions in the city as protests continued against the Trump administration’s deportations and immigration raids in the area. While protests are still taking place, the majority of them have remained small and scattered.
Newsom said in a statement that President Donald Trump’s “political theater backfired.”
“The women and men of our military deserve more than to be used as props in the federal government’s propaganda machine,” Newsom said.
After California sued to stop the federal deployment of the National Guard, Newsom argued in June that the Trump administration violated the law when it deployed the troops. Newsom also asked the judge to block the troops from helping carry out immigration raids.
A lower court initially ordered Trump to return control of the National Guard to Newsom, but the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals later temporarily blocked the order.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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