About 700 Marines are deploying to quell anti-ICE riots in Los Angeles following a weekend of escalating violence.
U.S. Northern Command said approximately 700 Marines with the 2nd Battalion, 7th Marines, 1st Marine Division would “seamlessly integrate” with the National Guard members already stationed in the city who are protecting federal property and personnel.
An official speaking with the Wall Street Journal suggested that the Marines would not be directly engaging with protesters. The Marines, like the guard members they’ll integrate with, cannot arrest protesters unless President Donald Trump invokes the Insurrection Act. The president said roughly an hour before the deployment that he did not consider the protests an insurrection, reversing a comment he made the night before that those protesting were “paid insurrectionists.”
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said the Marines were being deployed “due to increased threats to federal law enforcement officers and federal buildings,” adding, “We have an obligation to defend federal law enforcement officers — even if Gavin Newsom will not.”
Minutes before ABC News was told of the deployment, Trump announced that “we’ll see what happens” when asked if he was planning on sending Marines to the city.
“I mean, I think we have it very well under control,” he said. “I think it would have been a very bad situation. It was heading in the wrong direction. It’s now heading in the right direction.”
The deployment is a significant escalation of the situation, which has spiraled out of control since protests first began on Friday. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) previously called Hegseth “deranged” for threatening to send in nearby Marines to quell the riots as National Guard members arrived in the city Sunday morning.
“The secretary of defense is now threatening to deploy active-duty Marines on American soil against its own citizens,” Newsom said. “This is deranged behavior.”
HUGO GURDON ON LOS ANGELES RIOTS: VIOLENCE HAS BEEN TOLERATED FOR TOO LONG
Hegseth expressed support for the order on Saturday night, saying the riots and attacks on ICE facilities represented a national security threat. He then announced that Marines in nearby Camp Pendleton could also be deployed if the violence continued.
“The @DeptofDefense is mobilizing the National Guard IMMEDIATELY to support federal law enforcement in Los Angeles,” he said in a post on X. “And, if violence continues, active duty Marines at Camp Pendleton will also be mobilized — they are on high alert.”
